“How are you?” Maisie asked as she knelt to meet Dorothea at eye level. “Have you been enjoying having Catriona living with you?”
“She hasn’t nagged you about anything, has she?” Ava asked, lowering as well. “She can be quite stern when she’s ready to be.”
Dorothea slowly shook her head. Her eyes flickered to Catriona for a brief moment. “She hasn’t nagged me.”
“I have no reason to,” Catriona told her. “And I doubt your father would appreciate it even if I did.”
“I wouldn’t tell Daddy,” Dorothea assured her in a soft voice. “It can be our little secret.”
That made Catriona smile. In her own small way, Dorothea was warming to her, and she couldn’t be happier.
Dorothea clasped her hands in front of her then put it behind her again, clearly uncertain. “My apologies for interrupting. I will take my leave. It was nice seeing you again, Miss Ava and Miss Maisie.”
Ava stopped her before she could turn away. “And just where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going back to my nursery.”
“Oh, no you’re not,” Catriona protested. “You came to see me for a reason, didn’t you?”
It was a shot in the dark, but after a moment of hesitation, Dorothea nodded. “I came to ask if we could continue with our...” She glanced between Ava and Maisie before looking at Catriona and whispering, “secret.”
Ava and Maisie’s heads whipped around to face Catriona. “What secret?” they asked in unison.
“If it is a secret, I cannot very well tell you, can I?” Catriona tilted her head to the side as she looked at Dorothea. “Would you like for them to join us? They won’t tell, I promise.”
Dorothea nodded. “Only if they promise not to ruin our progress.”
That brought laughter to her lips. “I’ll make sure that they don’t.”
“Do you know what they’re talking about?” Maisie murmured to Ava to which Ava shrugged and shook her head.
“Come with us,” Dorothea said, slipping past them. Warmth spread throughout Catriona’s chest when Dorothea took her by the hand and faced her sisters. “We’ll show you the way.”
With that, she set off, and Catriona had no choice but to follow. Maisie and Ava fell in step behind them. Before long, they came upon the small patch of unturned dirt tucked away at the back of the garden, hidden behind the vegetable patch.
“What’s this?” Ava asked, confused.
“This,” Dorothea released Catriona’s hand and turned to face them, regarding them like a queen would regard her subjects, “is our secret. Stepmother and I will be planting as many flowers as we can in this patch. But Father cannot know!”
Stepmother?
“A flower patch?” Maisie sounded excited. She was already sinking to her knees, reaching for the small basket of gloves they had left sitting next to the patch from last time. “Sounds fun. I didn’t know you were so interested in botany, Dorothea.”
Dorothea shrugged as if it were nothing. She knelt next to Maisie, reaching for her tiny garden gloves. “I just like flowers,” was all she said.
“We should see how many we can plant before we’re finished today,” Ava suggested.
Stepmother.
“Why does everything have to be a race with you?” Maisie asked with a sigh. “I’m sure Dorothea would much rather take her time and enjoy herself. Right, Dorothea?”
Dorothea giggled. “A race does sound fun.”
“Ha!” Ava laughed.
Maisie groaned aloud. She glanced up at Catriona, who was still standing by the patch as if frozen in time. “Cat? Are you all right?”
Catriona blinked rapidly, forcing back the tears already pricking her eyes. She plastered a smile on her face in the hopes that they wouldn’t notice how Dorothea’s words rocked her. It was the first time Dorothea had ever acknowledge her as part of her family, and she hadn’t expected it to hit her so hard.
