Gone was the harsh, even cold woman who had looked at her with such judgment at the Opera. Vanished was the air of arrogance, the self-importance, and the meanness of her strictface. She looked more like a caring grandmother now, the type who grandchildren became excited about visiting.
Who is this woman… what is going on?
“You said a name just now,” Octavia said slowly, her heart starting to flutter in her chest… daring to dream. “Why did you say that name?”
“A far question.” Lady Redgate sniffed a final time and stood up straight. “One of many, you are bound to have in due course. Please…” She gestured to the second chair at the desk. “I think you will wish to sit for this.”
Octavia did as she was asked; there was no sense in being stubborn now. She sat down, Lady Redgate did the same, and while it might have been her imagination, it felt as if Lady Redgate was resisting the urge to reach across and take her hands.
“Perhaps I ought to begin in the most obvious place,” Lady Redgate began. “The start.”
“That sounds reasonable.”
“I do not know what you have heard of me,” she began. “But I saw your face when you walked in, so I can gather that it is not something I ought to be proud of.”
“It was not intentional,” Octavia said, trying her best not to judge. “But we have met before… if you remember? At the Opera…”
“Oh yes.” Lady Redgate grimaced. “I was not very kind to you. You must forgive me for that, dear. As you no doubt know, there is a certain expectation of women of my status, and while I do not agree with it, I have little choice but to foster it.”
“Being judgmental, you mean.”
She sighed. “My late husband… he had a reputation, one that was passed onto me. Just as it is one I have adopted, like one does a cloak in winter. I need these people to think that I am one of them, a mask I wear, so that they will not think to impede me.”
“Impede you? What does that mean?”
“The beginning.” She exhaled, and her expression turned sad. “It was years ago now that my only daughter fell in love with a commoner. He was a kindly man, if not a little rough around the edges, and while I did not agree with the match, I saw how happy he made her. I only ever wanted what was best for her, so I did not try to stop it when the rumors began. My husband, however…” Her upper lip curled. “He was not so kind. He forbade their love, threatened to do all manner of terrible things should it continue, which in his mind was enough to see its end.”
Octavia said nothing as the elderly woman spoke to her. Although the way she spoke, it was almost as if she did so toherself. Her eyes became distant, the pain of this memory clear on her face.
“My daughter, though…” A smile touched her lips. “Oh, she was stubborn. Rather than giving in to my husband’s demands, she ran away with this great love of hers, vanishing into thin air as if she had never been. She changed her name. She hid herself. And worst of all, not once did she reach out to tell me that she was well…” She sniffed back tears.
Octavia’s heart started to race…
“It was years later when I finally found her. Sadly, by then, she had passed away. Worse still, her husband had also died. That broke me,” Lady Redgate said with pain in her voice. “And it might have been the end of me, had I not learned that she had a daughter and a son…” The smile returned, albeit with some reluctance. “This was four years ago, meaning that her daughter was a grown woman, while her son was still a child, a baby no less.”
Octavia’s chest tightened… Hope started to grow… the realization of what she was hearing slowly settling on her shoulders.
She pushed it down, however, refusing to accept such a thing.It cannot be true… There is no way…
“I have spent the last four years searching for my grandchildren,” Lady Redgate continued. “Four long and hard years, with almost nothing to go on. I was ready to give up, yousee. And the more I searched, the more desperate I became, the more people started to wonder about me.”
“Which is why…”
“Which is why I act the way that I do,” she nodded. “To fool those who might hear what I have been doing and seek to stop me. A daughter who runs away with a common man is one thing, but to have children with him, those that might inherit titles and wealth that many deem does not belong to them…” She scoffed. “This ton. These people. They are hypocrites, all of them.”
Octavia swallowed the lump in her throat. “Did you find her? Your… your granddaughter? And your grandson?”
“In the most unexpected of places.” This time, Lady Redgate did not hesitate to take Octavia’s hands, just as Octavia did not hesitate to give them. “At the Opera, of all places, on the arm of a duke.”
Octavia gasped, and her throat tightened, tears now welling in her own eyes. She still did not dare believe it… she still refused to accept that this was real.
“But I could not be sure,” Lady Redgate continued. “It has been so long since I’ve seen my daughter’s face that I wondered if I was starting to imagine it. So, I had a man who works for me follow this woman, seeking proof.”
“Did he…” She sniffed back the tears. “Did he find it? The proof?”
“When my daughter left, she took with her a family heirloom. I always assumed she meant to sell it for money, but I searched and searched and was never able to find it. My only conclusion can be that she kept it close, perhaps to remind her of where she came from. Or maybe in the hope that her daughter might use it to find her way home.” Her eyes began to sparkle with more tears.
On instinct, Octavia removed a hand from Lady Redgate’s and clutched at her neck as if her mother’s pendant hung there.
