Thomas squeezed her hand, grinning at her. “I called you astonishing, did I not? Would it diminish the glory of that word if I also declared that you were adorable?”
“I shouldn’t think so,” she replied, pretending to give it some thought. “Adorable has a slightly more childish connotation, but it could still be true.”
“It is true.” He pursed his lips as he looked up at the cloud-dotted sky. “Hmm. What other words of praise might I bestow upon you?”
Lily gripped his upper arm with her free hand. “Oh, please, don’t! I cannot bear flattery, you know that! The beauty of your telling me such things is when they come unexpected, not in a list for recitation.”
Thomas kissed her hand. “All right, all right, no need to fuss. I’ll seek perfect opportunities to share my praises and be perfectly nonchalant at all other times. Would that comfort you?”
She nodded, leaning her head against him as they started on the path down toward the beach. “You need not be constantly indifferent, though. I’m rather fond of this playful, candid, disheveled version of you.”
“Are you, indeed? Well, well,” he said, sounding delighted and intrigued. “Perhaps I will not shave tomorrow, then.”
“And leave your cravat off,” Lily suggested brightly, straightening and looking at him. “I’ll leave my hair down and pick wildflowers on the moors.”
Thomas’s smile was almost whimsical. “What a picture you would make. Dash, I’d pay a fortune to simply watch you.”
Lily’s cheeks heated. “Come with me. Can you spare an indulgence?”
“For you? Always.” He squeezed her hand as they reached the sand of the beach.
They stopped, looking out at the rolling sea as its waves crested, crashing hard against the shore. The water spread up the beach almost eagerly with each wave, then reluctantly receded when it reached its limit. There was plenty of sand before the water’s edge, but the cliffs, coves, and crags stole one’s breath when viewed from this vantage point and begged for a pause to admire them appropriately before the captivating water absorbed attention.
It was one of the most beautiful sights Lily had ever seen.
“How can one so suddenly feel so very small?” Thomas asked aloud, his voice filled with the same wonder and awe Lily felt.
“And be intimidated by it?” Lily murmured.
He nodded. “It feels rather masterful, doesn’t it? Hardly fearful, hardly depressing, and hardly something for which I think I should be ashamed.”
“It’s beautiful.”
He exhaled slowly beside her, saying nothing for a long moment. “I have no secrets from you now, Lily,” he confessed in a low voice almost impossible to hear over the crashing waves. “Not a one.”
She brushed her thumb against his in a gesture of appreciation and comfort, smiling at the admission. There were no words for the beauty in the statement and for what it would mean for them. Nothing hidden, nothing obstructing, nothing to keep them apart anymore. Nothing to prevent them from falling headlong into whatever joyous future was before them if they continued in this way.
How could she form coherent thoughts, let alone words?
So she said nothing, held her husband’s hand, and let the hope in her present reality roll in like the waves before her.
Chapter Fifteen
“It’s the worst kept secret in Cornwall. Free trading. Can’t be helped, much as the gaugers try. Even the landowners have a hand in it, given the profits involved. Goods smuggled from France without taxation? It’s far too easy an opportunity to pass up, and Cornwall is poor on its best days, so who can blame the impoverished for trying to improve their situation? The law is not so clear as it might be elsewhere. And you are not listening to a word I’m saying.”
Thomas blinked at the change in tone, looking over at his friend. “What?”
Basset chuckled as he sat back in his chair, giving him a rueful look. “You had asked about the issues with our shipping investments, and I was explaining free trading, which you heard none of. I don’t mind talking of other things, but you did call expressly for this purpose, did you not?”
“I suppose…” Thomas mused, trailing off without truly committing to his reply. In truth, he wasn’t sure why he called. What he was doing. Where he was.
