A Thorne Among The Roses

Epilogue

Elizabeth called on Lord Byron, she hadn't seen him for a couple of weeks since his last ball and wanted to check on the injury he sustained that prevented him from travelling for the hunt. She felt it was her duty as they would soon be married, although she realised now, she felt no affection for him. When she remembered the balls Byron had thrown in her honour, her most persistent memory of those nights, by far, was meeting Thomas, dancing with him. He was a better dancer than Byron,more attentive, there was a gentleness in Thomas that bordered on reverence. When she was with Byron she felt as though he tolerated her, marrying her was his duty, not what his heart called for.

She was lost in her memories and started when the door suddenly opened, revealing a surprised butler, of all the people he expected to be on the doorstep today, miss Elizabeth was not one of them. It was a moment before he regained his composure, remembered his station, bowed low and invited her inside.

"I am afraid mistress has called at an unfortunate time, the master of the house is not  present at the moment."

"Not present?" Elizabeth repeated back.

"I am afraid not mistress, he left not long ago with the horses..." He had hoped this would be the end of the matter and Elizabeth would take the hint and leave, unfortunately Elizabeth was much more persistent. "Where,pray tell, has he gone?"

The butler fought to stifle a sigh before he replied, "I am afraid I do not know mistress, he is not usually gone riding longer than a few hours, but I was not informed of when he will return, having received no specific instructions from the master himself."

Elizabeth was disappointed, but also partly relieved at not having to talk with Byron, she was however, hot and thirsty from her ride. "Very well,if I may impose on your hospitality a while, the ride over here was hot and I would require a drink of water before I can continue on my journey."

"Of course mistress,please..." The butler led her into the drawing room and instructed her to make herself comfortable and take as long as she needed in the comfort of the house, while he fetched a drink from the kitchens. Elizabeth thanked him and cast a curious glance around the room,taking the opportunity to learn of Byron's tastes and the objects he surrounded himself with, while she was unobserved. You could learn a lot from a man by how he chose to decorate his drawing room, and the correspondence he left on a side table. Elizabeth's gaze fell on the letter lying conspicuous on the table, it had clearly been balled tightly and smoothed out again, her conscious could not dissuade her from sweeping across the room and picking it up to read. She wondered who had been writing to Byron that would cause him to crumple the letter, but also keep it.

Her question was answered immediately although it was much worse news than she had been expecting and found she must sit down immediately as the truth of the words rushed out from the parchment and hit her as a chilly December wind.

The first thing she noticed was the letter had been addressed to her.

The second thing was the poem it contained.