Chapter One
“Mother, my sapphire necklace has disappeared!”
Lady Elinor Caverleigh stiffened at the shout that came from the next room. She stood before her stepmother, Lady Rebecca Caverleigh, and Elinor’s eyes widened at the auburn-haired woman, a terrible weight sliding down her spine.
“Is that so, Belinda, darling?” she called out, her voice too sweet.
“It is! And I know where it has gone.” Lady Belinda, Elinor’s stepsister’s voice came closer.
She fought the urge to turn around, but when her stepmother lifted her hard stare to look at Belinda, Elinor turned around.
Belinda stood in the doorway, her hands jammed on her hips, her beautiful face marred by the sneer on it. Her hair, as red as her mother’s, was styled back, half of it twisted up, while thelength tumbled down in loose waves. She wore a dress of azure, the bodice glittering beneath the chamber light.
“It isher,” Belinda hissed, pointing an accusing hand at Elinor. “She has taken it, I am certain. She is punishing me because she can’t attend the Morrows’ ball tonight. It is notmyfault!”
“Indeed, it is not,” Elinor’s stepmother purred, and Elinor looked back at her fearfully. “Elinor, did you take my dear Belinda’s necklace?”
“No, Stepmother.” She bowed her head, hating how subdued she sounded. “I have not seen it.”
“Liar!” Belinda shouted. She stomped away, already shouting for her sister—Elinor’s younger stepsister, Joanna—to let her borrow one of hers. From where she stood, Elinor could hear the loud, “that wretch took what is mine, I know it. I have every thought to search her rooms.”
Elinor let out a scared gasp as she shook her head. “No, please, Stepmother. Do not let her?—”
“Why not, Elinor? Are you afraid we will find something beyond your silly little journals about the stars?” Her voice was so mocking, her mouth twisting in mockery. “That does not interest us. It only makes you look more pathetic, hoarding them all. Do you have no shame?”
“I enjoy it,” Elinor whispered, her shoulders pulling in. “It is my great love, and something I shared deeply with my father.”
“Your father is ashamed of you, too. He just pretends not to be because is soft-hearted, but he ought to have never encouraged you. And I do not think he would have if he knew his daughter would become so obsessed. I mean, really, Elinor, you do understand why we are forbidding you from attending tonight’s ball, do you not?”
I do not care about the ball, anyway,she wanted to respond, but she knew that would only make her stepmother angrier.
Keeping her head down and her answers simple were the only ways Elinor knew to endure the reprimand and escape. At least she would have an evening of peace.
“I do,” she answered.
“And you are not humiliated?”
Elinor swallowed. She was not, but that was not what her stepmother wanted to hear.
“I understand my punishment.” It was the only way she could not lie, but not confess the truth, either, that she knew she had stood up for herself.
“Good.” Her stepmother made an irate noise in the back of her throat. “I have had to doextensivedamage control with LordThompson, who is most upset. I do not begrudge you attending assembly halls, but snapping at him, telling him that he was wrong? Who are you to tell a finely educated man that he is incorrect about his own studies?”
But he was!Elinor wanted to insist.
“I did not mean to,” she said, her voice breaking. “I just knew I was right, and he was speaking utter nonsense. He claimed comets are divine warnings, sent to punish the wicked. That is superstition, not science. Mr. Halley predicted his comet’s return over seventy years ago, and it appeared precisely when he said it would. Comets follow orbits. They are not messages from God.”
“Whatever your opinion?—”
“It is not opinion; it is a fact.”
“Donotinterrupt me, Elinor,” her stepmother hissed. “I expect you to remain quiet in public from now on. Silent, if anything. This is why you are still not engaged, and I will not have your inconsiderate outbursts jeopardize my girls’ prospects. It is bad enough they are associated with you through my marriage to your father. I am only grateful that their personalities and beauty are strong enough to make lords forget about you sometimes.”
Elinor’s jaw clenched as she stopped herself from snapping that she was not responsible for her stepsisters’ prospects.
Instead, she answered, “I do not have outbursts. I did not mean to lose my temper three days ago. I hoped for a reasonable discussion, but Lord Thompson was not listening.”
“Of course he did not!” Her stepmother’s laugh was high and cruel, and Elinor cringed beneath her embarrassment. “You are an insolent lady who ought to have no thoughts of this sort of thing. He is expected to. Of course his education trumps your own, you foolish girl.”
