Benjamin awoke long before dawn. Confirming the locket’s existence had only caused the hours to stretch out that much longer. This was his last day in Cressmouth. His last day with Noelle.

His appointment with her wasn’t for two more hours. He’d broken his fast, dashed off a handful of letters and responses, and was now far too restless to stay cooped up in his old bedchamber. A place he would be leaving behind for good this time.

Perhaps one last walk about the castle would put the strange sensation in his chest to rest.

He stepped out into the corridor just in time to glimpse his cousin Nicholas arriving at the landing.

Nicholas leaned against the balustrade and waited for Benjamin to approach.

“So that’s where they stuffed you,” Nicholas said. He gestured down the opposite corridor. “Mine’s that way. Stunning view from the mountaintop. Have you seen the horizon at dawn?”

Benjamin lifted his brows. “You are just getting back to the castle?”

“I’m just returning to my guest chamber,” Nicholas clarified with a wicked smile.

“‘Saint Nick,’” Benjamin muttered. “A rake to the core.”

Nicholas’s smile only widened. “It may be cold outside, but inside…”

“No wonder you’re enamored with Cressmouth,” Benjamin said.

“It has many, many charms,” Nicholas assured him. “I see why so many come here for distraction.”

“I don’t think ‘Christmas spirit’ means seducing pretty maidens,” Benjamin said dryly.

“I have never seduced a maiden,” Nicholas said, his expression hurt. “I allow myself to be seduced by those who aren’t maidenly in the least. They know exactly what they’re getting. That’s why they want me.”

Benjamin raised a brow. “One night to slake their lust?”

“Mutual slaking,” Nicholas agreed. “A rakish gentleman simply provides requested entertainment. A pleasurable evening for both parties without any promises or strings. Everybody wins.”

“Perhaps that’s true if no strings and no promises are indeed what both parties are after,” Benjamin agreed. “I should expect it gets complicated when one party wants more than the other.”

Nicholas shook his head. “That is the easiest situation to resolve. Stay away from those who want more than your body or more than one night.”

“Easy,” Benedict echoed. He had spent a lifetime doing just that. “But doesn’t it get… lonely?”

A dark shadow flickered across the blue of Nicholas’s eyes, and just as quickly it was gone. “It’s impossible to be lonely when there’s always someone new to meet.”

Benjamin stared at his cousin as if seeing a ghost. He had always considered Saint Nicholas his opposite in all things. It was disconcerting to have to revise that opinion.

Although the two lived unquestionably different lifestyles, the result was the same. Each morning, they woke up alone. There was no one there who had shared dreams and hurts, who had been by one’s side for months or years or decades. No one who could answer yes to remember the time when? No one whose touch was familiar, whose kiss felt like coming home.

Although Nicholas had chosen a different route, Benjamin now suspected they were both on the path to a very lonely future. If something didn’t change, his future Christmases would be as empty as all the rest. He frowned.

Wasn’t that what he wanted? He couldn’t get hurt if he didn’t open himself up to love.

Nick clapped him on the shoulder. “I’m off to my chamber. Where are you heading?”

“Menagerie,” Benjamin answered. “I want to visit a goat.”

“I’ve changed my mind. I’m coming with you,” Nicholas said immediately. “I had no idea there was a goat.”

When they entered the menagerie, a footman was keeping an eye over the invalid.

Benjamin hurried closer. “How’s Tiny Tim?”

“Tiny Tim?” Nicholas asked.

Benjamin gestured. “Pygmy goat.”

Nicholas nodded. “Right.”

“Much improved, Your Grace,” the footman said with obvious relief. “We are ever so grateful.”

“Grateful to Silkridge?” Nicholas asked. “Did you bring the castle a pygmy goat as some sort of Christmas gift?”

“I did not,” Benjamin replied. “I have made a personal resolution to deliver fewer goats as holiday gifts this season.”

“His Grace’s knowledge about the beast’s constitution brought Tiny Tim back from the brink of death,” the footman said proudly. “It was nothing short of a miracle.”

“Silkridge performed a Christmas miracle,” Nicholas repeated, his expression baffled. “You?”

“I may have relayed a few suggestions based on my research into caprine physiology due to the livestock present on my own properties,” Benjamin said humbly.

