Amelia’s throat tightened painfully.
Pride and heartbreak swept through her in equal measure as she watched Valerie stand taller than any debutante at the finest London ball could ever hope to stand.
She is trembling, and yet she refuses to break,Amelia realized, noticing the minute quiver in the girl’s shoulders. Gabriel remained silent beside her, but Amelia saw his jaw tighten and his eyes soften with unmistakable pride. She wished desperately she could spare Valerie this moment, but some wounds could only be faced, never avoided.
Without another word, Valerie turned away. She walked towards the study door, her pace steady despite the storm Amelia knew raged inside her. She neither hurried nor hesitated, refusing to grant Helen another glance. The door clicked shut behind her with quiet finality. As the sound echoed through the room, Amelia realized that it had not merely been a daughter leaving her mother; it had been a child closing the door on years of pain.
And I’ve never felt prouder.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Amelia stood perfectly still as the silence settled over the study, though her heart beat hard enough to make her ribs ache.
Helen regarded the moment with calm amusement rather than offense.
“Well,” she said, folding her gloved hands before her, “Valerie certainly became spirited.” Her lips curved into a faint smile that never reached her eyes. “I spent years attempting to break that spirit, and yet somehow it survived.”
Amelia visibly stiffened while Gabriel’s expression darkened with alarming speed. Amelia felt a chill creep down her spine.
What mother speaks so casually of breaking her own child?
Amelia stared at Helen in disbelief, scarcely able to reconcile the elegant, composed woman before her with the cruelty hiddenbeneath her pleasant voice. Then, unwillingly, another thought crept into her mind.
My own mother is not so very different.
Lady Shirley had never struck her children, yet she had spent years arranging, directing, and deciding until Amelia scarcely knew where her own wishes began. The resemblance made Amelia’s stomach twist.
Helen’s attention shifted leisurely around the room. “Where is David?” she asked, her tone almost idle, as though inquiring after the weather.
Gabriel answered before anyone else could speak. “That is no longer your concern,” he said coldly, his hands clasped behind his back to conceal their tension. He took one deliberate step forward.
“What do you want, Helen?” His grey eyes never left hers. “Why have you returned after all this time?”
Helen met his stare without flinching. “I have already told you,” she replied smoothly, lifting one elegant shoulder. “I have come for my children.” She paused, watching his face carefully before continuing. “Idle gossip reached me that you intended to replace their mother with a governess.” Her gaze drifted slowly toward Amelia, lingering there with unmistakable calculation. “Naturally, I found such rumors difficult to believe.”
Lady Provie shifted awkwardly where she stood near the fireplace. Helen inclined her head toward her with a polite smile. “So I called upon Lady Provie,” she continued, “and she very kindly confirmed that the gossip was, in fact, true.”
Lady Provie looked distinctly uncomfortable for the first time since Amelia had met her.
Helen spread her hands almost innocently. “I simply could not allow another woman to take my place. So here I am.”
Amelia felt every pair of eyes in the room turn towards her. Her cheeks warmed, not from embarrassment but from indignation.
Take her place?
She had never once attempted to replace anyone. She had merely loved two lonely children because no one else had been there to do so. Before she could speak, Gabriel moved.
He stepped directly in front of Amelia.
The movement was instinctive, protective, leaving no doubt who he meant to shield. His broad shoulders blocked Helen’s view of Amelia almost entirely.
“Valerie was correct,” Gabriel said, his voice dangerously quiet as he faced Helen. “You forfeited any right to call yourself their mother years ago.” His jaw tightened. “You will never lay eyesupon David or Valerie again.” The certainty in his tone echoed through the room.
Amelia’s heart swelled painfully. Not because of what he had said. Because of the fierceness behind every word.
She understood then that every rule, every stern lecture, every impossible standard Gabriel imposed had never been born from cruelty. They had been built from terror. Terror of failing those children, as every other adult in their lives had failed them. The realization made her eyes sting.
She stepped carefully around Gabriel’s shoulder before she could lose her nerve.
