The Sins of the Fathers

Chapter Twenty-Three

Ellington Manor

Meadvale

Surrey

House arrest and the somewhat strained relationship between Sebastian Osborne and his late father-in-law meant that the Osborne's did not join the Symonds clan at River House for the traditional pre-funeral mourning rituals. But the good bishop still expected his household to mourn, so Caroline Blackstone and Diane Slade joined the four Osborne ladies in black velvet, spending countless hours in the chapel praying for the soul of Drew Symonds. It was an exhausting experience for the two nascent Daughters of Eve. On the first full day, they spent three hours on their knees in the morning and another two hours in the afternoon, and both suffered an auto-punishment after the afternoon session. But so did Lady Osborne and Bellamy Osborne's pretty young wife, Amelia. Miss Bryant was not impressed, and they were all expecting further punishment later, which rather disappointed Harrison Slade.

"I am sorry...it must be so hard to stay still for so long?" He said as he led his wife into the rose garden in the late afternoon sun. It would soon be time for the ladies to be changed into black silk for dinner but Diane really needed to stretch her stiff legs.

"It's not your fault...my settings are on the lowest sensitivity? Thanks to you?"

"You have three more days of this?"

"And apparently we will be in black for a month after that...because Brogan is his...was his daughter...but we will only have to pray in the mornings?" Diane told him, smiling shyly as he guided her along the path. Miss Bryant had put her bonnet on because of the sun, but not her mantle. "And Brogan says that five hours is actually quite short...because Bishop Osborne did not like the man...she thinks they will be doing eight or nine at River House for several weeks?"

"You are remarkably calm about all this..."

"Harrison...without this, the chances are that I would be on my way into the Order...those investigators were after all of us...and I was the most vulnerable, until you put a ring on my finger?" She reminded him, trying to make him understand how grateful she was. Harrison Slade had told her their full story after the escape of Caris Johnson, and after the investigation was over. Unlike Hugh Blackstone, he did not want to keep her in the dark, because he had been risking her life as well, and she had reacted positively to it, much to his surprise. "And your relationship with Bishop Osborne? I know we are not out of the woods yet...and I know that I am going to be a Daughter of Eve for the rest of my life...but you have done some really important things in the last few weeks and I have no right to complain?"

"I think you have...Hugh and I have put you both in danger...but I am proud of what I've done? It's not within my gift to do something with everything we've uncovered...we have to rely on Norman and the Prof for that...but I helped get Caris out and I've kept you as safe as I can...fingers crossed, eh?"

"You can touch me in bed, you know?" She said out of the blue, turning her head away from him to examine a particularly beautiful bloom.

"Touch you?"

"Yes...you know, put your arm around me...hold my hand...kiss my cheek?"

"Oh, right...yes...of course...I didn't..."

"Harrison...if you don't want to...just tell Bryant to put me in my sleeping gown?"

"No...those things look horrible...I just...I didn't know you wanted to?"

"I haven't had a fuck in forty years, Harrison...let alone a decent one?" She laughed as he blushed and stumbled over a stone.

"Believe it or not...neither have I?" He chuckled, recovering himself, and managing not to drag on the leash as he regained his balance. "So...are we...you know?"