A Solemn Promise

Prologue

"We are going to have that thing that everyone talks about, that indescribable, indefinable thing that everybody wants to find...here's to endless stargazing." Ella Harper, The Years of Loving You

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Prologue

Ashwood, Hertfordshire, 1794

Eleven-year-old Grace Denham winced as she heard the floorboard creak beneath her foot as she crept down the dimly lit wing of Ashwood House. It was one wing of many, and Grace prayed that the red rug muffled some of the sound.

"Adam!" Grace hissed out into the corridor. "Come out!" she demanded. "This is far from amusing!"

Grace continued to venture down the corridor carefully, holding her breath as she took every step and preparing herself for the sound of footsteps, moving with purpose to scold her for being somewhere that she was not permitted.

Grace felt as though the eyes of the Beresford family portraits that hung on the walls were following her, knowing that she was somewhere that she was not supposed to be. Oh dear, she was going to be in such trouble.

"Adam!" Grace stressed again. This was all his fault. Grace had wanted to stay in the kitchen; after all, that was where she was allowed to be. But Adam had managed to persuade her to venture upstairs to the wing that housed the Beresfords' bedrooms.

It frightened her to think that each one of the ten-foot doorways that she crept past could have been the Duchess' bedroom.

Grace's hips were suddenly seized in a pinching grip, and Grace fell backwards against a taller figure, who promptly burst out laughing as Grace yelped in fright.

Grace wriggled out of his embrace and turned on him, looking up into the hazel eyes of her friend, thirteen-year-old Adam Beresford. He had large eyes that always seemed so bright with happiness, and the remains of his youthful chubby cheeks swelled when he smiled, or deviously grinned. A lone sandy curl fell into his eyes and he shook it away.

"I am dreadfully sorry," he lied, looking down on her, "but you are far too easy to tease." Adam had grown about six inches over the summer, and now stood a head and a half over Grace.

"It is always you who teases me. I wonder why I put up with it," Grace huffed. "One of these days it will be me who manages to frighten you!" Grace declared with determination.

Adam's face, which had been round with his smile, suddenly fell, and Grace realised exactly why. The moment the words had left her lips, she knew that they were sharing the same thought.

"I wish I did not have to leave you," he whispered quietly.

Adam's mother and father had announced only a few weeks ago that Adam was to leave Ashwood that very September to attend Eton College. He was thirteen now, and his parents were determined that Adam begin his proper education befitting of a young man of his station.

"I want to go to our school," hissed Adam impatiently.

Their school was simply the village school, taught by the vicar in a classroom adjacent to the church. Adam, and his two younger siblings, Jack and Susanna, both attended.

Adam's father insisted that his children be socialised. His mother, on the other hand, wanted a governess for them. Adam detested the idea and loved going to school in the village.

The school was where he and Grace had met several years ago, and they had been the closest of friends ever since.

In fact, Grace could not recall a day in the past few years in which she had not seen Adam. They were inseparable, almost.