to him. “What difference does it make?”
“Tell me what?” rumbled a deep, ominous voice from the doorway, making them both jump.
Mina looked back over her shoulder and saw Nye looming in the entrance with a nasty gleam in his eye. He took a step into the room. “Tell me what?” he repeated with gathering menace.
Jeremy cleared his throat. “Why, the small matter of our shared parentage, that’s all,” he answered lightly.
Nye cast him a look of utter contempt. “And why would she know anything about that?” he said scornfully.
“Not our shared parentage,” Jeremy stressed, gesturing between himself and Nye. “Hers and mine.”
Mina’s startled glance flew to clash with Nye’s, and she was almost comforted to see him look as startled as she felt.
“What?” he barked, advancing farther into the room. “Explain.”
“Oh dear, what a tangled web I have woven,” Jeremy sighed. “And to think, I actually thought this would make matters simpler.”
“You and Nye share a parent?” Mina persisted. “But…” Her eyes wide, she stared from Jeremy to Nye. “But—”
“Not the same parent,” Jeremy interrupted succinctly.
“You m-mean...?” Mina stammered.
“Nye was my father’s bastard,” Jeremy explained making her flinch.
“And she?” Nye pointed at Mina with a complete lack of manners. “Who’s she to you?” he asked bluntly.
“Oh, my half-sister,” Jeremy answered with a bland smile. “On the maternal side. Do you not see the resemblance?”
“None,” Nye answered grimly.
“Hmm,” Jeremy mused. “I wonder what you thought she was to me, Nye?” he commented with a soft laugh. Nye stiffened, but Mina was far too absorbed trying to unravel their various bonds to notice.
“So, you Jeremy, are brother then to both of us?” She looked from Lord Faris to Nye before returning quickly to the former. She could see no likeness between the two of half-brothers either. “But surely… surely there would then exist some bar to our marrying?”
“Why? There is no blood connection between the both of you,” Jeremy said with a shrug. “And you have never lived under the same roof, so I fail to see why there should be any impediment whatsoever.”
Mina opened her mouth and closed it again. After all, if William Nye was illegitimate, then his relationship to Lord Faris would not be legally acknowledged. They did not even share a name. She cast an uncertain glance at Nye, only to find him staring back at her. This time, he was the one to glance hurriedly away. “I see,” she said weakly. “And why did you imagine this would make things neater for you?”
Jeremy shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. Having all my siblings under one roof,” he said airily.
Mina’s jaw dropped at this.
Nye uttered a sound of disgust and turned abruptly on his heel and left the room.
“Taciturn chap, isn’t he?” Jeremy commented.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Mina said, turning her back to him and picking up her cloth again. “I’m very busy this morning.”
“Birds of a feather,” Jeremy sighed. “But why am I always the odd one out?”
When she did not respond, instead applying herself wholeheartedly to her task, he finally took the unspoken hint and left.
Mina’s shoulders slumped the minute he exited the room and she stared down at her work-roughened hands a minute lost in thought. Then just as swiftly, she sat up, squaring her shoulders again. It was no good dwelling on spilled milk, she scolded herself. What’s done was done. All afternoon she threw herself into her work and by the time she dragged her tired body up to bed, the wood in the parlor bar was gleaming, including the floorboards.
6
The next morning Mina woke and remembered the rugs had been on the line for two whole nights now. Hopefully, that should have dispelled any lingering fusty smells. She would have to bring them in today, but first, they would need a good stiff brush in the yard. She had entreated Edna to save their tea leaves for the purpose and should have quite a collection now after three days. As she dressed and coiled her hair into a bun, she reflected she had heard no noises the night and made her way thoughtfully downstairs.
As had become the routine, she and Edna shared the hot water in the scullery to wash and Mina made the tea this time in a brown earthenware pot as Edna toasted tea cakes for their breakfast. Mina refilled the copper with water from the pump, ate her breakfast and then carried her bowl of dried tea leaves and a bristle brush out to the yard where the rugs were