Her Sisters Challenged Her To Sit Beside The Duke Whom Everyone Feared — But His Treatment Of Her Astonished Everyone

CHAPTER FOUR: OAK HAVEN

Oak Haven stood beyond a long avenue of chestnut trees.
Its towers were not particularly welcoming, but the windows were bright and the gardens showed signs of patient care.
Selena arrived with Clara’s wooden bird wrapped in clean linen.
A butler named Mr. Ames received her at the entrance.
“His Grace has asked that you be shown to the morning room,” he said.
“Miss Clara is waiting there.”
Selena found the child standing beside a table covered with colored paper.
William was seated near the fireplace, holding a book he did not appear to be reading.

Clara ran toward Selena, then stopped abruptly as if remembering a rule.
“Did you mend it?” she asked.
Selena unwrapped the bird.
The wing was held by a tiny wooden pin and a carefully matched piece of thread.
“It can move a little now,” Selena explained.
“But you must not pull it backward.”
Clara accepted the toy and tested the wing with solemn concentration.
“It is better than before,” she announced.
William closed his book.
“You have accomplished what three carpenters failed to do.”
“Perhaps the carpenters were given instructions to make a new bird,” Selena said.
“I was asked to preserve the old one.

”
The remark seemed to strike him more deeply than she intended.
He looked toward the windows.
“My sister made that bird,” he said.
“She carved it before Clara was born.”
Clara climbed onto a stool and set the toy beside a folded sheet of paper.
“Mama made lots of things,” she said.
“Mrs. Vale says I must not speak of them at breakfast because it upsets Uncle William.”
William went very still.
Selena glanced at him, uncertain whether the governess had spoken the truth.
“You may speak of your mother whenever you wish,” he told Clara.
The girl frowned.
“But you leave the room.

”
William opened his mouth and then closed it.
Selena felt the painful silence settle between them.
“Perhaps he leaves because he misses her too,” she said.
Clara examined her uncle.
“Do you?”
“Every day,” William answered.
The child’s eyes filled with tears.
“Then why do you never tell me?”
William stood, crossed the room, and knelt beside her.
“Because I have been very foolish,” he said.
Clara put her arms around his neck.
Selena turned toward the window to give them privacy.
Outside, a gardener was tying a young tree to a support that would keep it upright until its roots grew stronger.

She wondered how many people had mistaken the duke’s silence for cruelty when it was simply grief he did not know how to carry.