“Oh, Lady Tesh,” Katrina said with a smile, none of her former nervousness around the woman present now. Leaning toward the dowager viscountess, she gave her an affectionate kiss on her paper-thin cheek. “You know we love you dearly and would have been back soon. But we have been gone only a few months.”
“Hmmph,” Lady Tesh said, though her sharp brown eyes sparkled with pleasure. She leaned forward to glare atSebastian on Katrina’s other side. “Just see you do not keep Katrina from me, Your Grace,” she scolded. “You know I am a frail old woman, and I do not have much time left.”
“I would never dream of keeping Katrina from anyone she loves as much as she loves you,” Sebastian said with impressive solemnity, before he ruined it spectacularly by grinning. “Though we both know it’s me you wish to see.”
“Scamp,” Lady Tesh said affectionately.
But Seraphina had heard enough. Or, rather, she had not heard anything beyond Lady Tesh’s unexpected confession. “What do you mean, my sisters put out a call for help?” she demanded.
At once the lighthearted mood changed. Elspeth stepped forward, taking Seraphina’s arm and guiding her to the circle of chairs—of which she now saw there was an empty space.
“Now, I know you have done your best to stay positive this past month,” her sister said, encouraging her to sit. “But it has been clear to all of us that you aren’t happy.”
“I am not happy because I have been ambushed by people I thought I could trust,” she grumbled. Glaring about the circle, she demanded, “Does this have anything to do with a certain letter I received this morning?”
“Oh, no, that was pure happenstance,” Honoria piped up. “They sent out letters to all of us a week ago.”
“A week,” Seraphina breathed, looking at her sisters with hurt eyes.
But neither of them looked the least abashed. “You have been so very sad since you returned from Scotland,” Millicent explained.
“We could not do nothing,” Elspeth added.
But that did not assuage Seraphina’s hurt and sense ofbetrayal. “And so instead of talking to me yourselves in private, you invited everyone here to, what? To attack me for not being happy?”
Yet again they did not look ashamed of their actions. “Of course it is not an attack,” Elspeth replied. “It just seemed the best course of action. We have been trying to make you see that separating from Iain was not the best thing for you. But you have not listened.”
Which was all too true, she realized begrudgingly. But she had not taken their urgings to write to Iain and try to work things out seriously. Her decision had been the right one. After all, who in their right mind could possibly believe that she, with the history she had, could possibly have anything respectable with a duke? If she were to take on the mantle of duchess, a position that brought with it such close scrutiny, eventually the truth of her time in the asylum and her work as a prostitute would find its way into the clear light of day. And she could not bring Iain down with her.
Millicent motioned across the circle. “And when we talked to Bronwyn, she suggested that drastic measures had to be taken to convince you to finally listen to us.”
“Bronwyn?” Seraphina demanded, looking at her friend.
But Bronwyn did not look even faintly guilty. Adjusting her spectacles, she speared Seraphina with a stern look. “We all know how stubborn you can be,” she said in her clipped matter-of-fact tone. “And that it would take an incredible amount of effort and intent to get you to listen to us.”
But anger was beginning to replace Seraphina’s hurt. Blowing out a sharp breath, she stood and paced within the circle of friends and family, feeling much like a caged lion.“And so you banded together, all so the pathetic divorcée would see what a monumental mistake she made in leaving her husband?”
Adelaide rushed toward her, enveloping her in arms that held the comforting scent of baked goods.
“You are not, and never have been, pathetic,” she said in a thick voice. “What you are is incredibly unhappy, and you are sabotaging any chance to change that. And if we, the people who love you best in this world, can help you to see that you are as deserving of happiness as any person, then we shall.”
“Adelaide is right,” Katrina added, wide blue eyes shining with tears as she wrapped her own slight arms about the both of them. “You have made certain we all live our best and happiest lives. Why can we not do the same for you?”
“And while you are incredibly stubborn,” Bronwyn added, joining in the group hug, “you are no match for the combined stubbornness of the rest of us.”
“Well, hell,” Honoria grumbled as she stood and added her embrace to the rest, “if you think I’m going to be left out of this, you’ve got another think coming.”
Seraphina, standing in the middle of her friends’ embrace, held on to her outrage with pure will. As if she could be swayed by such nonsense. As if she would suddenly change her belief that she and Iain had no business being together.
But as the warmth from their collective bodies began to seep into her, forcing her to come to terms with the fact that these people would not go to all this trouble for nothing and must truly believe what they had to say, she felt her stubbornness begin to waver. If every single person present believed, after knowing what they did about her past, thatshe could find happiness with Iain, and that a life with him was not doomed for failure and heartbreak, how could she possibly continue to retain her certainty that she could not?
Desperate, uncertain, she looked to the one person whom she knew would tell her the truth. Lady Tesh motioned to Sebastian that he should take her pet, then grabbed her cane and leveraged herself to her feet, making her way with her hobbling gait to Seraphina. A few swift swipes with said cane, and she soon had Seraphina’s friends dispersed and entered the fray, standing before Seraphina and looking up at her with a tenderness not often seen on her heavily lined face.
“Lady Tesh?” she begged, not knowing how to voice what she needed.
The woman, however, was quite the shrewdest person Seraphina knew. Immediate understanding filled her face, and she nodded and drew in a deep breath. Seraphina, not knowing what she wanted to hear from this woman, tensed.
“You are a strong, independent woman, Miss Athwart,” she began. “You have been through much in life, and have succeeded where so many have not. You have protected your sisters, and started a thriving business, and you have even made something of yourself with your stories.”
