Elise rolled her eyes. “I know... I can be a bit headstrong.”
“A bit?” Gwendolyn questioned, and then smiledwhile lightly pushing them both through the doorway. “We need to be away from prying eyes.”
This time Elise obeyed, moving inside the house. “Granted, I appear a fright.”
“Your dress—” Dara paused. “The shoulder is torn, and patched.”
“That is a long story. It also doesn’t help that I’ve been wearing it for days.” To distract them, Elise smiled at the butler, who had shut the door behind them. “Hello, Herald.”
“Hello, Miss Elise.”
She handed him the shabby wide-brimmed hat Kit had purchased for her. “Please treat this with good care.”
“I shall, Miss Elise.”
“And Tweedie,” Elise called out. Her great-aunt sat on a settee in the receiving room. She was petting Tamsyn, who had made herself at home by walking right into the house as the sisters had talked and jumping up next to the older woman. Not even Herald had noticed. Now Tamsyn sat as regal as a duchess as Tweedie scratched behind her ears.
“Where did this dog come from?” Dara asked.
“She’s mine,” Elise told them. “Her name is Tamsyn and she saved my life.” She would eventually tell them about Kit, but not right now. She needed to carefully choose her words as she shared the news that she was in love with a man who did whatever he pleased, had only a few shillings to his name, and answered to no one. Aman she prayed had survived Holbert’s assault. She wanted to believe she would hear word soon, even if it came from Mr. Steele.
Instead, Elise went to her great-aunt and gave her a huge hug. The maid Molly brought in a tray of sandwiches, hot tea, and sherry. Elise and Tweedie took sherry. No one asked Tamsyn to move off the settee.
“So,” Elise said, “what has happened since I left?”
“Other than every debutante and their mother trying to discover if there is any truth to the rumor you have disappeared?” Gwendolyn said.
“I had no desire to bring scandal down on the family,” Elise said.
“Then you should have stayed where you were,” Tweedie observed. She gave Tamsyn a sandwich.
And there it was—the truth.
Elise drew a fortifying breath. “I wasn’t thinking clearly. I was so angry. I’d been angry for a long time.”
“With us?” Dara asked.
“No,” Elise answered. “I realize now that my anger may have started with Gram’s death and the changes that happened with Richard and all. I kept wanting to find a safe place, one where there weren’t any changes.”
“Such a place does not exist,” Tweedie declared, “because life is always changing.”
Elise looked at her small family gathered around. She loved them so much.
She also loved Kit—and that is when she understood.
“There is something that doesn’t change,” she told her family. “Love. When I am here with you, I know I’m safe.” Just as she’d been safe with Kit.
“Please, don’t ever run away again,” Dara said. “I admit I can be somewhat high-handed—but, Elise, you took terrible risks. Something horrible could have happened to you.”
She was right. Then again, Elise had no regrets. She’d met Kit.
Gwendolyn poured more tea in her cup. Of all of them, she was the tea drinker. “Elise, you had callers. We made excuses, but men are competitive and that makes them suspicious. Then the other debutantes and their mothers began asking. It was as if they saw a chance to spread rumors. When they have seen us without you, they have been very inquisitive.”
Dara nodded. “An upstairs maid we’d hired had been in the employ of Lady Byrne. Her ladyship was paying for information.”
Lady Byrne and her two daughters were the Lanscarr sisters’ chief rivals. Both families were from County Wicklow and on the hunt for husbands. If any spurious stories were spread about the Lanscarrs, Lady Byrne was usually behind them.
“I am sorry,” Elise said. She meant those words. “I was thinking about myself. It was selfish of me.”
