Pride and Papercuts (The Austens #5) - Staci Hart Page 0,72

anything? She and Evelyn have always been friends, but—”

“She’s of the mind that we ruined Evelyn. I mean, she dug her own grave, but we didn’t really help matters, did we?”

“She did this to herself, and she deserves everything she got,” Maisie said quietly. And Maisie would know—Evelyn was her mother, after all.

“Good luck convincing Catherine,” I said, trying to tamp down my feelings without success.

Dad caught my gaze and tried to soothe me without speaking.

It almost worked.

“I just don’t understand how once again, it only took our last name to lose something we wanted. Are we cursed? Did somebody break a mirror or six?”

“Elaine, I hardly think we’re cursed,” Mom said on a laugh. “Look at all the abundance we’ve had.” The gesture to my sisters-in-law stung.

“All the abundance they have had.”

My siblings avoided my eyes but for Jett, who gave me an imploring shake of his head.

I sighed, but my frustration and guilt stayed put. “I’m sorry. You know I’m happy for you all, and I’ll fight Mom in hand-to-hand combat to spoil all of your babies. But getting dressed down by Catherine de Bourgh today and Jett losing Georgie has me twisted. You know how I get.”

A chuckle rolled through them. My default when someone I loved was hurting fell somewhere between snarling rottweiler and a bear with its foot in a trap.

Mom was cowed, her hands fiddling with her napkin in her lap. “Maybe there’s something I could do. Talk to Catherine, perhaps?”

“No,” I answered flatly. “You’ve done enough.”

The table shared a glance before Kash picked up the conversation and turned it in another direction. Jett and I had a silent conversation of our own across the table, the end result being an agreement at our misery and our vow to get out of here the second we could. When enough time had passed to pretend everyone had forgotten my outburst, Kash called everyone’s attention, and he and Lila stood to announce exactly what we’d already known—another Bennet baby would join the brood in somewhere around seven months.

I was happy for them—I really was. My heart was just so tired, left stretched out and sagging from being filled up and emptied too many times. Jett didn’t look much better than me, though he faked it well enough, bro-hugging our brothers and clapping them on the backs. When I got ahold of Lila, I hugged her for a long time and told her how much I loved her. I’d always wished for sisters instead of my dirty, smelly brothers, and the ones I’d finally gotten were everything I’d ever wanted—and without the fighting.

I loved them deeply, every last one of them and their little zygote babies. Kash crushed me in a hug and told me he was sorry—we spent a few minutes apologizing over each other until we were both laughing. Luke pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket and bestowed it on me for winning the pool—by two days, I might add—and by the time I curtsied to their applause with money in hand, all was well.

Mom was tucked under Jett’s arm at the back of the cluster of us, and whatever she was saying had a sad smile on his face.

Want me to save you? I asked with my face when I caught his eye.

But he shook his head just a little and rubbed Mom’s arm while she talked.

Dad sidled up to me silently, as he often did. And when he tucked me under his arm, he disarmed me. A lump lodged in my throat, my nose burning, warning me of tears.

I swallowed them back.

“I’m so tired, Daddy,” I said softly.

He squeezed me. “I know. There’s more to it than you said, isn’t there?”

I nodded against his chest.

“Want to talk about it?”

I shook my head.

“All right, Laneybug. But remember—everything changes. Good times, bad times, doesn’t matter. All things are temporary, even if they feel endless.”

He was right, but it felt like chasing a horizon. “I’m so mad. I’m mad at everyone, everything.”

“Of course you are. Someone you love had their choice taken away from them. And our family was the reason. We’re always in some sort of trouble or another, aren’t we?”

I chuckled, rubbing my nose. “Genetic predisposition.”

“From your mother’s side.”

I sighed. “I just wish there was something I could do.”

“Who knows? Maybe something will present itself. If your brother and the Darcy girl want to be together as badly as I suspect they might, they’ll find a way. Look at Marcus and