“More time,” Brandon said softly, wearily. He laughed at himself. “I was so certain this could be done quickly…. Honestly, Tom, with little difficulty I could find myself an admirer of old King Henry.” He made a slashing motion with his finger across his neck. “He managed to rid himself of—” Brandon grinned crookedly when he saw his friend was unamused. “Just a bit of ill humor, I’m afraid. No need to look alarmed.”
It was latewhen Brandon finally returned to the folly. He lit a candle in the foyer and carried it upstairs, nearly groaning aloud when he saw Aurora waiting for him outside his bedchamber door. “What is it, Rory?” he asked, making little effort to disguise his impatience. His lids lowered, shuttering his eyes, as Aurora set her own candle on a hall table and leaned her back against the wall. Her breasts swelled above the deep neckline of her lawn nightdress as she sighed deeply.
“May we talk in your room?” she asked.
“No. Whatever you wish to say may be said here.”
Aurora’s eyes swept over her husband consideringly. “You’ve been drinking.”
“Yes. But don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m foxed,” he said brusquely. “What is it you want?”
“I couldn’t sleep for thinking of you in town this evening,” she said softly, raising her face to him. Candlelight caressed her features, enhancing her beauty. Her mouth was slightly parted and she wet the corner of her lip with the tip of her tongue, making the action somehow tremulous and seductive in the same moment.
“Stop it, Aurora. I’m unimpressed by your wiles. If it is my meeting with Tom you want to know about, then you only have to ask.”
“You wrong me.” Aurora looked away, seemingly hurt by his curtness. “All right then,” she whispered. “What did you learn from Mr. Maine?”
“I learned the law cannot help me in this matter,” he said. “I can only divorce you by speaking with the Reverend Whittaker and making an appeal through the church.” Brandon watched Aurora relax slightly, her shoulders straightening as she realized the time involved in such an appeal. “No doubt you’re relieved. You think it will take longer and I will change my mind. Well, itwilltake longer, but there is nothing that will sway me. And to help you understand that better, I want you to know I have already visited Reverend Whittaker.” Brandon gave the door handle a twist.“Thatis where I was drinking tonight.” He shouldered the door to his room and, without another glance in Aurora’s direction, went inside, kicking the door shut with the heel of his boot.
Aurora stared at the closed door for a moment. She retraced her steps down the hallway, paused at the entrance to her own room, and then continued toward Shannon’s room adjoining the nursery. She knocked lightly several times until she heard her sister stirring.
Shannon cracked open the door. “Yes?” When she saw Aurora standing there, clearly bereft, she felt her heart give an odd tug. She stood aside and with a wave of her hand ushered Aurora into the chamber. “What’s happened?” she asked, slipping on her dressing gown as Aurora sat on the edge of the bed.
Aurora’s composure broke. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks and her shoulders shook. “He wants to divorce me,” she sobbed. “Oh, Shannon! I have made such mistakes! I cannot bear it if he sends me away!”
Shannon gasped, and it was the sound of it in her own ears that warned her she was not dreaming. How was she supposed to offer the comfort Aurora expected? Tears, not of sympathy, but of her own misery, sprang to her eyes. She sat at Aurora’s side, staring at her uselessly folded hands.
“I don’t know what to do,” Aurora continued, impatiently brushing a tear away. “Everyone here hates me. There is no one who cares what happens. Did you know what he plans to do? I know Cody does. He can’t even keep a civil tongue when he speaks to me. Did you know, Shannon?”
“I had heard,” admitted Shannon uneasily. “There are matters the servants can’t help but learn eventually.”
Aurora nodded as if expecting Shannon’s reply. “I know. There are few secrets at the folly.” She sniffed inelegantly, rubbing the sleeve of her nightdress across her pale cheeks, then gave Shannon a watery smile as she was handed a handkerchief from Shannon’s bedside table. “You’re kind to listen to me,” she said. “I didn’t know where else to go after he came back tonight and told me….”
“Told you.”
“Told me that the divorce must proceed through the church. Oh, Shannon, it is too awful. When it was a legal problem, I thought to myself that no matter what he did, in my heart I would still be married to him, our vows sealed by God. But to divorce through the church? It is the dissolution of a sacrament and too horrible to contemplate.”
Shannon was struck deeply by Aurora’s words, and guilt pressed against her chest like a weight. This was Brandon’s decision, she told herself. She had nothing to do with it. Still, the knowledge that Brandon wanted this divorce with or without her agreement to marry him did little to ease Shannon’s mind. When Aurora wearily leaned against her, Shannon accepted her sister’s bent head as it rested on her shoulder. Her arms wrapped around Aurora, stroking her back, offering support when she couldn’t offer comfort.
“He is so cruel to me,” Aurora whispered. “So cruel. He’ll send me away and I’ll never see my daughter. He’s said as much. How am I to bear that?”
Shannon had no response. Late into the night she listened to Aurora talk of her marriage to Brandon, her infatuation with Parker, and the foolishness of her decision to leave her husband. When Aurora finally exhausted herself, Shannon accompanied her back to her own room and helped her to bed. Shannon never slept that night. She stayed at the window in her chamber until sunrise, her thoughts as scattered as the colors of dawn.
Shannon happenedupon Brandon in the stables the following morning. He was teasing his horse with a dried apple while it was being saddled by one of the grooms. He looked so much like a young boy, his beautiful face alight with mischief, that Shannon felt some of her resolve falter. It was when Clara dropped her hand and ran to her father that Shannon’s brain cleared.
“Papa! I’ve come to see Rainbow!”
Brandon gave the piece of apple to his mount and scooped Clara off the stable floor, tickling her. Her giggles danced over his body like droplets of spring rain. His smile faded when he saw Shannon was staring at him as if she did not know what to make of him, her expression tense, devoid of amusement or laughter. He set Clara to the ground and told her to find the kittens and play with them before going to Rainbow. When she was out of earshot, he dismissed the groom and turned to Shannon. In a few even strides he crossed the distance that separated them and took her by the hands. “What is it?” he asked, frowning. “What’s wrong?”
Shannon tore her hands from him with more force than she meant to use, giving the action a contemptuous flair she had not intended. She saw his bewilderment, his hurt, and was immediately sorry, though the words of apology stuck in her throat. “I do not think I can stay here, Brandon” was what she said. “The situation is becoming impossible. I know about the church having to sanction your divorce. I don’t—”
“You know? How?”
“Aurora. She came to my chamber last night after you returned. She told me. She was despondent, Brandon. There was no one she could talk to save me.”
Brandon tore off his hat and slapped it against a wooden support angrily. “That’s because she’s made an enemy of everyone else at the folly. I should have known she would try something like this. She wanted your sympathy, didn’t she?” He held up his hand. “No, don’t bother to answer. I know that she did. I can well imagine what happened. She confided in you, telling you how terrible I am, even claiming she deserved it in part. I would wager she made quite a show of tears when she said she was miserably sorry for every hurt she ever inflicted.”
Because Brandon’s description was so close to the reality, Shannon could only wonder how he knew. “Were you listening?” she asked.
