walked, the more unsettled I felt. Perhaps some fish in the lake would be a good thing; it would add movement and life, at least.
When I returned, my mother was waiting for me. “You missed breakfast.”
“My apologies.”
She sighed. “There is some toast on the sideboard for you. Please hurry. I am going to pay a congratulatory visit to Louisa and her mother, and I suggest you accompany me. You have not seen Louisa since Alice fell ill.”
I missed Louisa. But I could not visit her. She would inquire about what had occurred at Lord Williams’s, and I couldn’t yet trust myself to recount all that had taken place without showing how it had affected me. “Will I be welcomed?” I hadn’t been there since discovering Edward’s infidelity, although admittedly my continued absence was more my doing than any formal exclusion from the Rosthorns.
“Of course you shall. They are to be family now. Besides, I request your attendance. And I expect you to exhibit more excitement for your friend than you did for your brother. We would not wish them to think we are in any way displeased with the union.”
“But she will want to know what occurred with Lord Williams.”
“We all wish to know that. However, we shall not stay long. And with talk revolving around the upcoming wedding, I doubt there will be enough time for the conversation to center on you.”
Chastened, I nodded.
As the carriage drew along the drive to the Rosthorn estate, I was astonished at how little had changed. A stand of trees had been removed off to the side and a bench swing stood in its place, while an area that had once been pastureland was now planted over in trees. But on the whole, it was as though the past years and all the hurt and confusion that had occurred within them had never taken place.
Would I one day feel this way about what had occurred with Lord Williams? It didn’t seem possible. I didn’t remember losing Edward hurting this much.
The carriage stopped in front of Sir Edward’s tan, stone home, larger than our own and more classical in style, and I paused. The grounds smelled of childhood and laughter, insignificant secrets and petty hurts. There were new sounds—a water fountain trickling in the garden and the calls of foreign birds that must have belonged to the aviary Sir Edward had constructed the previous year. But even with these changes, the essence of the estate had stayed the same.
We climbed the steps to the house, and the butler, Mr. Brands, opened the door.
“Mrs. Brinton. Miss Brinton.” He inclined his head.
I smiled into his familiar face, now creased with a few extra lines but still as foreboding as ever. “Brands. You’ve grown shorter.”
He scowled, but the glint of laughter in his eyes betrayed him. “I see you have not changed.”
Mrs. Hargreaves’s words came to mind, and I quietly replied, “Where is the benefit of change when one is practically perfect?”
“If Lady Rosthorn is receiving callers,” my mother cut in, casting me a look of exasperation, “we wish to pay our respects.”
“Yes, mum. Mr. Brinton and Miss Rosthorn are with her in the morning parlor. Might I offer my congratulations for a felicitous match?”
“Thank you, Brands,” my mother said, inclining her head.
He gestured toward the entry. “If you would follow me.”
I glanced about me at the light walls of the large hall as we climbed the stairs and turned left toward the morning parlor. The door was open, allowing me to see into the room. The drapes covering the long rectangular windows on the far wall had been changed from deep crimson to primrose, which suited the room much better, but the new drapes appeared to be the only change. The couch Louisa and her mother sat on, with Daniel standing hunched over its back peering at some papers Louisa and Lady Rosthorn held between them, was the same one we’d turned over and used as a fort when younger. The side chairs had been our shields, the table our castle walls.
“Mrs. Brinton and Miss Brinton,” Brands announced. The three occupants looked up.
“Eloise. Margaret,” Lady Rosthorn said with a smile. “How good of you to call. Please, do come in.”
As we walked into the room, Daniel turned over the papers that they had been looking at. What was on them that he didn’t want me to see?
I walked to Louisa and took her hands. “I am so happy for you, though I’m certain you could have