But she, Eva, and Ariel weresafe. At least, for now. She wasn’t sure she would ever feel safe again or fully trust in the idea of security. She had lived how quickly a life could be turned on its head.
Life had certainly taught her one lesson: No outcome was perfect, and no happiness came without a cost. Life would exact its toll.
She was returning with the scissors when she encountered Eva, carrying three bolts of shantung silk, the finest fabric they owned. In fact, they hadn’t yet served a client who could afford a garment constructed of it. They’d been laying these bolts by on the hope that someday they would.
“What is that in your apron?” Eva asked.
Isabel considered lying and telling her sister it was nothing of importance. But it was important, and Eva needed to know.
Wordlessly, Isabel held out the paper and pointed out the article. Eva’s face transformed from cheery and open to tense and pinched as she scanned the words.
Once finished, she met Isabel’s eye. “Then it’s done.”
“Sí,” Isabel replied. She crumpled the paper and tossed it into the rubbish bin.
Eva’s face softened in relief. “Good.”
“Why do you have such fine fabrics out?” Isabel asked, ushering in a new subject.
The sparkle returned to Eva’s eyes. “We shall need them today.”
“Do we have clients arriving?”
The bell above the front door jingled, and Eva’s face lit up. “That will be them.”
“Them?” Isabel asked Eva’s back.
Eva rushed the silk into the show room she’d dubbed the Serendipity Room before doubling back and streaking past Isabel to the front of the shop.
Isabel’s gut churned. She’d come to dread the unexpected. At last, she heard the voices.
Familiarvoices.
Her heart kicked up a notch.
Those voices came from a life she’d thought to forget. A life sheneededto forget, because if she didn’t forget that life, she wouldn’t be able to forgethim.
And, oh, how she needed to forget him.
But those voices,here, made it an impossibility.
Steps the consistency of molasses in winter, Isabel trudged into the front room to find Lucy, Miss Radclyffe, and a third woman conversing with Eva. If there were ever two birds of a feather for liveliness, it was Lucy and Eva.
Eva caught Isabel’s eye and waved her over. “Isabel, come and greet my muses.” Mischief shimmered about her. “And their mother, Lady St. Alban.”
All sets of eyes landed on Isabel.Lady St. Alban?Lucy’s mother. The woman who had been Percy’s wife, hisrealwife. Isabel went a trifle nauseous.
“If it isn’t my step-mama.” Lucy rushed over and gave Isabel a sweet buss on the cheek. “Do you know the date of my father’s return? For some reason I had it in my head that it was this week.”
Isabel almost answered that she hadn’t the faintest idea. Instead, she gave her head a tight shake.
Where had Percy gone? Back to his old life as a spy? And why would Lucy be askingher, of all people?
Minutes ago, life had, at last, gone right-side up. Now it was topsy-turvy again.
Lady St. Alban crossed the short distance separating them and took Isabel’s hand. “Lady Percival, I’ve heard so much about you. Although, I fear you look a trifle peaked. Is it possible you’re suffering from one of your famous megrims? Should we send for the Duchess’s special cure?”
“No,” burst from Isabel’s mouth, graceless and abrupt.
