Page 58 of Winterset

Oliver

It had been two weeks since I’d been shot, and most mornings, my sore shoulder still woke me before the sunrise—a small price to pay for Kate’s safety and survival. I was lucky that the bullet had passed clean through my shoulder and that the wound it had left behind had not become infected.

Not wanting to wake Charlie needlessly, I slipped on my dressing robe and walked to the window to watch the sunrise. How many mornings had I stood in this very same spot as a boy? I couldn’t count.

It was strange being back at Summerhaven, sleeping in my boyhood bedchamber. So much had changed since last I’d lived here. I had changed. I’d seen so many places, met so many people. I was no longer the same selfish boy but a man ready for marriage.

Kate and I decided not to wait long to be wed, only until I was well enough to travel and the banns were read, but every passing day without Kate as my wife felt like an eternity.

Restless, I went downstairs to the drawing room and found myself standing at the pianoforte. I pulled out the bench and opened the lid. Sitting, I placed my fingers on the keys. Or at least, I tried. My right shoulder hurt too much to play, and I set my hands back in my lap.

“May I join you?” Damon said, startling me. He stood at the drawing room threshold, dressed for his morning ride.

“If you have time,” I said.

“I always have time for you, Ollie.” He walked to the pianoforte.

I slid over to make room for him on the bench. “It’s been a long time since we have sat here together.”

“Too long,” he said. “Do you still play?”

“No.”

“ Would you play a piece with me?” Damon rephrased his question. “Something easy? Anything you can remember.”

“The only thing I even vaguely remember is Bach’s Minuet in G Major . But I’m not sure I can play it with my shoulder as it is.”

Damon nodded. “What if I play the right hand and you play the left?”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to play. I’d never really enjoyed playing the pianoforte and that was before Father had imbued the instrument with negative memories and physical pain.

But ...

As a boy, I had loved sitting here with Damon. I loved the silly songs we used to create, the laughs we’d shared. If only Father had not robbed us of those times, how different things might have been.

But I had no desire to revisit the dark memories of our past or make myself melancholy about what might have been. I wanted to begin making new memories. Pleasant ones that would start us down a new path.

So I set my left hand on the keys, and Damon placed his right hand on the upper ones.

Damon tapped his foot on the ground to count us into the song just as he used to when we were boys, and then we began playing.

It was not pretty. I played more wrong notes than right, and my pacing was all over the place. But none of that mattered. What mattered was that Damon and I were sitting here together making music.

We played only a few measures before memory failed me, and we removed our hands from the keys.

“Thank you,” Damon said, his voice thick with emotion.

I knew just how he felt. The road back home had not been an easy one, but I was so glad that I was finally here—with him.

“I wanted to talk to you about something.” He cleared his throat. “Your plans for the future.”

I’d known this conversation was coming. He’d tried to bring it up several times already, and I’d successfully circumvented the conversation. I wasn’t sure why.

“Hannah and I have talked, and we would love for you and Kate to remain here at Summerhaven with us. We were thinking that you and Kate could live in one wing, and Hannah and I in the other. And once Winterset has sold, you could use the funds to build a new house right here on the property. I am still happy to oversee the sale of Winterset, if you wish.”

Now my throat thickened. “That is a generous offer, brother. But I cannot accept it.”

His face fell. “If you are worried about not owning the land that you build on, you needn’t be. When the entailment is no longer in force, it’s yours. I have already spoken to my solicitor and requested that he draft the documents.”

“It’s not that,” I said. “I have loved being here with you, Hannah, the girls, and Mother. But with the threat of Markham gone, Kate and I want to return home to Winterset. I’ve grown to love it there, brother. I cannot wait to show it to you.”

Damon didn’t respond right away.

I could tell he was disappointed by the downturn of his mouth.

I’d only just come to Summerhaven, we’d barely begun to mend our relationship, and now I would soon be leaving again.

It hurt me, too, but I also knew Winterset was where I belonged.

It was where Kate and I were meant to make our home and start our family.

“We will miss you, Ollie. Desperately. Kate too. But I am also so proud of the man you’ve become.” Damon squeezed my good shoulder. “Promise me that we will remain in close contact and visit one another regularly.”

“I promise,” I said. “I would like nothing more.” And I meant it. I was so glad to have my brother by my side again and to know that whatever came, we would face it as a family.