Page 44 of Winterset

Oliver

The wind whipped across the portico, chilling me as I watched the carriage disappear down the lane.

Everything I cared about was inside that carriage, and I hated having to remain behind.

I’d grown to love Winterset in the weeks I’d been here, but I resented having to remain here to care for it without Kate.

“Come inside, Mr. Jennings, else you will catch your death,” Mrs. Owensby said, and when I didn’t move, she clutched my arm and pulled me inside.

Bexley shut the door behind me. “They’ll be all right, sir. Charlie will protect her during the journey.”

I was certain he would, given the gun I’d tucked into his breast coat pocket. And Damon would look after her while she was at Summerhaven. But who would look after her in her new life?

I stalked to my study and slammed the door.

Only five minutes ago, we’d stood in this room together. And now she was gone.

Frustrated by my inadequacy, I swiped my arm across my desk, clearing it.

At the cacophonous sound, Bexley stepped inside. “Are you all right, sir?”

“Two years, Bexley! Kate hid successfully here for two years. And then I arrived, and—” I cursed under my breath. “I told her I would protect her, but I only put her in danger.”

“You are protecting her now, sir, by sending her to Summerhaven.”

“No. I am only hiding her in a new location.”

“You are giving her a chance to live a fuller and freer life,” Bexley said.

But he was wrong. Kate wasn’t free. She was farther from danger but also farther from those who knew and loved her. I braced my elbows on my desk and cradled my head in my hands. She deserved so much more.

“You’ve done right by her,” Bexley said.

“Have I?” I said, my voice tight. “I feel like I have made a grave mistake.”

“In my experience, heartache always feels like a grave mistake.”

“I miss her already,” I said.

“As do I,” he said.

“And I,” Mrs. Owensby said, entering my study with a tea tray. “But we trust her decision to leave, and you must trust it too.”

“I am trying,” I said, “but—” My voice caught, and I couldn’t finish my sentence.

Mrs. Owensby poured me a cup of tea and set it on the desk in front of me. “Kate will be all right. You will be too. You’ll see. Just give it some time.”

Time.

If only Kate and I had had more of it, things might be different.