He couldn’t manage to think of anything but Lily and the extraordinary days they had been spending together. They’d explored every inch of the grounds of Pendrizzick, expanding out to the distant borders and examining each of the tenant houses and farms. Most of the tenants were miners, but there were a few who worked the land on the estate as well. Each was cheerful and warm, greeting them with polite deference and lacking any hint of resentment or fear. The Tremellion family had taken excellent care of them all and continued to do so even in their absence. No tenant feared the prospect of new masters, as they felt sure the family would do right by them.
They visited Wheal Dandrea, the mine actually on the lands of the estate, and found it to be in just as fine a working condition as Wheal Venton. Thomas had already become familiar with its workings and its captain by name, being a chief shareholder, but there was something about seeing the place in person when one was staying on the estate that filled him with pride and energy. Unless he found a very great reason not to, he felt very certain that he would be writing to Mr. Tremellion and making an offer for the house, the estate, and the mine. Wheal Venton had more shareholders, and Wheal Dandrea was a family mine, so the responsibilities differed but were equally as thrilling. What’s more, Lily was perfection among the people at both, no doubt making each of them wish she were the responsible party rather than Thomas.
They’d walked the shore at Dandrea Beach often, each time drawing forth more revelations of personal feelings and thoughts, though none of them could be called secrets. He’d meant what he’d told Lily their first walk there; he had no secrets from her now. He now found it all too easy to bear his soul to her, and she confided in him far more than she’d ever done.
The experiences humbled him each and every time and painted a scene in his head of quiet evenings in the parlor enjoying each other’s company, sitting close together, a fire filling the room with romantic light and warmth. Her head on his shoulder, or his head in her lap, or their hands folded together. Comfort and proximity for their themes and intimacy in their thoughts, content with nothing more than being with the other and reveling in the happiness of it.
Someday, they would have that. Someday, they would get there. Someday soon, he hoped.
“Shall I keep conversing with myself? Or do you intend on participating?”
Thomas chuckled to himself, looking back at his friend, unaware that he had looked away. “Apologies.”
Basset waved a hand. “I can see your mind is more agreeably engaged, unless I am reading your smile wrong. Your wife?”
“Is it so obvious?” Thomas asked, the aforementioned smile turning rueful.
“When a man smiles like a loon, the odds say it must be a woman,” Basset explained sagely, his own smile something of bemusement. “As I suspect you are not a man of infidelity, one may assume your wife is the cause. Always entertaining to witness a love match in the early days of a marriage with the glow of wedded bliss, mark my words.”
Thomas blanched ever so slightly. “Erm… As it happens, Lily and I have been married for five years.”
Basset’s dark eyes went round, and he made no attempt to hide his bafflement. “You what?”
“Five years,” Thomas repeated with a nod. “Just passed the anniversary, as it happens. Is that so shocking?”
“Yes, dammit.” Basset leaned an elbow on the arm of his chair, his fingers going to his chin as he stared at Thomas. “You are as lovesick as any man I have ever seen in my life, and you’ve been married long enough to return to sanity. What ails you, man?”
Thomas laughed once and crossed a leg over the other as he turned to face Basset more fully. “Have you not heard the story of my marriage, Basset
? Anyone in London could have told you. It caused no small stir of gossip.”
“As I am rarely in London and never there for long, I tend to avoid any social gatherings that might involve recounting any gossip.” He shrugged, making no apologies for doing so. “I wouldn’t like to hear what is said about my brother, so it serves little purpose. What would I have heard, pray tell?”
“That my wife and I had been acquainted for some years before we wed,” Thomas relayed without shame, possibly for the first time in his life. “That we were nearly courting when I suddenly lost my entire fortune on a wild scheme I thought would enhance my fortunes magnificently, rather than deplete them. That I then went to Lily’s father to ask if he might give me his daughter in marriage so that I might be saved by her dowry. That he agreed, and I then broke my wife’s heart by marrying her for her fortune rather than affection. Because she didn’t know I also felt affection.”
Basset did not react much, which suited his rather composed nature. “My, my, how very high Society of you. And you then fell in love with her? Five years after?”
