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Growing closer, he noticed that a blanket was laid out. Sophia noticed him first and waved, but her gentle greeting was quickly overwhelmed by the others. Teddy and Emily rushed up to him and grabbed a hand each, dragging him to the blanket. Duke bounded around him, sensing the children’s excitement and wanting to be a part of it. Oliver was already making him a plate of food. Clara turned softly, a hesitant smile upon her face.

When he looked at her, he couldn’t help but think of the moment in the maze when she had been so close to him, when his fingers brushed against her cheek, and he had been lost in her eyes more desperately than he had been lost in the maze.

“You’ve come just in time for the picnic!” Oliver exclaimed.

“There isn’t much left. The children have seen to that, but you’re welcome to join us,” Clara said.

“I’d be happy to,” Gerald replied, sinking to the ground near Clara. Duke came up to him and started licking his cheeks. The children found this incredibly funny. Even Clara was chuckling. They soon started running about again, none of them able to stay still for very long.

“I don’t know which of them has more energy.”

“They all bring out the best in each other, or the worst, depending on your point of view,” Clara said with a wry smile.

“Will you come and pick wild berries with us?” Emily asked, her gaze darting between Gerald and Clara. They shared a glance. Clara quickly reminded them which berries were safe to eat and which ones should be avoided.

“And don’t let Duke eat any of them. He’ll get very poorly if he does,” Clara said.

The children nodded dutifully and raced off to the thick woodland area that stood at the base of the property. Sophia carried the now-empty picnic basket, and the others started to pluck berries from the bushes. They sang as they went along, Emily boasting that her height would allow her to pick the most berries.

However, Oliver was an industrious boy, and he didn’t mind suffering a few scratches in search of the berries. While Emily reached higher, Oliver reached deeper than all of them and found the most abundant clusters of ripe and juicy berries, much to Emily’s dismay.

Gerald and Clara walked behind them for a while until they reached an old oak tree. Its roots emerged from the ground in certain places, and the long branches offered shade from the sun. Clara smoothed her dress beneath her legs and perched upon a thick root. Gerald did the same.

“They’ll be racing around these woods for hours. I don’t think there’s any need to chase after them for the moment,” Clara said.

The laughter, rustling, and yapping became a distant sound.

“I’m not sure I can recall the last time I had nothing important to do on an afternoon.”

“Have you ever allowed yourself one?”

“I don’t believe I know how. When I’m at rest I feel guilty. As though I should be making better use of my time.”

“Sometimes resting is the best thing to do. We all need moments to reflect and compose ourselves. If we are constantly in motion, then we never have time to appreciate our surroundings.”

“You are quite right, of course, yet it is one thing to know this, and another to understand it. I have been this way for so long that it has become a habit.”

“Habits can be unlearned, even though it can be difficult.”

“I’m not sure I want to unlearn it. If I have too many afternoons like this, I don’t know what I’d do with myself.”

Clara laughed softly and placed her hand along the root, moving her fingers along the gnarled wood.

“The point is that you don’t have to do anything. You can simply be. It is no bad thing to be alone with our thoughts,” Clara said.

Gerald nodded sagely.

“Unless our thoughts are troubled,” he murmured, and immediately wished they hadn’t slipped between his lips.

“Are yours?” she asked, because of course she did. Clara never wasted an opportunity to test him, but he was not inclined to share his thoughts on this occasion. Instead, he decided to change the subject.

“Did you always see yourself spending your life at St. Margaret’s?”

“Not always, but when I learned the importance of it I decided that I was in the best position to help Grandmother. My aunts were willing, but they all have children of their own. Beatrice is not yet old enough to realize that things like this are important. It helped distract me from the ton.”

“Ah yes, because a lord of high rank did not come and sweep you off your feet,” Gerald said, intending to tease her, although it seemed to have the opposite effect. Clara drew her hand back to her lap and looked down, a serious expression coming upon her face.

“I never wanted a grand title. I never even wanted a large estate. All I wanted was a family to call my own. You may find this silly, but when I grew up there were so many children being born. I held them all, watched over them all, cared for them all, but the thing that struck me most was that I always had to hand them back. I loved them dearly, but they were never mine and I just wondered, for once, what it would be like to hold a child that I did not have to return to someone else.”