“There is one more thing you should know.” Edward’s voice was careful now. “During the engagement, Hugo did not touch another woman. Not once. I know this because I know him, and because he told me, and because Hugo does not lie to me. Whatever his reputation suggests, whatever thetonbelieves about him, he honored your arrangement completely. From the first day to the last.”
Lily closed her eyes. The brandy sat warm in her stomach, and Edward’s words settled over her, not like a revelation but like a confirmation.
She had known. Some part of her had always known.
She opened her eyes. “Thank you, Edward.”
“You do not need to thank me.”
“I do. You have given me something I needed, and I am grateful.”
Edward studied her for a moment. Then he rose from his chair and came around the desk. He took her hand and held it between both of his.
“You are family, Lily.” His eyes warmed. “I will be here for you, no matter what.”
He released her hand. She stood, and he walked her back to the drawing room, where Sophia waited with Jane asleep on her shoulder, and Oliver and Leo engaged in a heated debate about whether spoons or forks made superior building materials.
Sophia’s gaze cut between Lily and Edward. “Is everything all right?”
“Everything is fine,” Lily said.
“Everything is fine,” Edward confirmed.
Sophia’s eyes narrowed. “You are both saying fine, which concerns me.”
“Sophia, my love.” Edward kissed his wife’s temple. “It is fine.”
Sophia looked at Lily. Lily looked at Sophia. Something passed between them, silent and quick, and Sophia’s expression softened into acceptance.
“Stay for dinner,” Sophia said.
Lily stayed. She played with Oliver and Leo until their nursemaid collected them for bed. She held Jane until the baby fell asleep against her chest, and her warm, soft weight settled something inside Lily that had been restless for days. She sat beside Sophia on the settee and talked about nothing important, about fabrics and flowers and whether the wedding breakfast should include salmon, and the ordinariness of it was a balm she had not known she needed.
When the carriage came to take her home, Lily kissed her sister’s cheek and held her close.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Sophia squeezed her tight. “For what?”
“For being here. For always being here.”
Sophia pulled back and looked at her with the fierce, unwavering love of a woman who had fought to rebuild her family from the ground up and would burn the world before she let anyone take it apart again.
“Always,” Sophia said.
Lily climbed into the carriage. The evening air was cool against her face, and the city moved past the window in a blur of lamplight and shadow.
In three days, she would marry Hugo.
And for the first time since the night he proposed, the thought did not feel like a sentence.
It felt like a beginning.
CHAPTER 28
“Hold still, sister. You have a pin coming loose.” Sophia’s fingers moved through Lily’s hair steadily.
The morning light poured through the bedroom window at Brimsey House. The ivory wedding gown hung from the wardrobe door, its silk catching the sun and turning it to cream.
