“Mm. Now that your character has been laid to rest, you must tell us, Vicky,” Marianne began, her face etched with concern. “Have you been corresponding with Richard? It has been a year.”
The question weighed more than it sounded. Marianne’s voice was calm, but Victoria knew that deep inside, she was anything but. She could not look at her sister. Instead, she leaned to grab a biscuit from a tray. The choice to take a big bite before answering was deliberate.
“Heard from him? My dear husband? Of course,” Victoria replied, sounding overly cheerful even to herself. “He writes on occasion. His new role is consuming his every waking hour, I imagine.”
“Mm. But how occupied can the new Duke of Hawksford be that the last time he interacted with his wife was at his brother’s funeral?”
“I believe he has some fabulously interesting things to do,” Victoria said breezily, even as her heart clenched at the way her siblings were looking at her as if her marriage was a failure.
“Oh, but stop watching me, you all! Look at our dear Jamie, trying to scale the marble fireplace mantel. If you fall, I may have to duel your father. It is not going to be a pretty sight.”
Eyes turned toward Elizabeth’s firstborn.
“Jamie!” Elizabeth screamed, rising from her chair.
“Ah, but ye dinnae have to worry yersel’, lass. The lad knows what he’s doing,” the Duke of Redmoor, Elizabeth’s husband, commented with a chuckle.
“Alasdair!” his wife complained, widening her eyes at him.
For a moment, everyone was focused on getting Jamie down. He was a successful diversion. However, Victoria was keenly aware that her family was still unhappy about her situation.
“I find it interesting,” Daniel murmured, emphasizing the last word as if he meant something more from it, “that he had you placed in a separate home. What kind of husband would that be? It isn’t even about keeping you at arm’s length. It’s about not wanting to see you at all.”
Her marriage might not be a love match, but her brother’s words still stung.
Victoria took a long sip of sherry. No, it was more like a gulp.
“It’s as though you do not know me at all, brother. A husband who permits me to take men’s parts in our little theatricals, to wear breeches, to brandish a sword, is precisely the husband I require. That alone recommends him to me,” she replied firmly. “Such liberties are not so readily granted by most husbands, as you well know. And before you object, our brothers-in-law are decidedly the exception, not the rule. That will be all for tonight.”
It was the truth, anyway. She loved being able to say, wear, and do what she wanted. Because of her arrangement with Richard, she had become the mistress of her own household.
Still, watching Alasdair pull Elizabeth close to him, whispering something in her ear, even though their children were nearby, chanting little rhymes and hopping about, gave her an unexpected chill.
She married Richard because she craved having her own household. While she wondered what it would be like if he had stayed, she reminded herself that Richard never promised anything to her beyond freedom.
Freedom.
That was what she wanted, and she got it.
But sometimes, freedom could feel like loneliness, too. Even being with her family, she still felt alone. Her siblings were married and had formed new families. Meanwhile, Daniel, the last unmarried one, had his estate to attend to.
When the clocks chimed midnight, she felt that loneliness even more as her family members departed with their spouses and their children.
Marianne and Dominic.
Elizabeth and Alasdair.
Wilhelmina and Gerard.
Daphne and Adrian.
Finally, Daniel left, albeit a little reluctantly, as if she would shatter into pieces if she were left alone. In a way, she did. She quickly changed from her costume to her silk nightgown and woolen robe.
Victoria was alone. Everyone thought of her as a wild, loud girl who didn’t dwell much on emotions, but lately, she could not help it. She didn’t marry for love. Her husband didn’t either.
“A bargain. That’s what we made,” she said softly, looking out her window.
A soft tap at her door interrupted her thoughts.
