Psst... I have a secret to share with you.
Hearts Unknown starts from Edith's perspective, but if it were to start with Clarence, it might go something like this...
London, 1763
"Are you eating well, Clarence?" Mother asked, as she did every time I visited which admittedly wasn't often. Thus, Father summoning me home to 'visit your mother boy!'
"Yes, Mother, I am eating well."
Mayhap, she asked because my white wig washed out my features, but it was the perfect disguise from the girl next door. Edith Howard would never expect me to wear a wig after I naysaid and eschewed them through my youth.
"Heaven knows what they serve you at that club." Mother fluttered a fan over her face.
"Even Father dines at the club from time to time."
"But not every day."
"I’m there most days, Mother. Not every day." I liked my quiet evenings at the respectable club, especially their excellent library. A vast improvement over my two-pair of stairs abode on Pall Mall East with its slim collection of books and no one with whom to converse.
I'd never tell Mother that. She'd insist I move home, and I could not move home. Not while Edith lived next door.
Whoever convinced the gentry that terraced housing was fashionable ought to be hung. I'd lived half of my life knowing a mere brick separated me from gazing upon Edith's fair face.
Utter madness.
Mother continued her usual rants over the next quarter of an hour. When will I take a wife? When will I come home? When will I attend a ball? What could I possibly do all day that kept me so busy? I did try to answer the last one, but she waved off my 'barrister talk' and said,
"At least come to my dinner party two nights hence. You must know what people say about me when my own son doesn't attend my table. Say you will come."
This question had the same answer as the others before it, but I never utter the words, ‘When Edith weds, and my heart is free.’
"They say you set an excellent table, Mother." I rose to my feet, the itch to escape Edith's nearness no longer bearable. Especially knowing she could call on my mother at any moment. "I must take my leave."
"Must you?"
"Yes, Mother." I kissed her cheek and endured a few more platitudes and various guilt-ridden pleas for another ten minutes at least. My nerves were frayed before I broke away, but the butler knew my routine well. He met me in the hall with my hat and greatcoat.
"Thank you." I clutched the items and snuck out of the servant’s door to the mews. The front entrance via Bruton Street was far too risky for someone intent on escape.
All seemed quiet outside. I stepped out with confidence and jogged up the servant's steps to our garden. A bright slip of fabric caught my eye. I flashed a frantic glance towards the Howard's nuisance pine, afraid I’d been caught, but the location of the dress stopped me cold. There was not a lady by the pine tree.
She was in it.
My heart knew the climber's identity before my disbelieving eyes confirmed it was Edith. Whatever was she doing? Risking her beautiful neck up that tree. What if she fell?
Fear carried my feet over the small stone wall separating our back gardens before I became conscious of the move. And then there I was under her, fury at her recklessness and an unrequited love as wide as the ocean roaring to life within me. And Edith above, as oblivious as ever.
All those tortured years, all my disappointed hopes boiled over into words before I could stop them.
"Edith Howard, you are the bane of my existence!"
Stay tuned for the actual start of Hearts Unknown which picks up a few breaths before the end of this one.
Or you can pre-order Hearts Unknown for 99c !
In October's Catching the Past, I share what Clarence meant by his 'two-pair of stairs abode'. Read it here: https://www.dienecedarling.com/post/two-pair-of-stairs-abode
And next month, I'll finally introduce you to the reason Edith's in that tree (spoiler, you'll also be able to win an original artwork of it)!
That ending had me hooked. Now I really want to know what she is doing up that tree!