Page 57 of Otters and Obstacles
Mrs. Clarke looked from one to the other of them and rose from her seat. “I’ll let you talk, shall I? Lady Peter, I will be in the kitchen should you need me. The stillroom needs attention.”
She exited the room, closing the door behind herself with an audible thump.
They remained in silence for a long moment, Peter still standing, twiddling with the hat in his hands. He looked so anxious that Georgie’s heart ached for him despite her anger.
“Oh, sit down,” she snapped at last. “There is no need to loom over me.”
Peter looked at the empty seat next to her on the settee and, with a deliberate motion, Georgie picked up the empty otter basket and placed it in that spot. With a sigh, he instead took the seat across from her and set his hat on a small side table.
“Molly refused to take my hat,” he said. “I believe she thought you would send me away without seeing me.”
“Mrs. Clarke asked me to allow you to speak to me.”
“Georgie…” He reached for her hands, but she pulled them back. He sighed. Instead, he braced his elbows on his knees so he could lean in as close as possible. A waft of his scent—soap, bay rum, and a little hint of his own natural musk—teased at her nose and rippled down her spine.
“I am sorry,” he said with apparent sincerity. “I did not mean to hurt you, or to make you feel I regretted our marriage. I… you may have gleaned that my mother can be quite overbearing.”
“That is the impression I get, yes.”
He looked down at his hands twisting against each other and laughed, a short, unamused sound. “I realize I am a grown man, but she can still make me feel like a child, and I am most often the child who disappoints her. I… I was afraid of disappointing her again.”
Georgie nodded heavily. It was as she had suspected. “So you feared she would be disappointed when she met me as your wife.”
“No!” Peter reached out for her again, and she avoided his grasp as the otters stirred in her lap at the motion. “I don’t know if I can make you understand. I scarcely understand it myself. But these last few weeks… I have felt like myself. Morethan myself. The best version of myself. And I feared having her find out unexpectedly about our marriage would ruin that and I would revert back to the child who always disappointed her.” He ran a hand through his hair, making it stand on end. “I know it sounds foolish. I never thought I could be so foolish as to hurt you. I can only ask you to forgive me.”
They sat in silence for another long moment. Then he chuckled, this one self-deprecating. “It took me being alone at the rectory last night to realize how alone I have always felt. Until you.”
He looked at her, clearly willing her to understand. “I have a large family, a loving one. I have my twin brother Philip, and my elder brother Paul. But none of them have ever seemed to understand me. Not like you do, Georgie. I never want to be apart from you again.”
It was difficult for her to resist the appeal in his eyes, but she must not make another impulsive decision that would affect the rest of her life. Their lives.
Part of her wanted to send him away so he would never have another chance to hurt or abandon her. She had been alone in the world for months before they had met. Surely she could learn to be alone again. If she had to.
But sitting here with him, looking at him, remembering all of the meals and jokes and long walks they had shared even before they had married...
She did not want to lose that bond if it could be salvaged.
Betsy raised her head and chirped at Peter. Without hesitation, he leaned forward to stroke the otter’s head with one finger until she settled back down. His head stayed bent to avoid looking at Georgie. Then he squared his shoulders and raised his head again, his expression solemn.
“There is something more I need to tell you.”
Her heart dropped. Surely this was the moment when he told her that his family would never accept her, for she could not imagine why else his expression would be so serious.
“I think the otters may be in danger.”
“What?” Instinctively, Georgie’s hands tightened around her pets, and Bonny grumbled.
“I heard a prowler out by the coop last night. When I went out to check, someone had tampered with the lock to try and open it.”
Georgie went cold. “Perhaps… perhaps it was a fox.”
“Or perhaps your cousin never left Yorkshire. Perhaps he is still in the neighborhood and wants to steal what he was unable to convince us to give him.”
“If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better for the otters to remain here?” With an emergency like this in the offing, Georgie could talk Mrs. Clarke around.
Peter shook his head. “I’m afraid not. If your cousin is determined to steal them, we cannot assume he would give up so easily. He would only try to get at them here, and Mr. Lumley and Mrs. Clarke would not be much protection against a determined man.” His lips twitched. “Though perhaps Molly is fierce enough to take your cousin on.”
“What do you propose, then?”
