Chapter42
A Mother and Daughter Talk
Meanwhile
Stella looked up from where Bradley rested in her arms to see her daughter standing in the doorway.Helen had paused, as if she dare not cross the threshold into the hotel’s parlor.
“Your father was deep in his cups when he came to bed last night,” Stella said.“When I asked what might be the matter, he mentioned your name and then passed out.Might you know anything about that?”
For a moment, Helen displayed a look of confusion.“Oh, I suppose he was celebrating,” she replied, finally entering the parlor to take the upholstered chair opposite her mother’s.
“Celebrating?”
“My betrothal.”
Despite how Bradley had begun to stir in her arms, Stella went very still.“Betrothal?”she repeated in a soft voice.
“Yes.Thomas would like to marry me, but he won’t formally propose until he has secured Father’s permission, which I think might be happening at this very moment.”
“Thomas?”For a long moment, Stella seemed lost in thought.“Thomas Forster?”
“Yes, Mother.”Helen leaned forward, her face displaying concern.“Are you all right?I thought you would be pleased.”
Letting out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding, Stella chuckled.“I am,” she claimed happily.“Oh, I am, only...I wasn’t aware he’s been courting you.His behavior has been so...odd.”Despite hoping to hear such news—almost expecting it—it still caught her by surprise.
Helen tittered.“He hasn’t been, not really,” she admitted.“So do not concern yourself with thinking you have been blind,” she explained.
Stella kept her attention on her daughter as she considered whether or not she should admit what she had suspected.“Yetyoudo not seem especially surprised,” she said suddenly.“What had him speaking of marriage so suddenly?Of deciding you were to be his choice for a wife?”
Although she had noticed Thomas’ regard for her daughter—she had caught him staring at Helen a number of times—she still experienced a moment of disbelief despite what Harry had said the night before.Her daughter really was going to marry the son of an earl.
Straightening in her chair, Helen’s face reddened.“I, um, I may have slapped him.Slapped some sense into him,” she stammered.“I would have hit him with that carved sphinx we purchased from the street vendor, but I feared I might do permanent damage if I did.I do rather like his appearance the way it is.”
Blinking several times, Stella made an odd sound in her throat.“I did that to your father once,” she murmured.“You are correct in saying it is quite effective in securing their attention.”
“I discovered that’s very true, yes,” Helen agreed.
“Tell me, what did Thomas do to deserve such violence upon his person?”
Helen seemed to think on her answer before she lifted a shoulder.“It was more what he had led himself to believe of me, despite knowing I wouldn’t do such a thing.”
Stella blinked, ready to be angry with Thomas.“What such a thing did he think you had done?That you hadn’t...or didn’t?”
Waving to her brother, Helen tittered.“It seems I’m guilty of being too attentive when it comes to Bradley.He believed I was his mother.”
Blinking again, Stella scoffed.“Hewhat?”she countered.
“I think he heard Bradley call me ‘mama’ once, and I do dote on him something awful, so I suppose he’s not really to blame,” Helen reasoned.
Glancing down at the boy, Stella watched as Bradley grinned in delight and said, “Mama,” as he attempted to capture a foot in his chubby hands.
“Well,finally,” she said as her face brightened.“You’ve been saying ‘dada’ for so long, I wondered if you would ever know to call me mama,” she added.
“Dada, dada,” he replied happily.
“You’re definitely done feeding off me for the rest of the day,” Stella said under her breath.
Helen laughed even as a tear streamed down one cheek.“He kissed me.At the Morganfield’s ball, the night before they left London for Sicily,” she said.
