Both Copeland men turned smiles to her then.
But they again died, and all of them tensed when they hearda woman’s imperious, “Do not!Do…not.No.No.No.I will no longer bedenied!”
And then a woman his father’s age with a hat more enormousthan anySatrinewore on her head, along with asevere traveling costume encasing her body, all in black, stopped, of a sort,in the doorway.
The “of a sort” bit was that she was batting Eaton with thehandle of a black parasol.
Ansley stood and turned to her.
Loren andSatrinefollowed suit.
“Mary, stop that this instant,” Ansley demanded.
She ceased assaulting Eaton and confronted Loren’s father.
“Well, I never, Ansley Copeland!”she exclaimed.“I’ve beenpracticallyburiedunder your messages delivered by bird telling me,in your inimitable way, that way being polite to the point of painful, which isa skill you possess that hasalwaysbeenimpossiblefor me tofathom.I digress!Messages telling me with the utmost courtesy tomindmy own businesswhen the world, it appears, istopsy-turvy!”
She was nearly shouting when she finished.
But no one was able to get a word in because she wasn’tdone.
“Who, twenty-six years ago, advised you to approach mynephew?”She jerked her parasol handle to indicate herself.“Me.Andwho received a bird with the news that contract wouldnotcome tofruition.”She leaned forward.“Not me.The birds I received saidsomething else entirely!Now, I demand to know who thisSatrineis and what in the dickens is…is…” Her eyes went beyond Ansley, and shewhispered, “By the gods.”
“Aunt Mary?”Satrineaskedhesitantly.
Mary Livingstone, Baroness of Longdon, dropped her parasol,opened the large bag hanging on her wrist, pulled out an almost equally largefan made of lace, flipped it open, fanned herself, all this while reelingdramatically and calling out, “By Brigid!By theMorigan!By Cerdwin!The glorious gods have wrought a miracle.”
“Mary, calm yourself.This isn’t Maxine,” Ansley clipped.“It’sSatrine.Maxine’s twin.”
Mary shot straight.
“Her what?”
“Edgar abhorred twins,” Ansley told her.“He sent her awayat birth.And he staged Corliss’s death after he was responsible for harmingMaxine.After that, he sent them both away.The story is long.Fraught.And Iwill share it with you later.Satrinehas lived it.She doesn’t need to go through it with everyone who learns it.”
“Edgar abhorred twins?”she asked breathily.
Loren glanced atSatrineto seeher deathly pale.
“ByCaylek!”Mary spat, and Lorenreturned his attention to her.“He was a bad seed.I was but a child myself,but even so, I told his mother.I said, ‘Smother that one, he’s a bad seed.’Did she?No.”
“Oh my gods,”Satrinewhispered.
It was a poor choice of thing to do.
She acquired Mary’s attention again.
As such, Mary stomped to her, lifted a hand high, as thewoman was of diminutive stature, graspedSatrine’schin, and dragged it side to side.
“A great beauty.Like your mother.Your father was a lookertoo.Unfortunately, the rascal was born with the soul of a knave.”She letSatrinego but didn’t stop talking.“I am unsurprised hesent you away, although I’m sorry for it, for your sake.But you were savedhaving to be aroundhim, and I daresay in the now, you take mymeaning.”
She didn’t wait forSatrinetoconfirm this.
She whirled back to Ansley and finished.
“It probably wasn’t abhorrence of twins.It was probablybecause he was tight-fisted with anything, unless it served his own pleasure.One child was drain enough on his vast fortune, buttwo?I cannot evenbeginto imagine what Corliss was thinking when she took him.Thenagain, he had the uncanny ability to charm the pants off a snake when he had amind to.”
“Wow, you haven’t changed,”Satrineremarked.
