Page 49 of The Last Casterglass
“I’m sure you can get other people to manage them.”
“But you love woodworking, Seph.” Althea’s gaze narrowed. “Don’t you? Or is that something else I’ve got the wrong end of the stick about?”
Seph managed a small laugh. “No, I do love woodworking, and who knows, maybe one day I’ll come back to Casterglass and take it up again. Or do it somewhere else, if the mood takes me.” She shrugged, savouring all the possibilities, even as they scared her a little. “You, Olivia, and Sam all got the chance to go somewhere else, be someone else—at boarding school, at university, as an adult. I never did.”
Althea frowned. “I thought that was your choice.”
“Sometimes it was, and sometimes it wasn’t.” Seph doodled a bit on her form, her gaze lowered. “I felt trapped here, trapped by my own inexperience and lack of confidence,” she confessed quietly. “But that’s changing.”
“Because of Oliver?” Althea guessed shrewdly, and Seph looked up with a smile.
“He certainly has had something to do with it.”
Althea let out a sigh and then straightened her shoulders. “Well, I’m glad, for your sake. For both your sakes. I had no idea… I always assumed you as cosy as a pea in a pod here.” There was an uncharacteristic note of uncertainty in her sister’s voice, a lilting apology. They’d all assumed that, Seph knew. Perhaps it had been easier for them. And, she acknowledged, perhaps it had been easier for her.
“Sometimes I was,” she told Althea. She’d learned enough about herself to realise living at Casterglass hadn’t been all bad, as she might once have thought it was. She’d relished the freedom here, and she’d learned how to be strong. It was just that now she was ready to try something new.
“Okay, well…” Althea shook her head slowly. “I’m happy for you, I guess. I mean, I must admit, I’d rather you stayed here, but that’s just me being selfish. You need to do what’s best for you, and if leaving is that, if you’re sure, then…I want that for you.”
“Thank you,” Seph said quietly. She knew it cost her sister something to admit as much.
“When…when will you go?”
Seph’s heart lurched a little at the thought of actually leaving Casterglass. It had all felt like a pie-in-the-sky possibility, until she’d actually told someone about it. “I don’t know. There’s no rush. I’m still thinking, and I suppose I need to see what happens with Oliver.”
“He’s crazy about you, you know.”
Seph blushed, unable to keep a sloppy smile from spreading over her face. “We’ll see.”
“He is, Seph. You’ve got a good one there.”
Seph could only nod. Yes, she knew she had a good one in Oliver, of that she was absolutely certain. But if neither of them seemed ready or willing to talk about the future, how long would it last?
*
Oliver gazed downat the text from his uncle, reading it for the sixth time.How about this weekend for a visit? We need to talk.
His stomach roiled unpleasantly. So, this was it. His uncle must be about to sell Pembury Farm. Oliver had known it was coming, deep down, and yet he’d still hoped. Dreamed, although tangled up in those hazy visions of him as master of Pembury was being with Seph. How would those two go together? Well, now he wouldn’t have to wonder or worry. They wouldn’t.
With a sigh he slid his phone back into his pocket and stared unseeingly out the window of the little office where Althea had him updating the castle’s website. Over the last two months he’d become part of Casterglass, and yet it still wasn’t home. It wasn’t Pembury.
But maybe Pembury wasn’t home any longer, either.
In any case, he decided as he squared his shoulders, this would make it easier to move on. If Pembury was no longer an option, then he’d have to do something else. He had no idea what, but he’d think of something. He knew Althea’s job offer was still open, but he sensed that Seph didn’t want him beholden to Casterglass in the same way she had been. She wanted to move on, but the question was, did she want to be with him? And if so, where?
The last few weeks had been wonderful, but their relationship still felt too new to start having those kinds of deep, forever kinds of discussions, even if Oliver felt like he was ready. He knew what he wanted: Seph, at Casterglass or wherever else took her fancy. But not, he feared, at Pembury.
It was just as well, he reminded himself. Seph didn’t want to be tied to a place, whether it was CasterglassorPembury. At least now they would both be free. And yet he ached to show her the place he loved above all else, the only home he’d ever known.
An idea took hold, rooted down. Could he…Would she?
There was only one way to find out.
Taking a deep breath, Oliver rose from his seat and went to find Seph.
She wasn’t in her workshop as she usually was, and the rooms of the castle’s addition where most people hung out—kitchen, sitting room, bedrooms—were empty, at least of Seph.
“Looking for Persephone?” Violet said as she brewed a revolting-smelling cup of herbal tea in the kitchen. “I believe she went out to the walled garden. She seemed quite…thoughtful.” Violet cocked her head, her gaze sweeping over Oliver, and with a murmured thanks he hurried out the door, wanting to avoid one of Violet’s oddly perceptive pronouncements.