“And His Grace summoned his personal physician all the way from London,” the footman continued with pride.

Nicholas blinked slowly. “You summoned your personal physician for a goat?”

“It’s not just any goat,” said the footman. “It’s Tiny Tim.”

Nicholas stared at Benjamin in disbelief.

“Not my physician,” he explained. “A veterinarian.”

Slowly, Nicholas shook his head. “You’re a different man.”

Benjamin wondered if that were true. If he was capable of change.

If either of them was.

Just like his cousin, he had put walls up around his heart to keep others from getting in. Unlike his cousin, part of Benjamin now wished it didn’t have to be that way.

The opening ceremony for the aviary was in just a couple hours. This would be Benjamin’s last opportunity to spend time with Noelle before collecting his mother’s locket and putting Cressmouth behind him. A strange emptiness filled his chest. Leaving Noelle would be harder than ever. He pushed the thought away.

Just because he could not be here for her physically did not erase a sudden need to provide for her in his absence. He doubted she would agree. Noelle did not need Benjamin’s help to survive. She was smart and strong and independent. But to him, she was so much more than that. She had turned her entire town into a family. If he could give her anything at all, it would be more time to enjoy that family while she had it.

He left his cousin in the menagerie and made his way down to the temporary office the solicitor had set up in the castle in order to oversee and manage Grandfather’s last will and testament.

“Your Grace!” The solicitor leapt up from his chair. “How may I be of service?”

Benjamin took a seat across from the desk. “I would like to hire an assistant clerk for the counting house.”

The solicitor’s eyes widened. “You wish to replace Miss Pratchett?”

“No. I wish to hire an assistant for her,” Benjamin said. “She has taken on far more responsibility than her predecessors realized, and should not be worked to death. Miss Pratchett deserves recreational time with which to do as she pleases.”

“An assistant.” The solicitor shuffled through the papers on his desk. “I was one of Mr. Marlowe’s most trusted men of business, yet he left no notes about creating such a post. I will investigate to see if the budget—”

“I wish to hire,” Benjamin repeated. “I will also pay whatever salaries are required for the research and recruitment of potential employees. The appropriate individual must ease Miss Pratchett’s load, not create additional concerns.”

The solicitor nodded in comprehension. “Consider it done. I presume Your Grace wishes to have final say, once we have whittled down the options.”

“Miss Pratchett shall have the only say,” Benjamin said firmly. “She may hire as much help as she requires, at her complete and total discretion.”

The solicitor noted quickly. “Understood, Your Grace. I shall see to it immediately.”

Benjamin glanced at his pocket watch and rose to his feet. He did not wish to be late for his meeting with Noelle.

In his eagerness to see her, Benjamin strode into the greenhouse a full quarter hour before schedule.

She was there among the flowers on the other side of the vast conservatory, speaking to Miss Penelope Mitchell, the perfumer friend.

Benjamin did not care a fig about colognes, or the rows of spices for the kitchen, or the profusion of local and exotic flowers for the gardens. None of their fragrances or colors could compare to Noelle.

She was captivating. The morning light caught the sparkle in her eyes, the golden shine in her hair. Her happy, upturned face was so animated and enthusiastic he felt himself smiling from across the greenhouse without even hearing her words.

Noelle always had that effect on him. She caused him to smile when he didn’t mean to, when he couldn’t explain his exuberance even to himself. Being with her gave him such a profound sense of contentment it almost made him wonder if he’d ever truly been happy before he met her. Noelle was his greenhouse; his color, his light, his warmth. Even when winter raged out-of-doors, she made his soul feel like summertime.

He wished he could keep a ray of her sunlight with him for the rest of his days.

Although he had been careful not to make a sound, her head turned sharply as if she had sensed him watching her from afar. A wide smile spread across her face. His lips curved in an answering smile. He couldn’t help it. Her pull was as powerful as the sun.

He started walking toward her.

She bid good-day to her friend and hurried forward to greet him. They met in the middle of the greenhouse, surrounded by the scent of spring and a cornucopia of wild beauty.

If only he could stay here, or steal her away when he left. But he belonged to London and she to Cressmouth. More insurmountable, she was an orphan and he was a duke. Homes could be changed, but heritage could not. Society’s position on the matter was clear.

