“Like a sea captain?”

“Precisely,” she said with a laugh, combing her fingers through the mop of tawny hair that always became messy no matter how many times she tidied it. “Though perhaps your future occupation will depend in part upon the wishes of your grandfather Godwin.”

Leo shrugged, returning his attention to sailing his ship along the back of the seat, making little sounds that she deduced were meant to be the crashing of waves. Her heart squeezed. At least she could be comforted that he now seemed more reconciled to meeting his grandsire for the first time.

If only she herself could accept the prospect of losing Leo.

When she returned her attention to the duke, he was leaning forward with his hands clasped, his brow furrowed, and his gaze unusually intent on her. “Godwin, you say? The Earl of Godwin?”

“Yes, his estate is called Oak Knoll. It’s located near the village of Whitnash. Do you know him?”

An odd alertness on his face, Clayton didn’t reply at first. He stared fixedly at Leo and then at her as if he were trying to see inside her mind. Without answering her question, he said in a strangely rough tone, “If indeed Leo’s grandfather is Lord Godwin, who are his parents?”

“Audrey and Jeremy Bellingham. They were my dearest friends in America. I taught in their mission school on the frontier.” Her throat caught. “Unfortunately, they’re both gone now.”

“Gone?”

The sharpness in his tone startled her, as did the stark expression on his face. Unwilling to use the word dead in front of the boy, she merely said, “Yes, Leo is an orphan.”

The duke appeared shaken by the news. “May I ask what happened?”

She lowered her voice to a murmur. “I’m afraid it is best not to speak of that at present.”

If only it were so easy to block that horrific day from her thoughts. Though she’d grown adept at locking away the memory, vivid flashes of the scene played in her mind. The surprise attack had happened on a sunny afternoon the previous summer at their fenced compound in the wilderness. She had been teaching a reading lesson to a group of children in the schoolhouse when a gunshot had sent her rushing to the window …

Now, despite the warmth of her cloak, Natalie fought off a shiver. She was hardly aware of gripping her gloved fingers in her lap. The acrid memory of smoke and blood twisted her stomach into knots. Though months had passed, she had not been able to shed the heavy burden of guilt for having survived when so many had died.

“Well,” the Duke of Clayton said, “it seems that destiny has set you in my path, Miss Fanshawe. In truth, our meeting was a bona fide fluke of fate.”

Her attention snapped back to him. His watchful stare gave her the unsettling sense that he’d guessed something of her dark thoughts. “Fate?”

“Yes. As it so happens, we are traveling to the same destination. My father was cousin to Lord Godwin. I’m on my way to pay his family a visit.”