“A good idea, Mama,” Felicity said as she stepped up to kiss her mother’s cheek. “There will be a great deal for us to address in the next few weeks and I know that you will be a great help to everyone now that you are aware of everything going on.”
Lady Stenfax smiled. “Oh, I doubt I know everything. But I will endeavor to be of strength if I can. I’ll see you both later.”
She slipped from the room and shut the door behind her with a wink for Felicity. Felicity drew a breath of shock at the action, the allowance that she be alone with the man her mother had once tried to keep her from.
Asher’s arms come around her from behind and she leaned into his broad, warm chest. She let his strength seep into her, feeling herself fill with it, feeling it replace any fears she still had. Any questions.
Thiswas what he did for her. More than anything else. He brought out her own strength, he multiplied it.
“Thank you for being here while I did that,” she said. “I needed you here, I needed to say it and get it out.”
He nodded and his chin brushed the top of her head. “I think we all did. Your mother has carried a great deal of guilt for what she did. It is time we were all free of those things.”
She turned in his arms and looked up at him. “It is. I can feel the cage door opening now and I…I hardly know what to do.”
“Fly,” he whispered, smiling as he leaned down to kiss her.
She leaned into him, wrapping her arms around his neck, opening to him. He didn’t take or overpower, he just kissed her. But far before she was ready for it to be over, he pulled away.
“There is something you said to your mother,” he said, his dark eyes holding hers steady.
“What is that?”
He shifted, almost like he was uncomfortable. It put her on alert and she fought to remain serene in the face of fear of what he’d say. “Am Itrulyyour dearest friend? The one you trust above all others?”
She blinked up at him. “Do you question that?”
“You’ve said a few times that youcouldn’ttrust me. Couldn’t trust anyone after what you endured.”
She pondered the words a moment. “Yes,” she said slowly. “I did feel that for a while. But these last few weeks have shown me something. It wasmeI felt I couldn’t trust, not you. You have shown yourself to be nothing but trustworthy. And Asher, you havealwaysbeen my dearest friend. Even before I…I loved you.”
There was a knock at the music room door and Asher’s lips pursed. “It seems we will be forever interrupted in his conversation,” he said as he backed away from her. “Yes?”
The door opened to reveal John. His face was drawn and he motioned to them. “I broke the code. Come with me.”
Asher’s heart throbbed as he entered the parlor where the rest of the family was gathered. As he walked into the room, he saw that Rosalinde and Celia were huddled together. Both women had been crying, though they tried to keep brave faces on as Felicity came to them.
“What is it?” she asked, embracing them both. Elise joined them and the women clung together, a sisterhood of strength and love that warmed Asher’s heart. He was glad Felicity had that in these women.
Celia shook her head. “Our grandfather seems to have…destroyed the pages of the diary that contained the truth about our father.”
Felicity’s face crumpled, as did Elise’s. And Asher could see Gray and Dane’s pain, too, in the face of the pain of their wives. Though the two men looked less upset than he thought they might, and exchanged a cryptic look.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Felicity said, hugging them tighter.
“What can we do?” Elise whispered. “What can we do for you?”
“Nothing,” Rosalinde said, clearing her throat and straightening up like she was gathering herself. “It is a disappointment, for certain, but Celia and I had long resigned ourselves to the fact that we would never know the truth. And there are very happy tidings. Tell them, John.”
The attention of the room shifted to Dane, and he reached into his pocket to draw out pages from the hated book that had been their focus for so long.
“I was able to finish the translation of the code,” he said. “Thesearethe pages about the killing of your husband, Felicity. And as far as I know, they are the only proof of what happened that night.”
She froze for a moment, then stepped toward him. Her hands shook as she took the pages, looking at them. “Such small things that caused so much pain for us all,” she murmured.
“But not anymore,” Elise said, and the two women locked gazes. Asher saw the old remnants of their friendship in that look. As girls, they had almost been able to read each other’s minds.
Felicity smiled. “Not anymore,” she agreed, and walked to the fire. She dropped the pages into the flames and watched, happy tears glittering in her eyes, as the words burned away.
