I mean…well, you know what I mean, my lady. I’m too soft-hearted, too romantic, too apt to try and find reasons to excuse someone rather than think the worst of them.”
Lady Clifford sighed. “My dear child, you’re not ‘too’ anything. You’re just as you should be. You rely on your emotional intelligence to make decisions about what’s true and what’s not. You were the same as a child, you know. It never ceases to amaze me, how well you can read people. Your instincts are unparalleled.”
“Yes, that’s true.” Georgiana gave Cecilia’s hand a fond squeeze. “You’re the shrewdest of all of us that way. I’ve often remarked it.”
Emma was nodding. “You are. It’s quite unusual, I think, for a person to be as empathetic as you are, Cecilia. You have a gift for putting yourself in another’s place.”
Cecilia looked around at them, horrified. “But…but that’s horrible!”
“Horrible?” Lady Clifford raised an eyebrow. “My dear girl, why should that be horrible?”
“Because I’m supposed to be clever and logical like Georgiana, and…” Cecilia waved her hands about, searching for words. “Brave and shrewd like Sophia, and wily and cunning like Emma. I’m not supposed to be…me.”
Both Emma and Georgiana stared at her, flabbergasted. “But that’s nonsense!” Georgiana managed at last. “Why, you should be just who you are.”
“Of course, you should,” Emma exclaimed. “You’re perfect just as you are, Cecilia.”
“It’s rare for a person, especially one as young as you, to read others so accurately, Cecilia,” Lady Clifford said. “I don’t mean to say you’re illogical, or discard evidence and facts. I only mean you’re apt to give your instincts equal weight. You’re right to rely on them as you do.”
“But I still don’t understand why you sent me to Darlington Castle, my lady. I let my emotions overrule my better judgment when it came to Lord Darlington. If he’d been guilty—”
“But he isn’t guilty. If he had been, you would have found him so.”
Tears gathered in Cecilia’s eyes. “You don’t understand. All the evidence pointed to his guilt, yet I kept refusing to accept it.”
“Precisely.” Lady Clifford smiled at Cecilia’s expression. “You only prove my point, dearest. Remember, Lord Darlington is innocent. He has been all along. Your instincts told you that, and so you kept prodding, even when the evidence pointed to his guilt. That’s how you discovered the truth. I never believed Lord Darlington was guilty. That man’s no murderer. Indeed, I sent you there to prove him innocent, and that’s just what you did.”
Cecilia glanced from one beaming face to the next, and a watery smile curved her lips. “I did make a terrible nuisance of myself. Gideon—that is, Lord Darlington dismissed me three times.”
Lady Clifford laughed. “Did he, indeed?”
“He did. I managed to talk him out of it each time.”
“Well done. But I’m afraid he’s broken your heart, Cecilia, and I am sorry for that.” Lady Clifford’s smile faded. “I didn’t anticipate that would happen. Perhaps I should have.”
Cecilia lay her head on Lady Clifford’s shoulder. “I’ll be all right.”
But tears started to her eyes again, and Emma, seeing them, leapt up from her chair and squeezed onto the settee on Cecilia’s other side. “Don’t cry, Cecilia.”
Georgiana rose as well, but before she could squeeze in next to them, there was a loud knock on the entryway door. “What spectacularly bad timing.” She glanced at the mantelpiece clock with a frown. “Who’s calling at this hour? I’ll go, and send them away.”
* * * *
Gideon tensed as the echo of footsteps marching down the corridor met his ears. He’d spent the carriage ride from Surrey to London imagining Cecilia would turn him away at the door. Now the moment had come, he was caught in a purgatory of hope and dread.
But it wasn’t Cecilia who flung open the door. It was a tall, cross-looking young lady, her mouth already open as if she were ready to launch into a lecture, but she snapped it shut again when she saw Gideon and Haslemere standing there.
Whoever she’d been expecting to find on her doorstep, it wasn’t them.
“Miss Harley. What a tremendous pleasure it is to see you again.” Haslemere swept his hat off his head and offered her a bow too extravagant to be anything other than mocking. “I hardly recognized you with your mouth closed. Last time I saw you, you were shouting at me.”
Miss Harley recovered quickly from her shock. “Indeed. Well, Lord Haslemere, I’d be pleased to shout at you again, if you like. I’m certain you’ve