Chapter 50

"Please stop here." She exclaimed when the familiar road to home appeared in a distance. Her house was still a hundred meters meters away, but she didn't want to be seen descending from a fancy coach by anyone. The carriage drew to a halt, a moment later, the door opened and the servant appeared.

"Be careful, Miss." he said politely as he helped her climb down the coach. The servant looked at the row of cottages a distance away.

"Do you need me to escort you home, Miss?"

She was just about to refuse his offer, when a sudden thought occurred to her.

"That's very kind of you, Freddy, it's your name? Isn't it?"

"Yes, Miss."

Freddy followed behind her as they walked along the path.

"How long have you worked for His Grace, Freddy?" she asked casually.

"This is my fifth year, Miss."

"I see that he treats you well, then."

"Oh, aye, Miss. He is strict to the rules but he is quite fair, and he pays me a handsome salary." Freddy grinned.

"Good for you."

With a quick yet thorough observation,

she concluded that Freddy was childlike and guileless. She asked several questions, keeping her pace slow, before venturing further.

"Is it your usual job, Freddy, to deliver his woman acquaintance home?" she kept her tone neutral.

"No, actually I was quite taken aback, Miss. His Grace has never had a woman acquaintance before." Freddy blurted ingeniously.

"Really?"

"Yes, the servants speculated about it for a long time, but he had never been seen with a woman, except for Lady Selene recently."

She felt an irrational relief.

"I helped him to finish an art project." she explained herself to Freddy.

"Of course, Miss."

They didn't talk again after that until she reached home. She thanked Freddy for his kind help and they exchanged polite farewell. Soon after she entered the house, she locked herself in her bedroom and sank into the bed. She had wasted this day be anxious about nothing. She had suspected him as a scoundrel, she had mistaken his intention to her, and it was all because of the shameless liar, Amanda Chapman. How could she believe her in the first place? Lady Byrne had mentioned dozens of times Amanda was a horrible liar. Now that she thought about it, she realized how blind she was. Now that everything was over, she realized that Amanda's story was a lot of damn nonsense. Why didn't she believe the lady? The lady was her friend and she never lied. Like the lady said, he was an incredible moral man.

But it didn't matter now, because she would never see him again. And for some irrational reason, she felt gloomy about that.

*****

"It seems to be over right now, but actually it has just begun."

A familiar voice came from behind her as she was picking tomatoes absentmindedly in the market. She turned to find Madam Nora standing there, staring at her.

"Good morning, Madam... Nice to see you again." She managed to say. She didn't expect to meet the fortune teller here. The Gypsy woman didn't return her greeting, she watched her silently for a while, then she said.

"I see that it's coming, and what is coming is better than what is gone."

"What is possibly coming?"

"The one that you belong to. He is a man who will put you first and give everything he has to be with you."

Ava didn't think that the madam's words made any sense, but she smiled and replied with a friendly tone.

"I don't know what you mean, I don't think there is a man like you just said in my life now. Even if he does exists, I don't think that I know him."

"Oh you knew him, you always knew."

The madam narrowed her eyes in a way that made the hair in her nape rise. Really, it could be creepy sometimes.

"I doubt it, Madam, because I can hardly think of a name right now."

"Only your heart can answer it. He is the man your heart most desires."

For some reason, images of him began to play through her mind. Quite taken aback by the first thing floating to her brain, she terminated the flashing memories abruptly. She shouldn't think about him, she should think about... Magnus, how could she forget about him? He was the man her heart most desired. How could she think about the duke instead, in the first place?

She tried to calm herself from the little shock and replied.

"I wish I got a clue."

The madam smiled mysteriously.

"You don't have to say a word, but he knows just what you want. He will see that you have anything you wish."

"How could it be possible?"

She made a polite excuse to go and fled away, leaving the market. She almost darted in the corner of the street, to the path led to the studio. She felt strange, like she had walked the path for all her life and suddenly she had to change it. Suddenly returned to the old routine felt unnatural, felt not right. Just a week, and everything changed. A week that supposed to be agonizing, yet it turned to be wonderful. She would remember this period of time.

As she left the crowded street and walked along a quiet road to the bridge in the end of it, she felt alone and bereft. She was recalling the scenery she used to see on her way to his place, the cottages she used to pass, the hedgerows she used to walk by, when she reached the bridge. Suddenly a sight in a distance caught her eye. She froze on her feet, unable to move or breathe, her heart drumming in a frantic beat.

The duke was standing across the bridge, looking as stunned by the sight of her as she felt at his presence. When she just stood still and stared at him without a word, he walked toward her.

"You'll be surprised."