Page 37 of Forget Me Not

“It’s settled, then.”

Mr. Barrington was quickly situated on a nearby chair, and the two gentlemen took up a conversation on mundane topics, most involving their separate journeys north, their time on the Continent, people they knew who Julia had never heard of.

After a moment, she opened the book Lucas had given her and read silently. “A Voyage to St. Kilda, the remotest of all the Hebrides or western isles of Scotland. Giving an account of the very remarkable inhabitants of that place; their Beauty and singular charity...” She was already enchanted and had read only a sentence and a half. Lucas had chosen well.

Against the background of Lucas and Mr. Barrington’s conversation, she read of M. Martin’s journey preparations and reasons for travel, of those who had made the journey before him and with him.

She adjusted, finding a more comfortable position as she read on. The blanket was warm. The sofa was soft and enveloping. Lucas had not simply allowed her to remain in the book room; he had asked her to. She wasn’t foolish enough to think that invitation extended to the one room in the house she most wanted to have admittance to, but she was pleased to have been welcomed here.

The tension in her neck and shoulders eased, and a degree of contentment settled over her. Slowly, the pages grew less focused, and her mind struggled to make sense of what she was reading. As her eyelids grew heavier, she did something entirely out of character: relaxed.

Chapter Fourteen

When Julia was little, Lucashad sat often enough with her slumbering against him to be absolutely certain she was sleeping now. When the initial shock of the unexpected contact eased enough for him to think more clearly, he adjusted her blanket to fully cover her shoulders. The book room could, at times, be drafty.

“It appears things are rather cozy between you and the new Lady Jonquil,” Kes said.

Lucas’s heart dropped. “Unfortunately, current arrangements notwithstanding, that is not remotely true. Everything is an utter mess between us. More so, even, than when you and I first arrived at Lampton Park.”

“I would offer some wise insights, but I have even less experience with marriage than you do.”

“That might actually be helpful.” Lucas set his feet up on the ottoman nearby, careful not to disturb Julia. “My marital ‘experience’ has been mostly amok.”

Kes slouched a bit as well. They preferred the ease of casual postures but had spent too much of their lives being lectured about appropriate gentlemanly behavior to entirely abandon it when they had an audience. That audience, though, was now asleep.

“What missteps have you committed?” Kes asked. “Forgot an anniversary? Told her that her favorite gown is unflattering? Compared her unfavorably to another woman?”

“Those pitfalls are the obvious kind, my friend. I only err in unexpected and complicated ways.” He let his head fall back against the sofa, eyes on the ceiling above. “I’ve been avoiding her, which I cannot imagine has been interpreted by her in any flattering way. I told her Pooka likes absolutely everyone only to have the traitorous mongrel turn his nose up at her. I told her the house was her home now and then tossed her out of one of the rooms and chastised her for making changes I didn’t appreciate.”

Kes actually cringed at the last item, which Lucas knew was the most incriminating of the three examples.

“Was she wanting to knock down walls or some such thing?” Kes asked.

He shook his head. “Move a desk.”

“You are an idiot, Lucas Jonquil,” Kes said unceremoniously. “To ostracize your wife of less than a fortnight over a single piece of furniture is the height of stupidity.”

“It wasn’t the desk; it was the room. And, yes, I realize that sounds just as bad, but this house has been filled to the attics with tension ever since our arrival, and that one room is the only peaceful place left.” He pushed out a puff of breath. “We are two people attempting to share a space neither of us wants to share. She is an unwitting hostage, while I am the village being invaded. At the same time. In the same place.”

Kes’s gaze narrowed in a contemplative way. “Strangers work through this awkward period of adjustment. Surely two friends can manage the thing.”

“Except you yourself heard Julia declare that she doesn’t consider us friends.” That had stung more than anyone likely realized. “And, further, within the first few minutes of our being at Brier Hill, she told me she has no expectation of ever being happy here. We’re two people connected by a thick rope of resentment. I suspect in the end, we’ll simply hang ourselves with it.”

“If you could toss out that rope and forge something new between you, what connection would you choose?” Kes asked.

That was not a difficult question to answer. “Ideally, a connection in which we were married because we wanted to be and loved each other. That ship, however, has not merely sailed; it has been caught in a storm and sunk to the bottom of the ocean, never to be seen again.”

“Is there a ship that hasn’t suffered such a drastic fate?” Kes had a way of silently and subtly indicating that he heard and appreciated Lucas’s jests but hadn’t any intention of making his approval of the joke obvious.

“If you had asked me a few weeks ago, I would have told you she and I were and always would be friends.” He didn’t know how he’d lost something so fundamental.

“Perhaps that is the connection you ought to focus on: becoming friends again.”

Lucas shook his head. “Julia has made her disapproval of me well known. She doesn’t like me, care for me, or trust me.”

Kes pulled off his spectacles and rubbed at the space between his eyes. “For someone who did exceptionally well in his philosophy courses, you aren’t always a very thorough thinker.”

“I beg your pardon?”

---