Clearing his throat, he continued. “I grasped her hand, and sat down next to her. She smiled and closed her eyes as if her final wish had just been granted. I thought that if I kept talking to her, then her soul could not fly out of the window.” He chuckled without mirth. “So I told her about my stay with James’s family — skipping over the disappointing parts — then about all I had been learning at school, followed by nearly every memory I had from childhood. Any pleasant thought that popped into my mind, made its way out of my mouth. She had no strength to answer, but I knew that she was listening.”
Rapt, Miss Everson dabbed lightly at her eyes.
“Though she later regained a little strength, it did not last.” He sighed heavily. “Two months later, she was gone.”
The weighty silence that fell, stretched on until Miss Everson broke it delicately.
“And so the loss of your beloved mother drives you to heal all who are ailing...”
“Yes.” Alwyn fixed his eyes on hers.
She understands.
Studying her with pensive admiration, he felt affirmation of his very being in her tear-flecked gaze.
But Mr Caspar grunted in his sleep, and the footman sniffed faintly, reminding Alwyn that, in that moment, there was nothing to be done about his growing determination to marry Miss Everson.
Soon, but not today.
The spell was broken entirely as the door opened.
One Tangle, Then Another
AUNT ROSE ENTERED the room, and Mr Alwyn stood to his feet.
Belinda focused again on her embroidery, her eyes still damp from his story.How thoughtless I was in demanding it of him.
She marveled that he had been willing to entrust her with each heartrending detail, and found she loved him even more for what they had revealed.
“Your husband only fell asleep a few moments ago, Mrs Caspar,” Mr Alwyn was saying.
He began to give an account of all that George had accomplished, and Lindy finished the last stitch of a pansy’s petal. Having left her sewing scissors in the parlour, she lifted the sampler to her mouth to sever the excess thread with her teeth. As Mr Alwyn’s back was to her, she thought he would not see this inelegant trick that had earned her much teasing over the years from her family. In the next moment, she wished she had taken their chiding more to heart, as she felt the silken strand catch between her incisors.
She tugged at it, but the traitorous thread was stuck tight. A little cry of distress escaped her, and she shot up from her chair. Every eye in the room, even those of her reawakened uncle, settled on her, sharp with inquiry. Facing the wall, she stifled a whimper brewing in her throat, and held the hoop up that it would not dangle from her mouth.
Suddenly, there was a gentle hand on the back of her arm.
“May I help you?”
Wishing she could fall right through the floor, Belinda turned and allowed Mr Alwyn to reposition her and angle her head towards the open window. He peered into her gaping mouth, and she felt like a trout on a hook. Yet his face bore no trace of amusement as he worked at the tangle in her teeth.
However, he was the only courteous person within the room. Lindy heard her aunt’s tinkle of laughter, unsuccessfully squelched, followed by a familiar though rare-as-of-late sound – Uncle George’s great guffaw. Even Lee’s upper lip was quivering.
“There we are.”
The weight of the tambour lifted, but Mr Alwyn did not release her chin as he was now studying the inside of her mouth.
“There does not appear to be any damage to the teeth or gumline,” he murmured. His thumb lingered on her lip, pressing it gently, then slipped off to rest on her chin.
Daring somehow to look up at him, Belinda watched his gaze drift up from her mouth to her eyes, and she saw his penetrating stare soften.
Mumbling the most chagrinedthank youof her life, she turned away. Then, glaring briefly at her embroidered work, she flung it out of the open window.
This brought outright laughter from around the room, even from Mr Alwyn, who was still so near her that she could have counted the bristles on his chin had she been willing to look back at him.
“Ineverwant to see that again,” she said.
“Thank you for that bit of levity, Lindy.” Rose pressed her hand to her chest, still smiling.
