Free Once Upon A Dream by Grace Burrowes Mary Balogh Page B

pleasure to show it to you."
    Bewcastle never joined in play, Michael had noticed during the week, as his brothers and sisters all did on occasion, but he was ever the perfect host,
    unerringly singling out for attention any guest who was for some reason not part of a larger group. Lady Connaught, clearly gratified, rose to her feet and
    took his arm. He offered his other to Miss Everly and they set off for the wilderness path. Miss Thompson turned away.
    "Miss Thompson," Michael called after her. She stopped and turned to look at him, and he felt a sudden lifting of his spirits at the realization that a
    great burden had just been taken from his shoulders. "Your brother-in-law had a point, did he not?" He grimaced as someone hit the cricket ball with a loud
    crack, sending it high and long, and the batter's team and its supporters whistled and cheered wildly. "The noise is deafening. Would you care for a stroll
    about the lake?"
    Perhaps she would not care for any such thing. She had just returned from a walk with Bewcastle and might be longing to sit down. She did not answer
    immediately. But then her lips curved into a smile.
    "Yes. Thank you," she said, and he offered his arm.
    * * * * *
    Wulfric had been in no hurry all week to renew his interrupted conversation with Eleanor. Neither had she. It would be better to leave it, she had decided,
    until after the house party was over. But today, when almost everyone was settled on the west lawn enjoying the sunshine and the games and one another's
    company, he had suggested a stroll before leading her far enough from the company to ensure some uninterrupted conversation.
    "I believe your final word was
but
," he said and she looked at him and laughed. "You had finished making an impassioned protestation of love for
    your school and everything and everyone within its walls. You had assured me that what you do matters. And then came the
but
a mere moment before
    we were interrupted. One might call you the mistress of suspense."
    "Your memory is all too acute, Wulfric," she said.
    "Continue where you left off, if you please," he said. "There is a certain…sadness in you, Eleanor, that is of concern to Christine and therefore to
    me. What is it, my dear?"
    She looked sharply at him. Wulfric was not usually lavish with endearments. And was it true that Christine was concerned about her?
    "I fear I must disappoint you," she said. "I fear you will think me lacking in perseverance and a knowledge of what I want of life. I fear you will think
    me a failure."
    "And does my opinion matter to you?" he asked.
    She sighed. "And Mama's opinion and Hazel's and Charles's and Christine's too," she said. "But most of all yours because you have invested in me." Also
    because despite herself she was a little afraid of him, as she suspected all people were except her sister.
    "You had better tell me," he said.
    "All that I told you about my school and the teachers and the girls is true," she told him. "But…it was a mistake to take over so impulsively from
    Claudia when she married the Marquess of Attingsborough. There, I have said it. I do not enjoy the administration, the business, the responsibility,
    the…loneliness. And I have been so endlessly
tired
. And yes, unhappy. I made a mistake, but you believed in me and made it happen for me
    with your loan."
    Purchasing the school was not the only mistake she had made, she feared. She had botched the whole of her adult life since Gregory's death. She had prided
    herself upon being the one woman who would be steadfast in her grief over the loss of the love of her life. She had lived by that decision even after the
    rawness of grief had passed and even its gentler melancholy aftermath. Sometimes she had had to whip up her memories. Sometimes she had not thought of him
    for days, even perhaps weeks at a time. Sometimes she could not remember either his face or his voice. In the meanwhile she had lost her youth, her chance
    to find someone else for