Covet - Miles Bridgerton's story

Chapter 11 - The Raspberry Castle

The remaining days of Geoffrey's week-long stay at Aubrey Hall passed much too fast, but in a sweet and delightful blur. In the daytime, he was terribly busy, as he spent them instructing the recently arrived master builder and his crew on how to get started with the house – thrilled over the fact that something he had designed would for the first time ever be created as an actual building – as well as finishing his intense series of riding lessons with Miles. Most of the time they unfortunately had some sort of audience, either Lily, Kate or – most unfortunately – Miss Sarah Cranleigh, so they could not be as relaxed around each other as they would have hoped to be. Still, Geoffrey had a feeling that he was not such a rubbish rider anymore, but Miles seemed nevertheless eager to come and get his hands on him every now and then, to 'correct his seat', as he put it.

Then there was Amelia, of course, who was clearly plagued by her own curiosity over what was going on between her friend and brother-in-law. For some reason, Geoffrey had not told her the most recent updates, perhaps he felt like he would break the magic somehow, by sharing it with someone else than Miles. Some sort of magic there truly was in the air at Aubrey Hall, because the nights... They had belong completely to Miles and Geoffrey alone. Every night Miles had come knocking on his door and stayed there until the morning, talking to him softly, cuddling with him and kissing him until they both fell asleep in each other's arms. It had never gone further than that and Geoffrey was not quite sure whether he was disappointed or relieved over it.

Now, the last day of his stay was upon them. In the afternoon he would set course for the Berbrooke estate to be united with his wife and daughter, but Geoffrey could not feel even the slightest ounce of happiness, although he missed his little Gina dearly. He had not talked with Miles about what would happen now, since that too had felt like breaking up the magical illusion that they could keep acting like this for the rest of their lives, which obviously was not the case. Geoffrey would have to go back to Cornelia at some point and Miles would probably get married too, sooner or later. Even now, when he still was a bachelor and had his own apartment in London, Geoffrey could not possibly sneak away from his home every night to be able to spend it with Miles. Surely Cornelia would notice at some point, regardless of having separate bedrooms with her husband.

So, this very last morning Geoffrey was in a foul mood, even though he tried to enjoy their fleeting moments together, sitting on a sofa in the drawing room after breakfast, reading through Miles' thesis for Cambridge.

"What is the thesis even about?" Oliver wondered, from where he sat a bit further away from them in an armchair, leafing through some latest gossip paper.

"Something about probability theory combined with horse racing, which only Geoffrey seems to understand..." Eddie replied, since Miles seemed to be too focused on waiting for Geoffrey's opinion about his unfinished work to be able to answer Oliver himself. "I tried to read it, but it went all over my head." He continued and gave Lavender another crayon. She sat with him on the floor, drawing messy lines on a paper so excitedly that the parquet got some new colour on it, too. One of the maids took a deep sigh while walking past the mess.

"This is really, really good, Miles... Truly." Geoffrey stated in awe when he had finished the last page. Miles' face lit up, as if he was a little boy who had just got praise from his father.

"It is? Not too complicated or hard to follow?" He asked, seeking for assurance.

"I mean... There were a few parts, here for example..." Geoffrey began and pointed at the paper.

"But... I already explained it over here." Miles huffed and browsed back a couple of pages.

"I know, but it would be easier for your reader to follow your quite impressive thought-process if you refer to it again when you mention it later on." Geoffrey explained calmly.