Page 62 of Starlight and the Duke
If so, how was Rob to put a stop to it without being made to look the villain?
Chapter Eleven
“Fiona, why areyou crying?” Rob asked, already feeling exasperated by the time they reached their fishing spot shortly after daybreak the following day. He had chosen to settle on a grassy patch along the stream that ran behind Northam Hall and flowed southward toward the English Channel.
It looked like a promising spot, so he’d spread out a blanket for them, since the grass was still wet with dew. He set down the fishing poles and bucket of bait beside it.
Fiona ought to have been smiling, but instead she was struggling to hold back tears. He vowed he was going to give up trying to understand the fairer sex. What had happened to overset her now? Perhaps it was the remnants of a morning mist eerily hovering over the water, the long wisps moving toward them like bony gray fingers and frightening her.
Fiona was never one to easily frighten. But he could not think of what else might provoke her sudden bout of tears.
“I am not crying,” she insisted, wiping her cheek with her sleeve.
“Fine, my mistake.” He baited her hook, handed her the fishing pole, and was about to take up his own when he heard her sniffle again.
He sighed. “Do you not want to fish? I’ll take you back to the manor, if you prefer.”
“No, it isn’t that. I love fishing.”
He might have believed her if she weren’t still weeping while declaring it. “Then what is it, love?”
“Rob, I am so unhappy.”
He knew it, and it tore him apart.
He took the fishing rod he’d just given her out of her hand, set it aside, and then drew her over to a nearby fallen tree. After settling himself on the sturdy trunk, he lifted her onto his lap and circled his arms around her.
No one was going to see them, and did he really care if someone was up early and caught them together like this?
She wrapped her arms around his neck and began talking into his chest. Talking and crying.
Well, was it not better for her to get her feelings out while they were alone and no one was around to judge her or gossip?
“I am truly happy for Margaret and Cherish. I amthrilledfor them and could not be more excited. But what if we receive similar news from Eden and Lynton, and Camborne and Jocelyn…even Ramsdale and Ailis? Having made their love matches, they’ll want to start their families next.”
Yes, there would probably be a wave of new babies born this year.
“And you are afraid you will be left behind?” he ventured.
She nodded. “Is it awful of me to want this so much for myself?”
“No, it isn’t awful of you,” he said, stroking her hair and wishing he could do something,anythingmore to make her feel less miserable. “Everyone wishes the same for you.”
“Being here with you, fishing poles in hand, sent me back to a happier time when we were young and full of dreams. We saw our futures stretched out before us and everything was possible.”
He nodded, but remained silent, since she had more to say and he wanted her to get it all out and unburden herself in the hope it might provide her some relief.
“We used to go fishing together on those lazy, hot summer days. Remember, Rob?”
He nodded again and smiled. “Back then, we had resolved to conquer the world. I remember.”
“Then there was that last summer together when Shoreham proposed to me and I saw my life and all its possibilities laid out before me, all that promise ready to be scooped in the cup of my hands. I was already dreaming of the children we would have. I was so sure we would have four, and I gave them all names in my head.”
He remembered her chattering about it. But it was all boring nonsense to a boy of eleven who simply wanted to fish.
She sniffled again. “What iswrongwith me? Why am I not able to—”
“Stop. We don’t know that the problem was ever with you.”
