Page 124 of A Single Obsession

She stopped mid-flow as his wife walked into the stable yard, leading Romeo.

“What. Are. You. Wearing?”

Eliza cast him a wary look, but the wide grin on his face seemed to reassure her. “A pair of Beau’s breeches.”

Lady Harting clapped her hands over her ears as though offended by the word and he tried not to laugh. It was probably wrong of him, but he was enjoying his mother’s discomfort.

“Now, where was I?” he asked. “Ah yes. You were offering your guidance to Eliza, but it won’t be necessary. You have forfeited any right to interfere with our lives. Mrs Allett will teach her how things are done at the Park in the same way that Harris is teaching me about the estate. We’ll make mistakes and laugh about them together. And there will be horses here again. Lots of horses.”

“You will fail. Neither of you has any firmness of purpose…”

The rumble of laughter Beau had been trying to suppress worked its way up from his chest until he couldn’t contain it. To suggest Eliza had no pluck was too ridiculous for words.

He burst out laughing, putting his mother out of countenance. Her self-assurance faded the longer he laughed.

“Horses will be the death of you, just like they were for your father.”

“Another lie? Mrs Allett told me the truth. You knew the fall didn’t kill him, and yet you still blamed his horse, and justified selling his entire stable. But he left me a greater legacy. His love of horses is in my blood.”

Eliza raised her eyebrows at him. “You know what you must do.”

Beau nodded. “I forgive you, Mother—”

“I don’t need your forgiveness,” she said, spitting out her words like poisoned arrows as if this rejection had the power to injure him.

“But I need to forgive you. Eliza told me I must. I learned from her that resentment eats you up like a cankerous worm and, if left unresolved, it can destroy you. I forgive you for stealing Romeo, for the hit on my head, even for playing on Eliza’s emotions, making her think I was dying. That is the hardest thing to forgive, but for her sake, I will.”

There. He had said it. And he meant it. And now he let it go.

A weight seemed to drop from his shoulders as the words of the Lord’s prayer slipped into his mind—forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

“I believe we could have been reconciled much more quickly if only we had talked to each other,” said Eliza, glaring sideways at him.

He gave his bride a knowing look in return. “Absolutely. It is dangerous to make assumptions, isn’t it, my dear?”

“Yes, it is. Especially when we’re questioning the other’s motivation,” Eliza said, smirking in his direction.

Lady Harting cleared her throat. They turned away from each other with some reluctance and looked at her.

Beau had never seen her look so nonplussed. She was not used to being ignored.

Come to think of it, he was not sure he had ever dared ignore her before, but now, he was more concerned about Eliza’s feelings than he was with what his parent thought.

With an inner sense of pride, he realised his own confidence had spilled over to Eliza, who no longer seemed afraid of her aunt.

Together, they were strong. A united front. Without taking his eyes off his mother’s face, he grasped his wife’s hand with his own and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

The effect on Lady Harting was ludicrous. Her mouth dropped open, and her eyes glazed over. “You are in love.”

Beau gave her a sheepish grin. “Wonderful, isn’t it? I realised the night Romeo was stolen—”

“You mean you were going to marry Eliza even if you won the wager?”

“Yes, and I wish you hadn’t intervened, because she thought she was setting me free by risking her life for me riding my horse to victory—”

Lady Harting’s face turned pale. “She what?”

“Oops! I forgot you didn’t know she was my jockey.”