They reached old-fashioned, Tudor-style gardens with low boxwood hedges surrounding squares and triangles of flowers now overflowing with blooms. “This is wonderfully kept.”
“My aunt particularly likes the gardens here. She says it is her favorite of their holdings.”
They found a bench in clear view of the south side of the house. No doubt a maid or footman had been posted to watch them. Taking out a handkerchief, he swept it over the already clean wooden bench. “Tell me about your family.”
“There are quite a lot of us.” She grinned. “You already know my older sisters and Hawksworth, and I told you about Frank, the second-eldest, who is in America. Quartus married the Duchess of Wharton earlier this year. They should be here by tomorrow. Sextus is in Russia at our embassy. Quintus is in the army and Octavius is in the navy. I have seen him only a few times. He left when he was ten and rarely comes home. Septimius was to have been in the clergy, but is now a secretary to Lord Stanstead and would like to run for Parliament someday. Nonus is studying law. One of my brothers died before I was born. Then there are Decimus and William, the twins, who are at Eton. The youngest, Mary, is twelve.” Thalia plucked a daisy growing next to the bench. “What about your family?”
Kendal’s family was not nearly as large as hers. “I have two older sisters. After that, several children did not survive, and then I was born.” If he was serious about her, and he was, it was time to talk to her about what few people knew. “I was married shortly after I reached my majority.” He slid her a look, but she was merely waiting for him to continue. “I had been betrothed before I was in leading strings, and the marriage was supposed to have happened when I was twenty, but my guardian would not allow it.”
Her finger came up, covering her pink lips. “That is quite young for a gentleman.”
“Yes, but not unheard of.” He watched her slowly denude the daisy. “We were not well-suited. My father had arranged the match, and I did not think I could honorably disclaim it. After all, she had been raised to believe she would be the Duchess of Kendal. We did our duty”—as much as he wished it had been otherwise, that was all it was to both of them—“and she was soon with child. A little girl named Lillian.”
“That is a beautiful name.”
“It suited her. Unfortunately, she caught a fever and died.” He would have left it at that, but Thalia stared at him intently.
“My wife was prone to temper tantrums. One night, it was storming, but she decided to leave. I wasn’t there, and none of the servants knew why she insisted on leaving that night. The coachman refused to take her, but she convinced one of the younger grooms to drive the coach. She took Lillian with her.”
Kendal should have been there. If he had postponed his trip to another of his estates for one day, he would have been able to stop his wife. “The coach ended up in the river. The head groom and some of the others had followed her when they discovered the coach missing, but the groom who had been driving was dead, as was my wife. Only Lillian was alive.”
This was always the hardest part to think about. He’d never told the story to anyone else, but he wanted to tell Thalia. He had to take several breaths before he could continue. “I came home as soon as I received the message, but I could do nothing to save her.”
Thalia’s hand covered his. “Unless you believe yourself to be soothsayer, you are not at fault. You could not have known.”
He covered her fingers with his own. “That is what Berwick always tells me.”
She drew in a sharp breath, and paled so alarmingly Kendal thought she would faint. “Berwick-upon-Tweed?”
“Yes.” What was going on? “He was my guardian. Thalia, what is it?”
Closing her eyes, she shook her head, but two tears seeped from beneath her lashes. “My—my father is trying to arrange a match for me with him.”
Kendal felt as if he’d been punched in the gut. “No.”
“Yes.” She nodded. “It’s true.”
But it wasn’t possible. He’d just come from Berwick, who hadn’t mentioned another marriage. Something wasn’t right. “It might be what your father wishes, but I can almost guarantee you that Berwick does not.”
“I do not understand. Father said Berwick needed an heir.”
Raising her hands, Kendal kissed them. “Berwick has a nephew he loves as his own son.” Then Kendal remembered what the man had said.
