The overseer was chewing on a hayseed and gave Sunny a questioning look.“Why areye helping, Yer Grace?I’ve never known a toff to get their hands dirty before.”
“My friend told me that land isn’t truly yours until you’ve worked it,” Sunny said, setting down another stack of tiles.The previous stack had already been taken and put in its place on the roof.He climbed back down the ladder.
“Yer a good man, Yer Grace,” the overseer said with a half smile, “but a terrible duke.”
The workers all guffawed, and Sunny laughed with them.
* * *
By the timeSunny walked home that evening, he could barely stay upright on his two legs.Every muscle in his body screamed in agony.He had gained a newfound respect for all members of the lower classes who toiled physically every day.He’d nearly reached the back door of Sunderland House when he heard footsteps on the gravel.
“If you lose any more weight, no one will be able to see you from the side,” his mother said, stepping out of the shadows like a black ghoul.
Sunny had lost a stone around his belly and gained a great deal of muscle in his shoulders and arms that made his coats very tight, more than was even fashionable.He was anything but fashionable now.His work smock was dirty and smelly, and he was dog-tired.He wanted nothing more than to sink into a hot bath in his copper tub and let the water soothe his aching body.
“So kind of you to visit the house for the first time in three weeks, Mother,” he said sardonically, sweeping her an exaggerated bow.“Is there something that you need?”
She took a few steps closer, and Sunny wished that she hadn’t.He could smell himself, and he really did not want his mother to be able to sniff him, too.“Surely a mother can visit her son without wanting something.”
Other mothers, perhaps, but not Sunny’s mama.“I have personally seen that the leak in the dower house kitchen roof was repaired, and the trees close to the house were trimmed to your written specifications.I would be happy to receive any further requests by letter or in person after I’ve taken a bath.”
His mother pulled a white envelope out of her black dress.“This invitation wrongfully came to the dower house.I thought perhaps that you would want it.You always preferred the Stringham family to your own.”
He wanted to retort that the Stringham family had shown him love and affection, something lacking in his own family, but he held his tongue.Harsh words never helped anyone.Sunny didn’t want to take the pristine paper envelope into his dirty hands, but he had to know what was inside.The seal was already broken, and he unfolded the letter to see that it was an invitation to Becca’s wedding at Hampford Castle in a little more than a fortnight.He’d be able to see Mantheria again.His mouth couldn’t help but form a smile.
“I thought you said that she wouldn’t have you.The duchess said that you were irresponsible and raffish.”
As always, his mother’s words cut deep.“Yes, Lady Glastonbury did refuse my proposal of marriage.”
Lifting her veil, Sunny saw his mother’s face for the first time that year.There were more wrinkles around her eyes and mouth.Her hair was becoming more gray than brown.“I didn’t say yes to your father until the third time that he asked me to marry him.”
Despite making mourning encompass her entire life, his mother rarely spoke about his late father.Sunny blinked in surprise.“I didn’t know that.Why did he have to ask you three times?”
“Your father was a notorious rake, and he said that he would change for me.But I wanted to make sure that he meant it.And he did.He gave up his rakish ways for six months, and then we were married.”
He rubbed his forehead with his dirty fingers.“Uncle Simon said Father was always a never-do-well, even after his marriage.”
“Pish posh and nonsense,” his mother snapped.“Your uncle Simon was always spiteful and jealous of your father’s popularity in society, which only grew after our marriage.The only thing that thetonlikes more than a rake is a reformed one.And your father doted upon me ...and you.He was so proud of his son and heir.He would tell anyone who would listen all about the funny little things that you said and how you climbed up on everything.He was constantly lifting you off the furniture.He was so afraid that you would fall and hurt yourself.”
Sunny wished that he could remember anything about his father.Even his face.But the image in his mind was suspiciously like the portrait of his parents after their wedding.When he had thought of his father, he’d always assumed that his father had been a bad parent.Or at the very least, uninterested in his offspring.But the picture that his mother painted with her words was much different.Sunny had once had a proud father.A parent who actually enjoyed spending time in his company, unlike his mother.
He wanted desperately to believe his mother’s version of the story over his Uncle Simon’s much less-flattering one, but there were still the facts.His father had left him with staggering debts, and he had died during a drunken ride.“What of the mortgages?”
Sighing, his mother shrugged her shoulders.“Your father was no paragon.He had flaws just like any other man.He gambled a bit too much and invested poorly, but there was no malice in his soul.No meanness.And perhaps he was a little too fond of his drink, but no one is perfect, Alphonse.Not even your beloved Stringhams.But I loved him, not despite his flaws but because of them.I loved every bit of him, and it felt like part of me died with him that day.”
Sunny remained silent.This was the longest conversation that he and his mother had ever shared.And despite over thirty years of resentment, he did feel sympathetic toward her.His mother had lost the love of her life.How could she have possibly ever been the same afterward?Would he be the same person if Mantheria never accepted his courtship or if she were to die?He hoped that he wouldn’t shroud himself in black and remove himself from the world as his mother had.But how could he know for certain?
But he had learned something for certain from this conversation with his mother.His father had not been a wastrel; instead, he’d been a wonderful husband and father.Sunny need not fear any longer that he would not be able to fulfill these roles.Like his father before him, he could become the sort of husband and stepfather that Mantheria and Andrew needed.He could change and improve, and he didn’t have to be a perfect man before he married.Just a caring one.
“I wish that I remembered more about Father,” Sunny said in a low voice.
“When I was here in the main house, I thought that I could still feel him with me.”
Then Sunny had forced her to move to the dower house.Guilt covered his body like a cold sweat.“I didn’t know, Mother.If you would like to come back and live in the main house, you are welcome to, but not in the mistress’s rooms.I am hoping they’ll be occupied by another very soon.But I should not have tried to push you out of your own home and mourning.”
She held up one hand encased in a black lace glove.“Surprisingly, I have found that I quite like the dower house.Your steward did an excellent job of the repairs and refurbishment after the tenants left, and I have not lived in such comfort in years, by my own choice.I held on so tightly to the past, and the world passed me by.Don’t let the same thing happen to you, Alphonse.Ask your reluctant duchess to marry you as many times as you need to until she says yes.You deserve such happiness.”
He moved toward her but stopped short, remembering his pungent smell.“So do you, Mother.”