be getting love advice from you.”
Fletcher popped him on the shoulder. “Never thought I’d be giving it. I thought you wanted Agnes for the longest time. I’m glad I didn’t have to kill you.”
“I never wanted Agnes.”
“I see that now. You’ve had your heart set on sweet Matilda for a long time.”
Had he? Had he wanted Tilly for longer than their marriage? Than that fateful night in the inn when they’d slept naked together for warmth? Damnation, but he missed his wife.
If what Fletcher said was true, then he was going to have to risk everything if he was going to win her back.
…
“Lady Glenbrook, your sister is here to see you,” the butler said after entering the parlor.
Tilly winced. She was not interested in seeing anyone today, let alone Melanie. It had been three days since her last Ladies of Virtue meeting, and she’d successfully avoided everyone since then.
“Do not bother with excuses, I know you are here,” Melanie said as she burst into the room.
Tilly gave the butler a smile.
“Shall I ring for tea?”
“No, she won’t be staying that long.”
“Very good, my lady.” He bowed, then left the room.
“Ah, perhaps marriage has given you a backbone after all,” Melanie said. She dropped herself, with much ceremony, onto the blue flowered settee. “Is it true what I’ve heard in town? Did Sullivan leave and return to the coast?”
Tilly was not interested in being truthful with her sister, especially about her marriage. Conversations with her sister never did anything save give her heartache or make her angry. She’d endured enough of both. She would not allow her sister the opportunity to gloat.
“That is not precisely what I heard,” Melanie said.
“Believe what you want, Melanie,” Tilly said with a heavy sigh. “Is there something you needed or did you come here merely to annoy me?”
Melanie clicked her tongue. “So cranky. Can a sister not come and visit another sister?”
Tilly chuckled, finding Melanie’s statement oddly amusing. “I suppose that probably does happen with other families. But certainly not ours. You’ve never been kind to me, not a moment in my life. You’ve never liked me, never wanted a real relationship with me. There is no reason to pretend you’d do so now.”
Melanie patted her perfectly coiffed blonde hair. Despite her cruelty, she was still a stunningly beautiful woman. Not as tall as Tilly. No freckles to speak of. Her teeth didn’t have the wide gap in front, and she had soft curves that men loved.
“You’re right, of course. I have no reason to be here other than to satisfy my own curiosity.”
“My marriage is none of your concern.”
“Oh, but it is.”
“I don’t see how,” Tilly said.
“You wouldn’t. But trust me. All the times you’ve sneered at me and judged me for my failed marriage, wouldn’t that be so perfect for your own marriage to have dissolved even before it’s truly begun? You’ve barely been married a month.”
“So you are here to gloat. Well, you’ve had your fun.” Tilly turned to leave the room.
“What I can’t figure out is how you managed to ruin your marriage with a man who so obviously loves you. My ridiculous husband can’t keep himself contained in his pants longer than necessary to even pretend to be faithful to me. I’m almost certain he slept with another woman the day before our wedding. But he never loved me. I never loved him. We never pretended as much. But Sullivan is so obviously in love with you.”
Tilly gaped at her sister.
Melanie chuckled, a tinkling giggle that clawed at Tilly’s skin. “Oh, you didn’t know. He never said?” She rubbed her hands together gleefully. “This is simply too delicious.”
For one long moment, Tilly just sat there while Melanie’s words reverberated through Tilly’s mind. Was Melanie right? Did Sullivan love her? If so, why hadn’t he told her?
Then, suddenly, she was keenly aware of her own pounding heart and of Melanie’s brittle, cruel gaze taking in every emotion flickering across Tilly’s face.
She sucked in a breath and waited for the shame and humiliation she normally felt whenever Melanie teased her cruelly. It didn’t come. Instead, she felt only a pang of regret. And, even more surprisingly, pity.
Melanie’s cruelty didn’t bring happiness. It hadn’t made her life any better.
Melanie had beauty and admirers beyond anything Tilly would ever have, but those things hadn’t made Melanie happy. These moments of delight Melanie seemed to feel whenever she was grinding Tilly beneath her heel were short-lived. They weren’t true happiness. They weren’t love or