Page 39 of Victorian Bride

But there was nothing.

“Mya, I am not sure this isn’t someone’s property.”

“If it is,” Mya pointed out, gesturing to the overgrown clearing and tumbledown house, “it isn’t a property they care for very much.”

She turned away from him and made her way through the grass until she was standing in front of the broken, moss-covered foundation. There was nothing to see, of course. No utensils or furniture left behind, the old house gone. Mya blinked back tears that were suddenly welling in her eyes, not sure why they had started.

In a moment, Kayden was beside her, one strong arm around her shoulders and drawing her back away from the building.

“Mya? Darling? Talk to me. What is wrong?”

Mya shook her head. “I don’t know,” she admitted softly. “I just felt… I feel like there’s something here that I remember, but I don’t know how I could when it’s so obviously been falling down for years. Or decades. Or centuries. Who knows?” She turned to lay her head against his shoulder, shutting out the world beyond him. “It’s just a little sad. To see a place that probably held a family be reduced to rubble. People must have been happy here, once, and now they’re not.”

Kayden held her closer. “This place served its purpose,” he said, gently. “It has done what it is meant to do. That it is crumbling, that doesn’t mean that memories of what it was go away. They’re still here, beloved. They will always be here.”

“That’s beautiful,” Mya said, sniffing a little. “Thank you.”

“You are welcome, my dear.”

Together, they got back on their horses and rode on toward Inverness, leaving the ramshackle remains of the little house to nature and taking their memories with them.

Chapter 17

“Where are you off to this afternoon?”

Mya, who had been on her way out the door, startled at the unexpected voice behind her and turned to find Lottie sitting on one of the benches that lined the back wall of the veranda, with a book in her hand.

“I am going to see Kayden,” she answered.

Lottie’s eyebrows lifted. “Things must be going well between the two of you, then. I am glad to hear it.”

“They’re going well,” Mya said with a smile.

Since the day they had ridden up into the hills, things had been going perfectly, in fact. In the last two weeks, she and Kayden had spent most afternoons walking in the fields together, and he had taken her to the theater in Inverness only three nights before. Things, she thought, were going to be heading in a rather more official direction soon.

The visit to Kayden’s home was a surprise. She had not been there before; Kayden had always come to see her, or they had met at the boundaries of the two properties to walk together. Mya had seen the home once, from some distance. It was a graceful building, with trees lining the drive, and horses running in paddocks that adjoined the stables. But this was the first time that she would be setting foot in his home.

“I should be back in time for supper,” she said as she paused to pull on her gloves. “If I am not, though, there’s no need for you to worry.”

Lottie laughed. “Mya, darling, I never expect you back in time for supper when you are with Kayden.”

Mya blushed at the implication in the words, but she didn’t have much of a defense to offer. They didn’t always have sex, but whenever she and Kayden were together, they couldn’t seem to bring themselves to part. More than once they had simply sat in the shade of a tree and talked, or remained silently side by side in contented quiet. It was a rare thing, that ability to simply sit in quiet with someone and yet feel as though the two of you were connected in that silence. As though you did not even have to speak to be intimate.

Mya could not imagine being happier with anyone else.

She was humming to herself as she walked across the back fields, carrying a wrapped chocolate tart, which she had made just for him to keep in his icebox, where it most definitely wouldn’t melt. It was a bit of a walk, but she hardly minded. The weather was lovely, and Mya had always enjoyed walking. There was something about it that made her feel just a little more alive. Connected to the wider world around her.

Up ahead, the shape of Kayden’s manor began to reveal itself. There was, Mya saw, a coach in front of the door, which she hadn’t expected. It ought to have occurred to her that Kayden might have guests, but she had made the decision to come see him on impulse. He had been busy with work the last three days, and after becoming accustomed to seeing him so frequently, the absence was disappointing.

As she approached the drive, Mya paused to make certain that the hem of her skirt wasn’t terribly muddy, and readjusted her hat. Not that Kayden particularly cared whether her hat was on perfectly straight, as he had demonstrated more than once, but she was still making a social call, and Eleanora had taught her the rules of such things well.

When she knocked on the door, it was opened by a uniformed servant, who bowed, and invited her in to wait. Mya, of course, could not quite bring herself to sit politely in the receiving room while the butler went to search the home. Feeling a little mischievous, she got up and crept down the hall, still holding the chocolate tart.

She didn’t know whether or not she actually expected to find Kayden. It was likely that he was in his office working, or that he was even out on business. The visitor with the coach might have been with him, holed up in a meeting somewhere. Perhaps, Mya thought, she ought to have waited after all, or sent ahead about calling. There were rules about cards and letting your intentions be known and all those sorts of things. It might have saved her some trouble to have followed them. Kayden was supposed to meet with her again on Sunday anyway; it wasn’t really such a long wait. What if he was frustrated that she had showed up while he was busy?

The sound of voices quietly talking caught Mya’s attention. Placing her feet with special care so as not to make any sound, she snuck forward toward the open door ahead to see what was prompting the argument, for argument it was, the whispering voices hissing at each other in obvious anger. As she drew nearer, Mya realized that one of the voices belonged to Kayden. He sounded angrier than the other, who was a woman.

There was the sound of a boot on a wood floor, and then as Mya dared to peek around the corner of the doorway, she saw that the sound had been one of them taking a step toward the other.