once been their home— and yours as well.”
“Yes,” Ethan said. “We have a connection here, do we not?”
Darcy nodded. Pained to look upon the blackened remains, she imagined her mother standing out on the grass, her dark hair blown back by the wind, her young face tilted toward the sun. Had her father ridden up on a blustery day just as Ethan had with her? Did he propose to her by the door, or here by the wall, and had he carried her far away on horseback or in a carriage? Darcy knew she’d never know, but to think they had stood here long ago caused her emotions to rise and fall like the gusts of wind that swept over the land.
She placed her hands atop the wall that separated her from the heaps of charred stone and ash, from the cold remains where there had once been windows and a door. Her mind drifted back to River Run and the empty, decaying house that stood there. Were these evidences of what lives her parents had lived?
“What happened here?” she asked in a grave tone, her brows pinched.
Setting his hat back on his head, Ethan leaned against the wall. “When your grandfather died, your mother was to vacate the house to make room for our family. That is when she left with Hayward Morgan. Shortly after our arrival, a fire destroyed the house, killing both my mother and baby sister.”
Troubled, Darcy turned to him. “I am sorry.” And truly she was. How could anyone survive such loss, go through life with a tragedy of this kind bound to them? Only God could strengthen such a soul. She realized how strong a man Ethan must really be.
He hung his head. “It was long ago.”
“I know how it feels to lose a mother.”
“We’ve lost loved ones in different ways, but it is still a grievous thing, whether they have gone away from us, or passed into God’s heaven.”
“Yet, God has a way of sending us aid in our time of need.”
“His aid came in the form of an inheritance for my father. We had a home to live in. Yet he never preached again from the pulpit, but learned to serve God in other ways. He was kind to the poor and needy. This was his saving grace.”
Darcy noticed sorrow flicker in his eyes, along with a light that said secrets were also locked away at Fairview. Neither spoke for a long, tense moment. Presently, with her head low, she laid both her hands over his, and he looked into her eyes.
“I am grieved for you, Ethan.” When he did not answer, she drew her hands away and walked on. “Count it a blessing, sir, that you know about your family. I have so little knowledge of my parents.”
“Surely you have learned more about your father while staying at Havendale,” Ethan offered.
“I am afraid Havendale keeps its secrets under lock and key,” Darcy answered.
Ethan answered with a solemn nod. “Some things should be kept hidden and forgotten. But then there are other things that should come to light, if they help in some way.”
She turned her head to look at him as she drew through the break in the wall. “You believe that?”
“I do.” He took a step closer. “I cannot forget you, Darcy. Can you forgive me? Hurting you was the last thing I would ever do.”
“In your letter, you said you never meant for me to think you loved me, that your heart belonged to Miss Roth. I wish you had made that clear in the beginning.”
His eyes widened. “I never sent you a letter.”
“It was penned in a masculine hand and signed by you.”
“No. I never sent it. How did you come by this letter?”
“Miss Roth gave it to me.”
He shook his head. “I see. And how did this come about?”
“She came to the house. My family had gone into the village, and I was alone.”
“What did Miss Roth tell you?”
“That you and she were to be married upon your return to England.”
Ethan huffed and shifted on his feet. “I made no such promise.”
“She was emphatic.”
“A wicked lie, Darcy. All of it.”
“You can see why I believed her. I had no reason not to. I could not stand in the way.”
“Miss Roth. She did this. She wrote that letter herself and devised this whole plan to separate us.”
“Why would she go to such extremes?”
“Jealousy. Fear. Revenge even.”
“But she risked the chance of being found out.”
“Indeed. I also was given