“Not exactly,” Amelia said. “Do I need a reason to spend time with my mother?”
“Of course not, but I have to caution you. You cannot run away from your problems.”
“That is good advice,” Amelia said. But she didn’t intend to take it. She had come to Battle’s Peak expecting a platonic marriage. Instead, she’d fallen in love with her husband and offered him her heart. Now she needed to take that heart back and fortify it before returning and trying again to be Lady Nicholas.
“I see one of Mr. Sterling’s coaches is being brought around. I should go inside.” Amelia gathered her skirts.
“I’ll follow in a few moments, my love.”
By the time Amelia was inside again, it seemed the whole house was awake. Servants bustled about, barely avoiding smashing into each other as they carried valises and portmanteaus down the stairs and then went back up again. Neil Wraxall and Ewan Mostyn were standing outside, Wraxall leaning on Mostyn a bit. Nash Pope was speaking with them. The carriage that had been used to take the Dravens and Murrays back and forth from Catmint Cottage was coming up the drive, and Amelia supposed the guests staying at the inn would arrive any moment as well.
Amelia was saying her farewells and directing servants as the drive became more crowded. Rafe Beaumont, looking disheveled and rakish, approached her with his satchel.
“You aren’t planning to leave as well, Mr. Osgood?” she said.
“I am, Lady Nicholas. I had a long talk with Colonel Draven, and he thinks he can get me on the next ship to Boston. If there’s a chance of setting off for home, I want to take it.” He missed his wife. Of course, he did.
“I do hope I will see you again one day,” she said, feeling suddenly terribly sad that he was leaving. He’d been in the house as long as she, and he felt like a brother to her.
“You will,” he said with a wink. “I’m not that easy to be rid of.” He gestured to the group. “None of us are.”
A hand landed hard on her shoulder, and she jumped then turned to see Nicholas beside her. For a man who had been three sheets to the wind last night, he looked remarkably well. Damn him. It would have been easier to hate him if he weren’t so handsome. But she knew she could never hate him. She loved him too much, and perhaps that was why she needed time away.
“Amelia,” he said. “I was looking for you this morning.”
She moved away so the hand on her shoulder fell off. “I have been helping arrange the leave-taking,” she said, avoiding his eyes. “And not doing a very good job, as you can see.” She gestured to the chaos and smiled at Rafe Beaumont, who was watching them.
“We’ll talk later,” Nicholas said.
She nodded and then turned as she heard her name called by Emmeline Fortescue, who had brought her a parting gift of lovely hair combs as well as fresh apples and a large wide red ribbon for Sweetie. Both Emmeline Fortescue and Ines Murray had enjoyed spending time with the pig. They’d taken Olivia and Jasper’s son, Richard, to visit Sweetie every day.
For the next two hours, Amelia was able to forget Nicholas. Almost.
He was at her side, but they were both busy with bidding their guests farewell and making sure everyone got off without incident. The first to leave were Lady Lorraine and Ewan Mostyn with Lady Juliana and Neil Wraxall. Next was Duncan Murray and his wife, Ines, as well as Nash and Prudence Pope, who would travel with them as far as the Pope’s estate Wentmore. Then the Murrays would continue on to Scotland.
Emmeline and Stratford Fortescue were next followed by the Duke and Duchess of Mayne, who were traveling to Berkshire where the duchess’s daughter resided.
Finally, the second of Aidan Sterling’s luxurious coaches pulled forward, and he and Jenny Sterling took their leave along with Lord and Lady Jasper, much to the obvious excitement of Richard, who had loved playing in the large conveyance the past week almost as much as playing with Sweetie. They waved farewell and then Lady Daphne was hugging Amelia. She was so beautiful that Amelia was almost always intimidated by her, but she’d been nothing but kind even though her husband, Colin, was a bit aloof.
That left the Dravens and Rafe Beaumont and Rowden Payne and his wife, Modesty. Mrs. Draven had kissed both of Amelia’s cheeks as she said good-bye. “Save me from all the talk of pugilism,” she whispered and nodded at her husband and Rowden Payne. “Come visit us in Town,” she said, echoing the invitation every one of Nicholas’s friends had issued. “Oh, please do,” Modesty Payne chimed in. “I’d love to repay your kindness in hosting us.”
“And you are welcome here whenever you come to visit your father,” Amelia said.
Modesty gave her a quick hug, and the ladies were helped into the coach.
Come visit us.
The gentlemen and ladies had arrived as strangers to her but were leaving as friends. Amelia hadn’t expected that nor had she expected to feel as though she now belonged to a larger family than just her mother and herself.
Nicholas had finished his good-byes to Colonel Draven and Rowden Payne, and she shook their hands as well. Then she held out a hand to Rafe Beaumont, but he pulled her in for a quick kiss on the cheek, lingering just long enough to whisper, “Give him one more chance.”
Amelia began to ask what he was talking about, but Nicholas cleared his throat. “Beaumont—I mean, Osgood—that’s my wife you are handling.”
“I daresay that’s not the first time he’s heard those words,” the colonel said.
Beaumont raised his hands in a gesture of innocence. “I only handle my own wife these days!”
The men climbed into the coach and Amelia and Nicholas stood side by side and waved until the conveyance was out of sight. And then Amelia did the one thing she hadn’t before—she ran quickly inside and left Nicholas behind.
NICHOLAS HADN’T BOTHERED to call after Amelia. He knew she wouldn’t stop. She’d been avoiding looking at him all morning. She was hurt, and she wanted to escape him. The realization cut him to the bone. He’d never wanted to hurt her. In fact, he’d tried to put limits on their relationship to avoid this sort of pain—except he thought he was the one who would be hurt. He’d worried he would be the one rejected. But that wasn’t what had happened at all. She’d been nothing but accepting and open with him, and he’d been the one to break her heart.
This was why he hadn’t wanted to marry. Relationships could be so complicated, and he had been happy alone.
Hadn’t he?
He wandered into the house, which now seemed too big and too quiet. He half expected Duncan’s laugh to boom from the drawing room or Jasper to slide around a corner. Strange how he’d dreaded having them all here, and now he wished they were back again.
He looked up to see Florentia coming down the stairs, her face pinched. “Are they all away?” she asked.
He nodded. “Even Rafe has gone.”
She paused on the second to last step. “You seem despondent. Don’t tell me you will miss them.” She studied him. “You will miss them. Rafe Beaumont was actually right about having them here. I worried it would bring up too many bad memories from the war.”
“I worried about that as well, and they did bring up painful remembrances. But there were good times as well, and there’s a...kinship, I suppose. We have been through something no one else can understand. I’ve felt isolated, as though I was the only one in the world feeling a sense of loss from all I have been through.” He gestured to his legs, but he meant the years of his youth spent fighting and the men he’d killed or seen killed as well. “But being with the other Survivors has helped me to see, I needn’t be alone.”