Something Old by Rebecca Connolly (autobiographies to read txt) 📕

and facts, examined maps and charts, spoken with experts in mining and businessmen who managed mines. He’d done absolutely everything in his power to become as educated as possible with regard to the mines he was investing so much in.

But he’d had enough of talking and education. He wanted to see the place and feel its energy. He wanted to meet the men risking their lives in her depths on a daily basis. He wanted to feel the weight of a pickaxe in his own hands, though he would likely never be permitted to work the mine even for a moment. He wanted to feel connected to the place, not just invested in it. Having Lily at his side while he did so would only make the thing more perfect.

When he’d woken that morning, he’d been entirely convinced that he’d dreamed their garden interlude the night before. His wife admitting she loved him, he confessing his love for her, embracing one another and exchanging kisses long overdue… The extraordinary emotion that had been shared between them after so many years of silence…

It did not seem real upon reflection in the light of day. Could not be.

Yet when Lily came down to breakfast, she had smiled shyly, her eyes bright, her cheeks holding just enough color to give him hope. Hope that the scene was real, not imagined. Hope that she remembered it. Hope that she held to it. Hope that she, too, wanted it.

He could have kissed her then, if for no other reason than to remind them both of its reality, but he did not. Instead, he’d only smiled with the genuine adoration he’d felt and not the polite mask he had worn for years. He would not wear a mask anymore with her. Not ever.

There had been no helping the delight he’d felt when she’d suggested they take horses to the mine rather than a coach, and their racing to the mine now was a welcome exhilaration from recent formalities required of them. He couldn’t remember the last time they had ridden together, and Lily’s laughter behind him warmed something within him he hadn’t known was chilled.

And she was a marvelous rider. He’d forgotten all about that.

The pumping engine house of Wheal Venton came into better view around a hill, and Thomas slowed his horse just a touch to avoid riding into the area like a madman. First impressions were important, after all.

“What, are you giving up?” Lily asked as she pulled up beside him. “And just when I was about to catch you entirely.”

He laughed and glanced over at her, struck by the stunning picture she presented. Her dark hair had grown loose in its plaited hold, locks streaming free of their restraints, giving her a strikingly youthful appearance despite never having aged in his mind or his sight. She was a vision of wild beauty, rosy-cheeked and bright beyond the sun, smiling freely without care.

This was the Lily of his heart, and he’d missed her so.

“Not giving up,” he assured her with a smile. “Postponing the outcome. I thought it might suit to try for a little more decorum than a mad horserace as we neared the mine. Given I am looking to be primary shareholder.”

“Oh, I suppose,” Lily said with a sigh but smiling all the same. “But only for a moment. We don’t look the proper part, do we? Your hair would appear to be styled by the wind, so I can only imagine how mine must look.”

“You look beautiful,” Thomas insisted. He took in a breath and released it roughly. “Far too beautiful, given we are heading into a vast group of men who may have never seen anything so lovely, and I cannot imagine the disappointment they will endure when they discover you are married.”

Lily laughed merrily, tossing her head back and exposing her majestic throat to the elements in a motion that cinched Thomas’s stomach in a way no vice could have ever done. “Yes, those poor, poor souls,” she replied, laughter rampant in her tone. “So disheartened to discover that I am yours. However will they cope?”

Her words touched him as they rode side by side, rang through his head as he watched her.

I am yours.

There was something so simple and so profound about that. Something beyond words or description that sunk deep into his soul.

If she was his, then by heaven and earth, he was hers. Eternally and forever hers.

And happy to be so.

“Now,” Lily went on as they trotted toward the mine, “I know nothing of mining or mines in general, apart from the dangers inherent in them. Should I say anything or say nothing? What are we expecting out of this visit?”

Thomas smiled at that. “I’m not entirely sure myself. I think we may simply be ourselves, come to think. We’re coming to take a look at the mine because we’ve taken more of an interest in its business. I’d rather enjoy going down into the mine itself, if they’ll let me.”

“Oh, so would I, if it would not perturb anyone to have a woman in there.”

He jerked in surprise, his eyes widening. “You would?”

“Oh, yes.” Lily nodded with an eagerness that fit her present image well. “All I’ve seen of Cornwall is the moors and flowers, which are so very stirring, but when Cornwall is such a place of industry down to its core, especially within its people, it would behoove me to respect that.”

“Astonishing,” Thomas murmured, smiling without meaning to and slowing his horse. “Simply astonishing.”

Lily gave him a bemused look and matched his new pace. “What is?”

“You,” he said simply. He shook his head, his smile growing. “You, sweetheart, are astonishing.”

His wife smiled in return, eclipsing the beauty he’d seen only moments before, and nudging her horse closer to his, reached out a hand to him.

He took it, removed the glove she wore, and kissed each one of her knuckles gently.

Lily shivered in her saddle, the sensation rippling through her fingers and against his lips.