Not that Benjamin was in the market for a wife, he reminded himself. Soon enough, he’d be too busy with Parliament to have time for distractions of any kind. This was his last one.

“Did you solve your friend’s problems?” he asked gruffly.

She grinned up at him, brown eyes sparkling behind gold-rimmed spectacles. “I am arranging an event to celebrate her latest success.”

“Complete with an enormous bellows to spray the entire crowd?” He gave a little shudder.

“Not this time,” she said with a laugh. “Customers must make do with glass vials.”

“I am certain the event will be a success,” he said in seriousness. “With your eye for detail, I’ve no doubt you are a phenomenal hostess no matter what the event.”

“It’s a calling,” she said with a grin. “There’s nothing I cannot organize.”

He stared at her in silence for a moment. She would make a phenomenal hostess. The sort that might make an equally phenomenal duchess. If such were an option.

“Would you ever leave Cressmouth?” he asked suddenly.

“Leave?” Her eyes widened with obvious alarm. “Why would I wish to?”

“What if it wasn’t a permanent change?” he pressed. “Would you not even go on holiday somewhere, once in a while?”

She shook her head. “I wouldn’t like to be far away. Cressmouth has everything I need.”

“It cannot compete with London,” he said a bit more defensively than he intended.

London was where his mother and father had lived. The now-empty Silkridge residence contained the few happy family memories he’d ever had. It was the only place that had ever felt like home.

“London?” she stammered with the same level of terror as if he had said snake pit. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable. Everything I’ve ever heard makes it sound like the opposite of Cressmouth. It’s so big, so far away, so overwhelming…”

He could not fault her there. The city was indeed the opposite in many ways. Some of its characteristics negative, some of them marvelous. But his question had been answered, and the answer was no. His home would make her miserable. He would much rather keep her happy.

“How about you?” she asked. “Will you return to holiday in Cressmouth someday?”

Return to a place that contained her, only to have to leave her behind over and over again? A village that symbolized everything he could not have, now more than ever? He would not survive such a nightmare.

“I’m afraid not,” he said quietly.

Noelle bit her lip as if swallowing words she wanted to say. She cast her gaze downward.

“What is it?” he demanded.

With a sigh, she lifted her eyes to his. “I know why you’re leaving this time. You’re a duke. You have a duty to Parliament.”

He gave a curt nod.

Her next words were a whisper. “Why did you leave last time?”

“Because I wanted to stay.” The hoarse admission wrested from his throat.

Her eyes widened. “You wanted to stay… with me?”

Before he spilled any more unintended confessions, he pulled her close and slanted his mouth over hers.

She yielded to him immediately, grasping his shoulders as though she feared he would pull away.

He never wished to stop. This was what he needed. The woman he missed every minute they were apart.

He had left her before due to the same sensation she instilled in his heart even now: fear. Fear that if he let himself be vulnerable again, he still couldn’t keep her. It was not a risk he wished to take. Not a heartbreak he wished to live through. Yet each kiss only made him want to claim more than her mouth. He wanted to taste her skin, to know her body, to meld as one.

If a single kiss could make him feel as if their souls had cleaved together, how much harder would it be to bear a lifetime without her if he risked sharing more than that?

“The eagle can fly over a hundred miles to be with its mate,” mused a female voice right behind them.

Benjamin ripped his mouth from Noelle’s and tried to calm his galloping heart. The avian expert had arrived.

“Virginia,” Noelle said, her cheeks flushed and her voice breathless. “You’re early.”

“I’m half an hour late.” Without demanding further explanation, Miss Underwood turned abruptly and began striding away. “This way to the partridge.”

He offered her his arm, so they could hurry after her retreating friend.

Noelle gave him a shy smile that melted his heart.

“Come along,” Miss Underwood called. “I’ve installed the partridge in the closest outbuilding in order to give you the honor of carrying him into the aviary.”

He slanted a startled glance toward Noelle.

“That means you,” she said quickly. “I seek no honor.”

Benjamin gazed down at her. He had never met anyone more honorable.

Regardless of how she might have felt in the beginning, she was not helping him now because she wished to be rid of him, but rather despite the fact that she did not. His spirits sank.

He had never been less enthusiastic about getting his way.