But that—that had beenso long ago. Had Seraphina been unhappy this whole time?
“I thought I had to be grateful that he married me,” Seraphina said, “because I was so humiliated when my first match turned me down. But being married to him was exhausting. He had an opinion on everything I did, on whether or not it fit the image of an Abbott. No matter how picture-perfect we looked, he never relaxed, and he never let me relax either. I would have left him a long time ago ... but I’m not like you, Iris. I didn’t have the courage to deal with everyone staring at me. We were supposed to be this incredible alpha couple, supposed to have the perfect marriage, and sometimes itlookedlike we did. So I tried to convince myself that it was all okay, and I just put up with it, year after year.” She sniffled. “And if I’d just divorced him, or if I’d never married him in the first place, nothing would have happened to you. I’m so sorry.”
Iris untangled herself from Keith and went to her sister, leaning down so she could hug her.
“Don’t be sorry. It’s all okay now.”
“No, it’s not! The accident was all my fault.”
“The accident was allBlake’sfault,” Iris said firmly. “And if it hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have spent the last year trying to make the Council happy, and then I would never have met Keith. I don’t need to smile, Seraphina. The people I love always know whether I’m happy or not. I just wish I’d known thatyouweren’t.”
“I didn’t want you to know,” Seraphina said, wiping her eyes. She fished out an immaculate monogrammed handkerchief, and Iris suppressed a giggle. Even in the direst straits, her sister was the height of well-prepared elegance. “I’d asked you to hide who you were long enough for me to get married—I hated the idea of making you go through all that for nothing. And I couldn’t stand to tell you what acowardI was, wanting to leave him but not being able to make myself do it.”
“You’re not a coward,” Keith said from the bed. His voice was firm and sure. “This place makes life hard on people. It did a number on me too. Iris is one of the few people who managed to see through it from the start, but I think we can both live with not being as on-the-ball as she is. We’re doing our best.”
“His best is amazing,” Iris said to Seraphina, clasping her sister’s hands in hers to drive the point home. “So is yours. And he’s right, not being able to leave Blake doesn’t make you a coward or weak or whatever else you want to call yourself.”
“Well, whatever I was, I’m done being that person.” Seraphina squared her shoulders. “I’m going to get Sunbeam back, for a start. And then I’m going to make sure everyone here knows that the way we’re going, we’ll end up with a lot more Blakes than Mariannes. Things need to change, here and everywhere else, and this is as good a time as any. People are shaken up right now, and I think they’ll listen.”
They really might, too. Seraphina was persuasive and charismatic—she always had been, and Iris suspected she would be even more electric now that she wasn’t held back by fear and a nagging, status-obsessed husband.
“It’s the right moment,” Keith agreed. “No one here would have expected that when the dust settled, Blake would be the villain and Iris would be the heroine. I know it’s going to come as a huge shock to Lady Alicia, that’s for sure.”
“Exactly. I’m going to strike while the iron is hot.”
“Lord Sinclair might listen too,” Iris added. “He’s more reasonable than I thought he was, and I think he has a real sense of responsibility. He wants to do right by the village.”
Keith nodded. “He surprised me at the funeral.”
“I would have loved to have been there, if my husband hadn’t left me on the floor of my own closet,” Seraphina said. Her mouth twisted in a bleakly amused smile. “I used to wonder what would be a good enough excuse to pass up hosting one of Blake’s parties, and now I know. It’s impossible to argue with ‘drugged and left for dead.’”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I hope you never have that good of an excuse ever again.”
“Don’t worry.” Seraphina gave her another hug, resting her cheek against the top of Iris’s head in a way she hadn’t done since they were kids. “From now on, I’m going to make my own decisions, not let the Council make them for me. I think I’m going to be a lot happier ... and a lot safer.”
Epilogue
