“I think it is going to take a long time to drain the lake with only that tiny outlet.”
“It will,” Gregory agreed. “But there is no reason to rush it.” I loved the sound of his voice. It made everything, even the draining of my lake, feel like all would be well.
“We don’t want the water to overflow the trenches and flood the fields,” Daniel explained. “It would undo all our hard work. This way the ground can soak it in and we are able to ensure all our irrigation works.”
I would rather it burst all at once and be done with it. This process seemed too slow, too painful. Like being bled to death. Or like standing feet from Gregory and not being able to touch him. “It isn’t very satisfying.”
“No,” Gregory agreed. “But it is the better way.”
“Is it?” It was foolish to linger. Foolish to have come in the first place. “I suppose it must be true.” I turned. I had to get away from him. “Good day.”
I’d taken no more than a few steps when he was beside me. “Wait. Please.” I stopped but didn’t turn to him. “I am glad your sister is recovering.” His voice was low, coaxing me to look at him, to lean into him, to be drawn in.
As he had for the wager. Hadn’t I known that first night at the Hickmores’? Hadn’t I been warned by his smile that I wouldn’t be able to resist him?
Now he was here, but not as a suitor. Not even as someone trying to win a wager. Solely on a matter of business, attempting to ensure a project went properly.
Business. Nothing more. “Yes,” I replied quietly. “Though it will still be some time before she regains her full health. I understand we have you to thank for the doctor from London?”
“I—” He hesitated, then shifted closer. Or had I shifted closer to him? “I cannot express how sorry I am.”
There was the proper apology. Now he was done. He could leave with a clear conscience. “Neither can I.” My voice was barely a whisper. He was so close I could reach out and brush his hand with almost no effort. Perhaps I could even make it look like an accident. “Thank you for coming, for assisting Daniel.” My fingers twitched toward him. Was he feeling the same pull, the same desire to forget there’d ever been a wager or a rushed engagement or a Mr. Northam and to just be together, he and I?
I glanced up. His expression wasn’t severe, but he was frowning. Just like at the first. Just as though nothing had occurred between us.
He didn’t feel it. He hadn’t come for me, or for any other purpose than seeing a project through.
It was time to sever the magic with which he held me bound. “Please, excuse me. I should be returning to her.”
“Of course. Good day, Miss Brinton.” He stepped back. My bonds broke. So did something inside.
I made it back to the path before stopping. Before turning around for just one more glimpse of him.
Gregory had returned to Daniel’s side, pointing at something downstream. Back to his business of which I was no longer a part.
Unlike the excited shouts at the breaching of the lake, only a muffled sob paid evidence to the tears sliding down my cheeks. Turning, I walked away, away from my lake, away from Gregory. Yet no matter how far I walked, I was unable to walk away from the pain of loving things that were now forever lost to me.
Forty-One
Two days later, Mary entered Alice’s room as I was reading to her. “Miss Margaret? These’ve just arrived.”
I looked up to find Mary holding a small vase of exquisite wildflower blooms with a white rose at the center.
“Oh,” Alice exclaimed lifelessly, still too weak to leave her bed. “Who are they from?”
“The man didn’t say.”
“A man delivered them?” They were beautiful flowers. And the vase looked quite expensive. “Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“When did the man come?”
“Some ten minutes ago.”
I set the book down, walked to the window, and looked out. No one was about. “What did he look like?”
“John answered the door. I didn’t see him.”
“Is there a card?” No one had ever delivered flowers to us before. It was the thing to do in London, of course. But here in the country?
“Yes. There it is.” Mary held the flowers out, card facing me. In