CHAPTER 17
Sybil had a terrible headache as she walked down the hall to her mother’s bedchamber.
She had spent the morning overseeing the packing of her belongings with the help of her lady’s maid and a chambermaid, taking a tray in her room for breakfast. Luncheon loomed, just about an hour away from its appointed time.
At last, everything was done.
Her bedroom was bereft of even the smallest hint she’d ever been there. All the nights when Everett had come to her, all the kisses and embraces. All the passion he had shown her. Every garment in the linen press. All her shoes, her jewelry. Each scrap of silk. Her hairpins, her books, her stockings.
Packed neatly in trunks in preparation for her departure to Riverdale Abbey. After she and Mother reached their destination, she would have to consider where they could next go, what she could do. She couldn’t remain in London one more night. Not given her husband’s unrelenting coldness.
Not when he treated her so callously.
She had tried. Oh, how she had tried. She had agreed to his bargain. Had welcomed him into her bed, into her arms, and, somehow along the way, back into her heart. But then he hadproven to her beyond a doubt that he could never, ever love her. His cruelty over Henry had been the final insult.
Perhaps somehow she could aid her half brother on her own. She didn’t yet know what she would do. But surely anything was better than staying here and awaiting her husband’s whims.
She reached her mother’s room, where Sybil knew she would likely be dressing for luncheon, and knocked at the door. She was aware that delaying telling her about the necessity that they leave hadn’t made doing so any easier. Mother’s health had finally improved over the weeks since their arrival in London. She had seemed to regain her strength, and she thoroughly enjoyed the company of the dowager. Despite her previous insistence otherwise, she had grown comfortable with the notion that she would not need to return to Father and Eastlake Hall. Tearing her away from the cozy new life she had begun would not be easy.
But Sybil couldn’t very well leave her behind.
“Who is it?” Mother called.
“It’s Sybil, Mother,” she replied.
“Sybil darling, come in.”
With a deep breath, she opened the latch and stepped inside. Mother was seated at a writing desk by the window, a letter she was apparently in the process of writing laid out on its surface. She set down her pen and smiled brightly when she spied Sybil.
“Darling daughter, there you are. I missed you at breakfast.”
“Yes, I missed you as well.” Sybil closed the door behind her and ventured deeper into the room, noting that her mother had made it her own in various ways, from a few pictures hanging on the walls to the books and even the freshly cut flowers in a vase.
“I didn’t want to press the matter at the breakfast table before all the others, but I will admit that I was wondering if there was a reason you were indisposed. Tell me, am I to expect a grandbaby in my arms soon?”
Sybil’s heart ached at the thought.
She shook her head. “I’m sorry to disappoint, but no, that is not the reason for my absence. The true reason is that I am leaving.”
“Leaving where?”
“Leaving here,” she elaborated gently.
Mother frowned. “Surely not leaving London.”
“Yes, leaving London.”
Her mother’s confusion was yet to be assuaged. “Why would you wish to do so now? We have only recently arrived.”
Sybil wasn’t surprised by her mother’s response. This was the longest they had been in London in memory. Father had preferred for them to remain in the country, all the better under his rule.
Like Henry, a voice whispered inside her.
She would not forsake her half brother.
“We have been in residence for a few weeks,” she protested. “You always said you were far happier in the country. I thought you would welcome the chance to return to Riverdale Abbey, where everything is so much quieter and ever so much more peaceful.”
“Sweet girl, surely you must know I only said that because I hadn’t a choice then. I was forced to remain wherever your father wished me to be. Moreover, I needed to be where you were to protect you from his wrath.”
