Page 61 of The Runner
Willow Manor,York - Present day
Cara and Georgebreakfasted on the terrace in the early morning sunshine. Mrs Lightfoot said they would need all their strength for the grand opening and she surprised them with a full English breakfast.
‘What an amazing housekeeper! Everyone could do with a Mrs Lightfoot. Where did you find her?’ Kate asked.
Cara looked at George and smiled quizzically. ‘We were lucky. She’s our gardener, Swifty’s mother, and she just fit right in.’
Kate buttered a piece of wholemeal toast, and looked from George to Cara, and said, ‘I hadtheweirdest dream last night.’
‘Oh, yes?’ said Cara. ‘What about?’
‘Well, it was the strangest thing. It must be this house giving me ancestral delusions of grandeur!’
George raised his eyebrow, scrambled eggs on his fork, mid-mouthful. ‘Go on… should I be worried? Are you going to usurp me as lord of the manor?’
Kate laughed. ‘In the dream, you were my older brother, George—just like now, but my name was Olivia… I think it was the Georgian period that you keep asking about, so it must be in my subconscious.’
The eggs stuck in Cara’s throat. She took a sip of orange juice and exchanged a look with George. ‘Go on…’
‘Well, this is the really bizarre bit. You were my governess, or some sort of lady’s companion. And you were called Caroline…’
CHAPTER26
Willow Manor, York - Georgiana
Cara heardnoises below her window. She moved the curtain aside and saw one of the Cavendish carriages being prepared for departure. George had told the family he would leave for London to return to court and would be away for some time. She knew by their expressions they were overjoyed at the prospect of him asking for Charlotte’s hand in marriage.
The household was wracked with nervous anticipation, from the servants below stairs to the elite above, as if everyone sensed their future hung in the balance and great change was imminent. What George did next would determine the course of all their lives, even if they didn’t fully comprehend to what degree and how their future would be tilted towards disaster if he took the wrong step.
George had sought her out before breakfast and told her he would leave that morning. ‘I must apologise for my reckless behaviour. You seem to have some strange power over me where I cannot account for my actions, but nevertheless it is neither just nor fair to lay my behaviour at your feet. There is no excuse, and I intend to get a hold of myself, therefore I shall leave for court as planned.’
This could be her last chance to get through to him to stop him from triggering the destruction of everything he held dear, so she took a sharp intake of breath and summoned all her courage. She must overcome Caroline’s feelings of inadequacy regarding his social status, and risk losing face, or they would lose each other and Willow Manor.
It would be a senseless path of suffering for them both, and the downfall of everything he longed to protect. The thought of him sleeping next to another woman for the rest of this life, while Caroline was imprisoned in a miserable union with Ralph, jolted her to overcome her fears.
‘Forgive me, for I must speak up, or it shall be too late, and we will both pay a heavy price,’ she said.
His dark eyes were full of longing as he assessed her earnest face, which had become so beloved to him in the few months since she had appeared in his world, and he had questioned everything about who he was and what his future held.
‘Go on,’ he said. ‘Of course, please speak freely.’
‘I would have you know that my feelings for you are as ardent and true as those you professed to me last evening.’ She hesitated, but pressed on.
‘And as such, I ask, how would you allow your happiness—our happiness—to be forbidden by an archaic class system? A system which will crumble and is destined for decay whether or not we allow ourselves to be happy?’
They stood in the shadows of the corridor a few steps from her door, where he had intercepted her before she went downstairs.
He stared at her as if she were speaking in foreign tongues, and the tears threatened to engulf her again as the emotion flooded into her throat.
She continued, ‘I would beg you to consider what I have said before you rush into this doomed marriage. For it will be doomed—I can’t say how I know, only that I do, and I am sorry to be the one to have to tell you so.’
His face was concealed in the shadows, but when he stepped into the light, she gasped. He looked as though he had been struck, and the sorrow she caused him was more than she could bear.
‘Why do you speak so, Caroline? Has jealousy brought you so low that you would curse my impending marriage like some evil divining witch?’
His voice was quiet so they wouldn’t be overheard, but his tone was harsh and unrelenting.
She looked at him and the tears spilled from her eyes and rolled down her hot face. ‘As you wish, my lord. It was my duty to warn you, but it is, of course, your decision. If your reputation matters to you more than being true to your heart, then so be it. There is no more I may do or say.’