Thomas grunted softly. “I loved her from the start. I was simply desperate for money and unwilling to leave her for other men to snatch up while I recouped my losses, so I married her. I always wanted to marry her. It was simply the wrong motivation.”
“And did she know the reasons you did so?” Basset pressed with some interest. “That you were marrying for affection but in haste for her fortune? That your heart was in the right place even if your finances were not?”
“No,” Thomas replied. He smiled a very bland, flat smile. “I kept my reasons to myself and kept myself away from any semblance of love in the marriage as penance for my sins.”
“Good heavens, man. You’re an imbecile.”
There was nothing to do but laugh at that, and Thomas did so, only a twinge of remorse remaining in him for the fact that now he and Lily had revealed all to each other. “Trust me, Basset, I am well aware.”
Basset shook his head in disbelief. “To be frank, Granger, you’re fortunate your wife didn’t find companions for herself with you abandoning her like that.”
That sobered Thomas creditably. “Lily would never do so.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Basset shot back. “Once a married woman, dalliances may easily take place if she is discreet. It happens every day, and the dull husbands always say their wife would never. Believe me, my brother has been the culprit in such assignations often enough that I am familiar with the defense.”
Thomas swallowed with some difficulty, finding himself overwhelmingly grateful that his wife was a woman of high morals and true loyalty. She was a stunning woman, accomplished and graceful, sensible in thought and manner, and kind beyond what any earthly being could hope to attain. He’d been married to her for five years, and he had yet to find a fault of any kind in her character. Had she been more mortal and less saintly, she might have done exactly as Basset had said.
Suddenly, he wished to be back at Pendrizzick so he could seek her out and hold her in his arms in sheer gratitude.
“I never imagined she would,” he murmured now, shaking his head in disbelief. “If I had, I’d have been far more afraid in the interim.”
“Fortunate man.” Basset sat forward now, leaning his arms on the desk before him. “Your finances seem to be stable now, given your portions in our mutual investments. Does this mean your marriage has turned to affection at last?”
Thomas nodded, managing a smile as his recent bliss returned to his body. “Financially, I’ve become solvent and secure, so I felt it was time to treat my marriage as I always should have. It took a few attempts to get the beginning right, as I was so out of practice, but finally, after arriving here, we’ve found our footing. As it happens, my wife loved me in return, so I’ve wasted more time than I believed.”
Basset exhaled slowly, sputtering at the end of it. “I’ll say it again, you’re a fortunate man, Granger. So your recent assent into newlywed madness is simply a delayed venture?”
“Suppose so.” He turned almost sheepish as he realized he was discussing the nature of love in his marriage with his business associate. “This is hardly the topic you anticipated examining when I called, isn’t it?”
“No, not it all,” Basset admitted easily. “But as a bachelor with no expectations of affection in marriage, I do find it all rather amusing. It will be interesting to see if your jaunty tune turns at all with more exposure to your wife’s affections. Or if hers turns for the same. When the two of you become comfortable with the change, will you revert back to your lives of separation? Not that your feelings would alter, but your urge to act upon it would settle…” He drummed his fingers on his desk, seeming to consider the idea. “It will be very interesting indeed.”
Thomas didn’t think it would be all that interesting, the idea of the feelings building and swirling within him and between him and Lily fading into something unremarkable. After years of privately wanting and feelings of loneliness, he never wanted to be far from her again. Yet he knew for himself that the most agreeable marriages did not always maintain the same level of exhilaration that was there at the beginning. He knew that comfort in marriage frequently became a feeling of a rather commonplace arrangement, something endured daily rather than fully embraced, but surely that was not the fate for all.
“Have you no designs for matrimony?” Thomas asked him, suddenly eager to shift the subject away from speculating on his own marriage. “With your title, surely you must have some duties there.”
