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“A mushroom?”
“Uncle Charles told me that mushrooms grow on decaying things.”
Of course he did. “Ah, I see.” Rose was right. She was a delightful child, if not a little overly imaginative.
Anna was laughing behind her hand.
“I know you do not know me yet, but I need to ask you for a favor.”
“A favor?”
“I wondered if you would help me plan a surprise proposal for Rose.”
Max looked at Anna. “What is a proposal?”
“It is when the gentleman asks the lady to marry him,” Anna explained.
“That is only if you would like to. I was hoping it would allow us to get to know each other a bit more. I want to know everything about you.”
Max looked at Anna again as if she did not quite believe him. “You do not have to, dearest,” Anna said. “The duke understands that you do not know him and may feel that it is too much to ask.”
“I will consider it. Is it like a party?”
“Not really. It is more about finding the perfect place. Somewhere romantic and pretty. I have not been here for so many years. I would have no idea where the best place would be.”
She looked as though she was considering it carefully, tapping her chin with her finger. “Would you like to see Cordelia?”
The change in subject was jarring and a little disappointing, but he nodded. “And, if you like, you can see my horse.”
Max nodded and rose from the sofa, reaching her hand out to him. Edward looked at Anna, who was wiping tears from her eyes. She nodded, and so he took Max’s small hand in his and let her lead the way. He was quite overwhelmed by the seemingly forgiving nature of this child, although he knew he had a long way to go before she truly trusted him.
But as they walked towards the stables hand in hand, a calm came over him. This felt right. He had done the right thing by coming here. The groom was still brushing his horse down when they arrived.
“What is his name?” she asked, stroking the large gray horse on the nose.
“He does not have a name.” He did have a name, but it was his pedigree name, and he doubted that Max would understand.
“Everyone needs a name.” She studied the horse for a moment. “Storm. You should call him Storm.”
“I should? Why?”
“Because his dappled gray coat looks like storm clouds, silly.”
Her laughter at his evident ignorance in the naming of horses made him laugh too. He had never in his life been called silly. “Then I suppose I had better call him Storm from now on. Lead on to Lady Cordelia.”
Max took him by the hand again and led him down a few stalls. There amongst the hay was the fattest Shetland pony Edward had ever seen. “She is lovely.”
“She is fat. The groom at home wants me to stop feeding her so many apples, but they are her favorite.” She hugged the pony’s neck, and Cordelia nickered. “We go on all sorts of adventures together. Cordelia is my best friend. She always listens to all my worries.”
He felt sad that her best friend was a horse and not another child, but of course there were usually no other children at Ashtonvale. Edward patted Cordelia. He had done wrong by Max in so many ways. How would he ever make it up to her?
“Worries about me?”
“Sometimes. Aunt Marianne and Grandmama argue a lot about you. I know I should not listen in, but sometimes they are quite loud about it. They called you stubborn and inconsiderate and idiotic.”
Well, that was putting him back in his place, and he could not even defend himself because he had been all those things and more. “I hope they will no longer need to argue about me. I promise you, Max, that I will never leave you again.”
“What about if you need to go to London to visit the queen?”
