Page 63 of The Moonstone Hero
“And what do your wives say?”
Cormac frowned. “Do you think for a moment Phoebe would not be bursting in here to rail at us if she disagreed with our concerns?”
Ella slumped in her chair.
If the wives agreed, then all hope was lost.
Cormac raked a hand through his hair. “Ella, I wish things were different. Keep faith that he will return for you once his tour is over.”
She shook her head. “I will melt away from his memory like snow in springtime. He will be so caught up in his work that he will forget about me. The real challenge for him is in making a change within the House of Lords. Once you lords are in, you are in for life, and your privilege of peerage leaves you practically untouchable. Why would his grandfather and his greedy associates ever agree to change anything? They are going to fight to keep the gold streaming into their pockets.”
“We will do what we can to support Caden. He isn’t in this battle alone. There are many of us who are incensed by the dirty dealings and corruption that has crept into our politics,” Cain said.
“And because I am a mere woman, I will have no role in any of it,” Ella muttered. “Soon, I will have no role in his life at all.”
Fionn glanced at something on Cormac’s desk.
Ella frowned. “What is that?”
“Nothing,” Fionn shot back too quickly, so that she knew it was something quite important.
She went over to the desk and immediately recognized the rolled-up sketch paper. She did not need to see it unfurled to know it was the drawing of her and Caden that Imogen had made at the pirate cave. She stared at it, aghast.
Pain tore through her. “He is returning it to Imogen?”
“No, he wanted me to give it to you.” Fionn’s expression was indulgently sympathetic. “I’m so sorry, Ella. He did not want to keep it with him for fear his grandfather or one of those nosy reporters might see it.”
Ella struggled to hold back tears. “So he has nothing of me now. Truly nothing. Not a ribbon. Not a note. Not even my book of poems that he tolerated only to be polite.”
Cormac put his arm around her. “He will not forget you, Ella. I can assure you, this is not what men, even wretched ones like me, do. We hold on to your memory. We grasp it with all our heart and etch it into our soul.”
“That may have worked for you, but you did not have every woman in England after you, even though you were quite full of yourself and thought you did.”
Fionn and Cain burst out laughing.
“Ouch,” Cormac said, although he was not really irritated, because hehadbeen arrogant and rakish in his younger days. His meeting Phoebe had changed all that, and theirs was an achingly beautiful love match.
“They all want him, Uncle Cormac. At what point is he going to give up and just go along?”
“At no point, if he loves you,” Cain replied.
“Well, that is the question, isn’t it? How deeply does he love me?”
None of them could assure her with any certainty.
But Lord Fielding had spoken to her about this very thing on the night of the Kestrel Inn assembly ball. He had been staying at the inn, although he was good friends with Cain, and Cain had wanted him to stay with him and Henley at St. Austell Grange. But Lord Fielding enjoyed his privacy. He had come to Moonstone Landing specifically to visit Cain, but preferred to remain on his own in the village itself.
It struck Ella as odd, but perhaps that aloofness and desire for privacy was exactly why he had never married. Nor did he seem the sort to have any unusual preferences that required complete discretion. Uncle Cormac, an utter ape when it came to protecting her and Imogen, would have flung him across theballroom when seeing her dance with Lord Fielding not once, but twice, if he thought the man less than above reproach.
Her ordeal now over, she went up to her bedchamber.
Imogen was already in the room they shared, obviously waiting for her report. “They just lectured me, Imogen. No punishment.”
“Thank goodness.” Imogen sat down on her bed and tucked her legs under her bottom. “Why do you look so forlorn?”
“Because of this.” Ella held out the sketch. “Caden gave it to Fionn with instructions to give it to me.”
Imogen took it from her hands, unfurled it, and sighed. “I love this portrait of the two of you. I think it is among the best work I have ever done. But you shouldn’t be sad, Ella. He wanted you to have it for safekeeping so it would not fall into the wrong hands.”
