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James believed him. He glanced toward the clock and then toward the door, suddenly unwilling to postpone the meeting. "Then there is no reason to wait."

Hubert frowned. "Where are you going?" James picked up his coat from the back of the chair. "To take you to meet the heir." He looked toward his uncle, a strange anticipation stirring beneath his usual restraint. "Come. Let us go and meet Felix now. Olivia won’t mind, you are the closest family I have after all."

As they left the study together, James found himself wondering how Hubert would react to the child. More importantly, he wondered how it would feel to introduce Felix as family to the man who had been the closest thing James had ever had to a real father. The thought should have frightened him, yet instead it brought an unfamiliar warmth to his chest.

Perhaps, James realized reluctantly, the future he had spent so long trying to avoid was beginning to look less like a burden and more like a life.

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Ihave decided I am going to London." Louiza said.

Olivia was sitting beside Felix's cradle in the little cottage nursery when Louiza quietly announced this.

For several seconds, Olivia simply stared at her sister, certain she had misunderstood.

"You are going to London?" she repeated, her hand still resting gently against Felix's tiny blanket.

Louiza nodded, looking uncomfortable. "Yes."

Olivia's stomach dropped. After everything they had endured together, after finally escaping their mother's house and finding themselves here, together, how could Louiza suddenly decide to leave?

"Why?" Olivia asked, her voice tightening as she looked at her sister. "Why would you want to go back home now?"

Louiza immediately crossed the small room and sat beside her. "I am not abandoning you," she assured her, taking Olivia's hand. "You will not be alone. You have a husband now."

Olivia stared at her. "A husband?"

Louiza smiled faintly. "I can feel that you and James want to spend more time alone together. I feel like an obstacle."

Olivia's mouth fell open in disbelief. "That is absolute nonsense," she protested, pulling her hand free only to gesture toward the room. "You are my sister. You could never be an obstacle." Her voice softened as she added, "And where exactly do you expect to go if you leave? You cannot go back to Mother. She will marry you off in a moment to someone you hate."

Louiza's expression immediately changed. "I have no intention of returning to her."

Olivia felt some of the tension leave her shoulders, though confusion remained.

Louiza produced a letter. "Bethany has written back," she explained, offering it to Olivia. "She wants me to stay with her, so I have decided I will go to London and remain with her until your wedding. You will be joining us soon enough, and then everything will be all right."

Olivia looked down at the letter from their sister without opening it. The thought of London should have comforted her, especially knowing Bethany had offered Louiza a home, but instead she felt an ache spreading through her chest.

"It will be the first time we have spent time apart since Mother made us sleep in separate bedrooms when we were children," Olivia whispered.

The memory came rushing back with painful clarity, two little beds in separate rooms, Olivia creeping through the corridors at night because she could not bear being away from Louiza. She looked at her sister now, her eyes beginning to sting. "Please wait until after the Midton ball," she pleaded, blinking rapidly. "Just stay until then. I do not want to go through it without you."

Louiza smiled sadly and brushed a loose curl away from Olivia's cheek. "Olivia, you ought to go to the ball with James," she said gently. "You have your own family now."

Have I?

Olivia wondered, and the question hurt more than she expected. She looked down at Felix, whose tiny chest rose and fell beneath his blanket, then toward the door through which James would eventually return. She was married, yes, and she loved this baby with a fierceness that frightened her, but was that a family?

James had been clear from the beginning that their marriage was an arrangement, and although their friendship had grown, Olivia knew he did not see her the way she sometimes found herself seeing him.

My own family.

The words sounded lovely, but she was not certain she belonged to one yet.

Before she could answer, the cottage door opened, and James entered with Hubert behind him. Olivia immediately noticed the change in James's expression when he saw the three of them.

"Ladies, I did not know you were here. You remember my uncle, he came to meet Felix."