Page 86 of Determination
Lady Esther had no answer to that. The attics were pronounced tolerable. When they returned to the ground floor, the men went off to look at the exterior, but Bertram’s mother said brightly, “The basements, Lady Esther? The kitchens are the heart of any house, are they not? I am sure you will be pleased with the range we had installed.”
“Kitchens… yes,” Lady Esther said vaguely. “But do tell me more of this scheme to find a match for Lord Rennington. How ingenious you are, Mrs Atherton. But perhaps, with my connections, I might be of some service in the enterprise.”
Their voices drifted away as they descended the stairs, leaving Bertram alone with Bea.
“Oh, dear,” Bea said. “Now that I am settled, Mama will start interfering with everyone else’s matrimonial plans. Do tell your sisters to be on their guard.”
“She likes to be useful,” Bertram said easily, in too good a humour even for Lady Esther to irritate him.
“No, she likes to manage everyone.”
Bertram laughed. “You must have the patience of a saint to have survived her ministrations for so long. But let us not talk about your Mama. What do you think?” He took her hand and led her around the ground floor again. “It is very small,” he said sadly. “Not at all what you are used to.”
“The rooms may be a little smaller than at Highwood, but there are more than enough of them. The dining room will seat twenty, at a pinch, and we have ample bedrooms, so we can invite all your scholarly friends to stay.”
“And plenty of room for a nursery,” he said softly.
She blushed and nodded. “Would you mind very much if our first son is not named after you?”
“What did you have in mind instead?” he said, smiling.
“Horace, naturally. Horace Atherton… that sounds well, does it not? Look…” She led him into one of the rooms off the hall. “Here is our library. There are two windows, one for each desk. We can have bookcases on every wall. The globes will go in this corner, here, and beside the fire, twin sofas so that we can both sit with our feet up as we read Horace. How does that sound?”
“It sounds… perfect,” he said, with a sigh, pulling her into his arms. She lifted her face expectantly, but he only sighed again. “Will you ever tire of Latin, do you think? Will you tire of me? I am so dull and ordinary and uninteresting, and you are so—”
“Brash? Bumptious? Uncivilised?”
“Animated. Full of energy. You make me feelalive, Bea. I was living half a life, to be truthful, with most of delights of the world passing me by. I preferred my books and the Romans to the real world, and never knew what I was missing, until you came along.”
“But I was living half a life, too, until I got to know you. I dutifully sat with Mama day after day, aware that there must be more to life than painting watercolours very badly and my appalling needlework, but not having the least notion how to find it. I thought I would start to liveproperlywhen I married a man of high rank. You showed me that there is so much more to life than marriage. There isLatin!”
“That is what I am afraid of — that you will find all your satisfaction in Latin, and will not need me at all. Or perhaps it will be something else that captures your interest, and I will be left behind in Rome or Carthage or Troy.”
“I shall always need you, Bertram. Do you remember the first time you kissed me?”
“Of course!”
“That kiss was… amazing. Magical. The duchess said that when you kiss the right man, something magical happens and you justknowthat he is the one, and it is true. When you kissed me, I knew. Although, being stupid, I had no faith in my own judgement, so I kissed Lord Brockscombe and then Lord Thomas, and they were not magical at all. And even then, I thought I ought to kiss Lord Grayling, just to compare, but you rescued me fromthatmistake. And slowly — oh, I am so slow sometimes! — I realised thatyouwere the right man all the time, and I discovered that I loved you. So no, I am notevergoing to leave you behind in Rome or anywhere else, and yes, I shall always need you. Whatever happens to us in the future, whatever we have to do or say or be, whether you become the earl one day or remain an obscure country gentleman, whateverlife throws at us, we will face ittogether,side by side. Two people with hearts that beat in unison. And that is a promise.”
Bertram’s throat was too tight for words, but when the words dried up, there were always kisses. So he kissed her and held her tight and then kissed her again, and lost himself in love all over again.
THE END
