Page 106 of Brave New Earl (The Way to a Lord's Heart 1)

She nodded. “All right. No rides for…two weeks then.”

Geoffrey started to frown, but stopped himself.

“No visits to the stables, even. Not so much as an apple or a bit of carrot taken out to Fergus.”

This clearly hit home. The lady knew her punishments, Benjamin thought.

“He’ll forget about me!” said Geoffrey. “Can’t I just go and talk to him?”

“No. As far as Fergus is concerned, it will be as if you were locked away in a dark room.” Mrs. Wandrell glanced up at Benjamin again, then down. He waited.

The boy gazed at her. He appeared to be working things out in his mind. “Fergus’ll miss me,” he said finally.

“I expect he will,” replied Mrs. Wandrell.

“Hedidn’t do anything wrong.”

“No. But he is affected by what you decide to do.”

“Af-fected?”

“Things happen to Fergus because of what you do, the choices you make.”

“That’s not fair.”

“It’s the truth.” Mrs. Wandrell paused, then added, “Once you have a creature you love dearly, you’re trapped, because it can be taken away from you.”

“You can’t take Fergus!”

“No, I can’t. And I wouldn’t, even if I could.”

Geoffrey looked confused.

“So, no pony for two weeks,” Mrs. Wandrell said. “And of course you must never do anything like that again.”

“I wouldn’t!”

“Good. I expect your father will have more to say to you about that. I’ll leave it to him.” Mrs. Wandrell looked up at Benjamin and raised her eyebrows. “You agree to impose this punishment?”

“Yes.” It didn’t seem unfair. And he would continue their discussions about proper behavior as well.

“Then we’re quits on the matter.”

Benjamin nodded. He didn’t feel like thanking her, though her judgment wasn’t unreasonable. “Let’s go, Geoffrey.”

His son’s small frame relaxed. He scampered toward the door.

“We all have our hostages to fortune, as I think you know quite well now,” said Mrs. Wandrell before Benjamin could follow. “My daughter would have made you a fine wife. And she’d have lived next door to me rather than…wherever she ends up. However far away.”

Benjamin spread his hands. He had nothing to apologize for on that score, but he understood her better now. Jean would say that was a good thing, and he supposed it was.

Father and son rode back to Furness Hall side by side. Geoffrey dawdled a bit, probably because this was his last ride for a while. “Did I do all right?” he asked.

“You did splendidly.”

“It that how an honorable gentleman makes things right?”

“It is. An apology and actions taken to correct the matter. You’ve redeemed your honor.”

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