Hurt and heartache.
Loneliness and loss.
What hope did they have for better?
“Please apologize on my behalf to the maids for the mess.” Rising to her feet, she held out her hand to help Agnes, and the older woman gratefully accepted the assistance. “I should go and find Kitty. We exchanged cross words this morning, and I don’t want them to fester.” She stared at the table devoid of crystal, its linens wrinkled from her writhing body. “I won’t tell Ambrose what you told me. No doubt you’ve heard of the rumors circulating with regard to my... my plan for the upcoming Season.”
“In a house as big as Southwick Castle I hear plenty of rumors, Your Grace, and I’m old enough tae not pay them any heed.” Agnes smoothed her apron. “As for the glass, don’t ye worry. Nothing’s so broken that it can’t be mended. Or least tidied up.”
Mara managed a wobbly smile. “Are you sure?”
“Aye, that I am.” She pointed at the door with a bony finger. “The last I saw of Lady Katherine, she was headed for the music room.”
“Then that’s where I’ll start my search. Thank you, Agnes.” Mara paused. “For everything.”
The Scotswoman curtsied. “No trouble at all, Your Grace. No trouble at all.”
Chapter Nine
After an extensivesearch of the music room, drawing room, front parlor, and side parlor, Mara stumbled across Kitty in the ballroom, of all places. Humming a waltz, her sister was spinning across the polished wooden floorboards with her arms extended and her eyes closed, a dreamy smile capturing her lips as she danced sans partner.
Her sister truly was beautiful, Mara thought with a rare twinge of envy. In a way that she, with her curly red hair and plain brown eyes, never would be. It was Kitty who should have married a duke, and she herself would surely have found contentment with a doctor, or a solicitor, or a tradesman. But here they were, for better or worse, and not wanting to interrupt her sister, but also keen to clear any unhappiness between them, she waited along the wall for Kitty to finish.
“I can feel you staring at me,” Kitty called out before her eyes popped open and she stopped in the middle of the floor with her hands on her hips. “What do you want, Mara? I’m practicing my spins.”
“You needn’t practice, they’re already perfect.”
“Maybe I want to practice. What else is there to do here?”
My point exactly, Mara thought silently. She went to a chair that a servant had likely been using as a stool to reach the cobwebs on the chandeliers and sat. What a waste this room was. Surely its original architect—the person who had poured their heart and soul into the creation of the castle—had never intended for it to sit vacant for as long as it had, collecting dust while the years passed it by. And wasn’t that howshefelt? Just like this ballroom was meant for dancing and hosting grand events, surely she was meant for more things than slowly withering away in a tomb of wood and marble.
“You ran off this morning before we could make amends,” she commented, propping her chin on the heel of her palm. “My husband is already perpetually cross with me.”To put it mildly.“I don’t want my sister to be, as well.”
Kitty rolled her eyes. “Not everyone is going to adore you for every hour of every day.”
No, but I’d settle for a minute here or there.
“I should have told you that Ambrose had arrived. I apologize for my oversight.”
“It’s all right,” Kitty said airily. “I forgive you.” With no other chairs available, she plopped down right in the middle of the floor and brought her knees to her chest. “Is he aware? Of what you plan to do in London.”
Mara laughed. It was not a happy sound. “Oh, he’s aware. More than that, he’s encouraging of it.”
“You’re jesting.”
“Tomorrow we’re to review a list of potential candidates.”
“Now Iknowyou’re jesting.”
“If only I were.”
“He’s not going to try to stop you?”
“On the contrary, he wants to give me lessons.”
“In what?”
Her cheeks heated. “In... seduction.”
