She crouched back to peer into the sand and stones, looking for more treasure. But no, he did not want her to care for him. He had fought hard over the past five years to make certain she, and indeed all of them, did not become attached to him. The only way he had believed he could protect them, after all, was by separating them from everything that had to do with the Dukes of Buckley—himself included.
He tried to rebuild that old barrier he had erected between them. But it was a weak thing. And when Eliza bounced over, proudly showing him her own collection of fairy coins, he couldn’t hold on to it a moment longer. Especially when the two girls, now openly competing, began to good-naturedly fight over him, each begging him to assist them in their endeavors. He found himself on his hands and knees in the sand, scouring the ground alongside them. And he wished for the day to never end.
***
Bronwyn had never thought the sight of a grown man talking and laughing with two girls as they all crawled around on the sandy ground searching for bits of fossilized sea creatures would bring her to tears. Yet that’s just what it did.
Sniffling, she ran a surreptitious hand across her eyes before, breathing deeply of the briny sea air to clear her head, she made her way to the basket they had brought and extracted her notebook. The past days had inspired her more than anything else ever had to complete her paper and finally send it off to the Royal Society. With Ash’s interest and appreciation for her work, as well as Nelly’s and Eliza’s near constant enthusiasm, there was nothing she wanted more than to make them proud of her.
In all her life she had never wanted to make anyone proud. Or, rather, she had never dared to try, knowing beyond a doubt she would fail.
Yet now, with Ash and the girls, she felt as if she finally might succeed. She had begun to steal away at every spare moment she could in order to polish her work, readying it for that terrifying date when she would finally send it off.
This particular spare moment, however, did not last long at all. Though for the most surprising reason.
“May we talk?”
She looked up, shielding her eyes from the glaring sun. But it was not Eliza or Nelly who required her; those two were still happily engrossed in searching out every last crinoid they could find with Ash. No, it was Regina who stood before her.
As of yet, she had not managed to reach the girl. Though she had agreed to the new expectations put on her with minimal grumbling, Regina had yet to speak to Bronwyn without being spoken to first. Nor had she referred to Bronwyn as anything butYour Grace, something that Bronwyn had tried and failed to ignore. The girl would come around when she was ready, she had firmly told herself…all the while trying not to contemplate the fact that she might never come around.
Now, however, here Regina was, her typical cool indifference replaced with a vulnerable uncertainty.
But the girl wanted to talk. And Bronwyn was doing nothing but staring at her as if she had grown two heads. “Of course,” she replied haltingly, her face heating. She made room on the rock. “Won’t you have a seat?”
Was that relief in Regina’s eyes? But, no, she must have been seeing things, for it was quickly gone as the girl, after a moment’s hesitation, sank to the rock beside Bronwyn.
And then…nothing. The girl sat silent beside her, rubbing her hands up and down her trouser-encased legs. Bronwyn had the feeling that, if Regina had been wearing a skirt, she would have twisted it into a wrinkled mess.
But what was Bronwyn supposed to do now? Did she quiz Regina on why she had need of her? Did she wait until the girl was ready to talk? The latter might mean they would both sit in awkward silence for who knew how long. The former, however, might be the height of rudeness.
She caught sight of Ash. He glanced at her, smiling slightly, and her heart stalled in her chest. The moment was quickly gone, as his attention was snagged again by the younger girls. But that small look decided things for her. If he could overcome years of distance to make a connection of sorts with his wards, she could certainly make an effort with this young girl who was apparently as lost as she was.
Dragging in a deep breath, she closed her notebook and placed it aside. “Did you need to speak with me about something?” she asked in a voice that trembled only slightly.
Regina’s dark eyes flew to hers. “No. That is, yes. That is—”
She looked lost, and Bronwyn thought she might bolt. She remained completely still, holding her breath, having the utterly ridiculous fear that if she moved wrong the girl would jump up and run off and this chance with her would be gone forever.
Instead Regina shook her head and looked Bronwyn straight in the eyes. “I wanted to thank you. For this outing.”
“Oh.” She blinked. That was completely unexpected. And it touched her heart deeply, much more deeply than she thought possible. “You’re welcome. I had seen your interest in fossils and thought it might please you.”
The girl nodded, her lips pressed tight together, and she looked toward her sisters and Ash. The trio were intent on their goal, the sounds of their laughter ringing out over the sand. Then she swallowed hard and blinked rapidly, as if staving off tears.
“But it is more than the fossils,” she murmured thickly. “In all the time I have known him, he has never spent so much time with us. We thought—” She cleared her throat, tried again. “We thought he despised us.”
“But why would he despise you?” Bronwyn asked.
The girl shrugged, still not looking at Bronwyn. “We are a burden on him. And an embarrassment, I assume. He is a duke, after all, and forced to raise three girls in his household from a completely different station that have no blood connection to him.”
She finally turned to look at Bronwyn, and her dark eyes were filled with so much pain Bronwyn wondered how she could bear it.
“And our own mothers did not want us; why would he?”
Shocked by this revelation—not only by the fact that the girls had separate mothers, but also that their mothers had abandoned them—Bronwyn did not know what to say. My God, what had this girl been through in her short life?
Regardless of her own state of mind, however, Bronwyn did the only thing she could think to do: she remained quiet, keeping her gaze firm on Regina, letting her know through her actions that she was still listening.