Mercifully, a knock on the door interrupted that thought.
“I apologise for the intrusion, Your Grace, but the parcel you have been waiting for has arrived,” the butler informed him.
“Thank you, Baker, you may leave it in the library.”
He desperately wanted to immediately go open the parcel and gift its contents to their intended recipient, but his mornings had become an exercise in restraint – they were spent testing how long he would be able to remain inside his study, pretending to deal with matters of the estate, before he managed to find some ridiculously weak excuse to set off in search of his wife?
Yesterday, he claimed he couldn’t wait for his meeting with Edward and needed someone trustworthy to immediately go over some calculations in the grains ledger. Thanks to that excuse, he was able to have her with him for the next two hours and could freely enjoy glancing at her as she intently worked on the calculations.
She was awfully clever, his wife. And witty. And interesting. Whenever he found her in Lady Burnham’s company, the older woman smiled knowingly at what she most likely considered calf love and for some inexplicable reason, he wasn’t vexed by it.
He genuinely liked Lady Burnham, and not only because of her sincere affection for his wife. They had dinner with her every night, with Edward and his wife joining them twice a week, and by now, they had spoken about many different topics and issues as they dined, and Talbot found himself not only respecting theolder woman’s opinions but also caring about what she had to say.
He half-heartedly returned his gaze to Pratt’s letter, which detailed the latest news from their London circles – who lost big at White’s, who made an enviable purchase at Tattersall’s, who made a clever or unlikely match. News like this would have, at one time, been the highlight of Talbot’s day, and he’d eagerly await a letter from the city whenever he’d stayed at Norwich in the past. He was surprised to realise that he hardly gave any thought to his usual circles and pastimes these days.
I am still the same man,he told himself,I am simply occupied by different matters at present.
He remembered the bitter resentment and sense of abandonment he’d felt when his former friend Nicholas had “turned his back” on all of them after his marriage, and he begrudgingly admitted to himself that he might have misinterpreted his friend’s behaviour as an insult to himself when it had been anything but.
He had been unable to see it then, but he knew now – sometimes, things happened, things so grand and large and consuming and overwhelming that they commandeered all of one’s attention. Hopefully, that feeling would burn itself out at some point.Like getting over a bout of influenza,he mused, before getting up to go inform his wife of the contents of Pratt’s letter.
*
By now, retiring to the library after dinner had become part of the couple’s routine, and it was something Colin found himself looking forward to. It felt like unbuttoning one’s waistcoat aftera long and tedious day.How had I ever enjoyed solitude?he wondered.
“Shall we continue readingThe Antiquarytonight?” she asked him, affecting a casual air, when he knew very well she was absolutely taken with the love story between the side characters.
“As my wife wishes,” he bowed dramatically, and she laughed merrily.
Colin felt like the most accomplished man in the entire world whenever he elicited such reactions from Lizzie.
“Before we start, however, I have something to give you,” he said as he unwrapped the parcel Baker had left in the library earlier.
“What is it?” She asked warily.
“Hold out your left hand.”
When she did, he slid the signet ring on her smallest finger. Elizabeth held her hand up to peer at it.
“It is lovely! Is this a crest?” She squinted at the ring as if to make out the details.
“Yes, it is the Talbot family coat of arms. Do you see the two lions holding the shield below the ducal crest?” Elizabeth nodded. “It is a signet ring, you can use it to seal the wax on official correspondence,” he explained.
His wife stared at him wordlessly at first. She then looked back at the ring.
“This is very thoughtful of you. Thank you,” she said in a quiet voice.
Talbot took both of her hands and kissed both her wedding ring and her signet ring. She looked at him with (he felt) warmth and affection in her eyes.
“You are very welcome. Now, there is another item here for you.”
“Another gift?” Lizzie asked, incredulous.
“More of a… replacement item,” Talbot said with a flair of his hand as he handed her the second gift.
The pouch had the wordsRundell & Bridgeembroidered on it.
“Is this a… thimble?” Elizabeth asked tentatively as she felt the object inside the drawstring pouch.
