lay of the lands, and the tenant farmers who worked for Hugh, but it was not the same.
She missed him.
Dreadfully so, and a little part of her mind would not let go of the hurt, the devastation she had read in his eyes the day she parted from him in London. An awful gnawing feeling kept her awake at night, telling her that she'd made a mistake. That it was his elder brother and not Hugh who had done her cousin wrong.
That she should have believed him above everyone else.
The more she spoke to the staff here at the Abby, the more she doubted what society and her family had come to accept. The late duke was not missed. In fact, he was tantamount to a bully if Hugh's sister, who returned last week from Bath, explained him to be.
Since her return, Sarah had been a godsend, keeping her company and helping her to know of the family dynamics that Hugh had grown up with. All of those things, including Hugh's adamant statement that he was innocent, culminated in her change of mind.
Which left another problem for her to face.
However, was she to stand before Hugh and ask for forgiveness? Ask him to forgive her for allowing what others believed to sway her opinion of him? She had left him. Her husband. The man she loved more than anyone or anything in this world, save for the child that grew in her womb.
He would never forgive her.
"Is that a carriage?"
Molly looked up from the Belle Assemble she was staring at and not the least interested in what lay in her lap and glanced toward the front drive. They were seated in the parlor that sat just off the entrance hall, the room giving its occupants full view of anyone who visited the estate.
The carriage was traveling faster than it ought, and Molly stood, going to the window to see who it was that had come. Sarah joined her, her brow furrowed as a woman all but bolted from the vehicle before it even stopped.
"I've never seen the lady before. Do you know her?" Sarah asked, turning toward her.
Molly was already moving toward the front foyer just as her aunt stepped into the room. Her attention immediately snapped to the cloth parcel she held in her hands, held closed by a frayed pink ribbon.
"Aunt, whatever are you doing here?" Molly kissed her cheek, hope blooming in her soul that her aunt's arrival could mean something in regards to Laura and her diary.
She was not wrong. "I found it. I found Laura's diary. Here," she said, handing it to her. "Read it."
Molly took the parcel. She pulled the ribbon, untying the knot, and glanced at what lay inside. Pages upon pages of letters, love notes, and in Laura's own hand, her own thoughts and dreams.
"I thought this lost forever. However, did you find it?"
Molly started toward the parlor, her mind scrambling to find a letter from the gentleman whom Laura had loved. The word Henry stood out like a blemish on a nose. Her eyes scanned the notes, the adulations, the longing, the sweet words between the two. Laura's sincere and Henry's, the late Duke of St. Albans a means and ways toward getting what he wanted. Laura in his bed.
"You could have kept this from me. To show me this does not put Laura into the best light, along with the duke. Even so, I cannot tell you how very happy I am to see these letters."
Sarah sat beside Molly, reaching out to clasp her about the shoulders. "I told you Hugh was innocent. Henry was a cad, a troublesome boy who grew up to be a selfish, arrogant man. I like to think that Hugh and I are like our father, kind, honest, and honorable. Henry took after Mama in all his wayward traits."
Molly's aunt studied Sarah a moment as if only just noticing her presence. "Aunt Jossalin, this is Lady Sarah Farley, Hugh's younger sister. Sarah, this is my aunt Jossalin Cox, Laura's mama."
Sarah inclined her head a little. "I am happy to meet you, Mrs. Cox, and I'm sorry for all that you've suffered at my family's hand."
"It was not your doing, my dear." Her aunt's lips lifted into a semblance of a smile, but pain lurked in her blue orbs—pain left by the late duke's treatment of her daughter and what ultimately happened to Molly’s cousin.
"Where did you find it?" Molly asked, skimming through pages and pages