And then his father had been killed, and his mother along with him.
There had to be a connection. There simply had to be. It was impossible to imagine that such dirty deeds could bear no connection to one another. And once Arthur knew the full story, once he understood at last what had really caused his parents’deaths, he was sure he would be able to untangle the knotted thread that would lead him to the killer at last.
CHAPTER 29
“You should have had me come over much sooner than this,” Felicity said gently. “I can’t believe you’ve been on your own all week.”
“It’s not so terrible, being on one’s own,” Isabella replied. “Not as bad as I would have imagined it to be, anyway. There’s plenty to do. I have books to read, and I’m permitted to go anywhere I’d like in the house. I eat my meals whenever I want them. It’s all very nice to tell you the truth.”
“I can’t believe that,” Felicity said rather severely. “I see the look on your face, Isabella. That’s not the look of someone who’s happy. You’re upset about the fact that you’ve been left on your own. I know you are. You can tell me the truth about it.”
Isabella sighed. “It’s not the fact that I’m alone that upsets me,” she argued. “Though you’re not wrong to say that I’m unhappy, Felicity. I am. Of course, I am.”
“But why? If it’s not because of the fact that your husband left you here alone?”
“It’s not the loneliness,” Isabella said. “I told him I was feeling lonely. I suppose I thought that was the worst of my problems, and maybe it is a part of it. But what’s far worse is the lack ofhim. That’s something nobody else can ever make up for. I’m so glad to have you here, Felicity, you know I am, but…”
“But you miss your husband,” Felicity observed gently. “It’s understandable that you would feel that way, Isabella.”
“I can hardly bear to admit to these feelings,” Isabella said. “I suppose I always knew that I wanted him to care for me. But I didn’t expect that I would fall in love. And I think I have.”
“Falling in love with your husband is not such a bad thing,” Felicity considered.
“It is when he runs off to another estate and leaves you alone with no idea of when he’ll be back,” Isabella lamented. “He didn’t even tell me why he was going—but I think I know the answer to that question.”
“You do?”
“He kissed me,” Isabella explained. “The other night, right before he left, the two of us shared a kiss. There had been other moments of unexpected intimacy, but that was as close as we had ever been.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Felicity said. “Why would he leave because of that? If anything, that ought to make him want to stay.”
“No. He didn’t want us to be close.” Isabella sighed. “I never told you this, but one of the first things he said to me when I came to this house was that our marriage wasn’t going to be a normal one. He doesn’t want an heir. He barely wants a wife. He married me for the sake of his reputation, nothing more. And now that he has what he wants, I think he would be just as happy to never speak to me again.”
“That can’t be true,” Felicity objected. “If that was how he felt about it, he wouldn’t have kissed you in the first place.”
“He might have. Who knows how the mind of a gentleman works? Hedidkiss me, at any rate, and I thought it might have meant that things were about to change between us, but nothing changed. It’s all the same as it ever was,” she sighed. “It’s worse than it was because before I had reason to hope, at least, that he would come to feel something for me. Now, I know that he never will. He doesn’t even want to look at me.”
“May I stay with you tonight?” Felicity asked. “I think you could use the company.”
“Will Father allow it?”
“I doubt he’ll come all the way here to fetch me,” Felicity replied. “We’ll send him a letter letting him know I mean to stay, and ifhe doesn’t like it, there will be nothing he can do until tomorrow when I go back home.”
“That’s true, but I wouldn’t like you to face his wrath.”
Felicity smiled. “I’m not afraid of Father,” she said. “What can he do to me, really?”
“You’ve become very brave,” Isabella observed. “I used to think that you needed me to take care of you, but you don’t need that, do you?”
“I’ve always needed you,” Felicity said. “But I don’t want you to think that I’ll lose my ability to tend to myself in your absence. Father can’t do anything to me that I can’t handle. Do you have someone on your staff who can carry a message?”
A footman was summoned, and a message drafted then the two ladies retired to Isabella’s bedroom. Isabella instructed Caroline to have their dinners sent up—there was no reason to eat at the dining room table when they were the only ones in the house. “I’ve been eating here most nights,” she confessed to her sister. “It’s so big and lonely in the dining room, and it just makes me think about who isn’t there with me.”
“I can understand that,” Felicity said. “And it’s sort of fun, isn’t it? It reminds me of when we were children, and we would take our dinners in our room. Remember how we used to share a room?”
“Of course, I remember that.” Isabella smiled fondly. “Those were good days. I think it was supposed to be some sort of punishment or a way of reminding us that we weren’t the favorites—that Rosalind was. But to me, it was always a privilege we enjoyed over her. I would much rather have spent time with you in our shared bedroom than have dinner with Father at the table. Secretly, I think Rosalind might have been envious of us rather than the other way around. I know I would have been, had I been in her shoes.”
“As would I,” Felicity said. “But, you know, you’ve always been skilled at finding happiness in any situation, Isabella. You were the one who showed me how to enjoy our lives when we were nothing but the least favored members of the staff, daughters of a household maid. You were the one who told me that everything would be all right when our father claimed us as his own and made us ladies in our own right. And you were the one who reassured me, over and over, that I would marry someday and escape his household, find happiness of my own. I believe in that dream because of you.”