Basset nodded without concern. “I do, and I am sure I will take up the cause soon enough. The estate could use a mistress, and I ought to have an heir. With my father’s philandering, it would behoove me to choose a wife of impeccable breeding and respectable fortune. I’m established enough in my finances to not require any particular prospects there, which gives me some freedom. It would help if she were beautiful, but a good character would suffice.”
It all sounded so polite, so formal, that Thomas wondered if they were talking about marriage at all. For him, his own thoughts of marriage had been of Lily and of affection. He hadn’t considered marrying before she’d crossed his path again, and anything less seemed somehow unsavory, even if it was the order of the day. Marriage, to most, was a connection of family or fortune, and of profitable interests, and emotions were rarely considered in truth. Some undoubtedly felt comfort in that, but why shouldn’t marriage be an enjoyable state?
“Have you given thought to any particular candidates?” Thomas inquired with genuine curiosity, given the very starched description and expectations Basset had given.
“A little,” came the unaffected reply. “I know many of the local families, and I find I cannot confine any of their daughters to the polite arrangement I’ll propose. I’ll have to go to London, I think, and make arrangements there. She’ll have to be hardy enough to endure Cornwall, or at least independent, but I think my prospects are fair enough to make that a relatively simple task.”
Thomas raised a brow, finding several issues in the statement, though none strong enough to express aloud. “And what about your sister, Basset? Do you have aims for her marriage?”
Basset groaned and lowered his head, shaking it slowly. “Emblyn is the most difficult woman I have ever encountered in my life, and I am at my wits’ end. I can’t think of a single way to improve our relationship except to give in to her demands. If I didn’t think it would be worth the effort to have her as my sister in truth, I’d give up on it. But God help me, I think we could grow closer than my brother and I have ever been.”
“So that would be a no?”
“That would be a hell no. I don’t dare try to marry her off or even express my opinion. I’d like to keep my head and all of my appendages attached to me. Now, do you have any interest in attempting to discuss shipping again?”
“Lily, you are looking so well, so refreshed and at ease. Cornwall clearly agrees with you.”
“I think it does. And it agrees with my husband too, I believe.”
“Indeed? What makes you say so?”
Lily blushed a little as she picked up her teacup, avoiding the curious eyes of Julia and Emblyn. “He has… Well, he has grown more affectionate and approachable. More tender. More present. He quite takes my breath away, and it has been years since he’s done that.”
“Ah, begun to appreciate you, has he?” Julia laughed, her elegantly plaited and curled copper hair dancing against her neck and shoulders. “About time, I’d say. It’s a wonder he could withstand your charms for so long, given how he stared at you all throughout dinner at Basset’s.”
“Only a lout would keep ’is ’eart closed to ee forever,” Emblyn agreed with a firm nod. “And I be certain Mr. Granger be no lout.”
“No, he is not.” Lily smiled shyly, sipping her tea slowly. “He’s really quite wonderful. If we’re in the same room, he always wishes to hold my hand or sit close by. He’s always wanting to do things together, even if it is only an outing into Breathreath for ribbons. He accompanied me to the fields yesterday just so I could pick cornflowers, and we walk down to Dandrea Beach every other day.”
Julia’s eyes went wide, and her smile accompanied it. “Goodness. He is aiming for attentiveness, isn’t he? What’s brought this on?”
“Sanity,” Emblyn quipped before Lily could answer. “Look at ’er, ’e be only a man, after all.”
Lily clapped her hands as she laughed, heat racing into her cheeks. “Emblyn, for pity’s sake! There are many women prettier than me in the world.”
Emblyn gave her a scolding look. “Just because ee be blushing like a piny doesn’t make ee less pretty. The man’s got eyes, ’asn’t ’e? Beauty is in the eye of the be’older, and ’e be’olds you on the regular. Only right that ’e wakes up to ’is good fortune and treats ee as a treasure.”
Lily looked at Julia for help, but she only shook her head. “I agree with her, Lily. Modesty won’t diminish the truth. Best move along if you don’t wish to discuss your beauty.”
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