What a Spinster Wants - Rebecca Connolly Page 0,31
companion, Edith. It is not that sort of arrangement. We were only thinking more of a friend to come and stay.”
“Yes!” Grace nodded vigorously at this description. “Rather the way you came to stay with Aubrey and me this winter.”
Edith did her best not to roll her eyes as she shifted her attention to Grace. “We are friends, Grace. I canna expect a young lass of Society to pretend to be so and endure such poor living as what I can offer, especially given the situation with Sir Reginald.”
“Who said anything about pretending?” Georgie inquired without the heated note someone else might have. “You don’t even know who we thought of.”
“Thought of?” Edith shot to her feet, looking around at them all as though they had hidden the poor girl in their midst. “You’ve already decided?”
The ladies in the room looked around at each other, their hesitation palpable.
“Yes…” Charlotte finally admitted, drawing out the word slowly.
Edith sat back down hard, stunned that not only had they decided on a course for her, but had followed through with it. All without asking her.
Her mind spun, emotions shrieking in five different directions.
These were her friends, she reminded herself. Her dearest friends. They were not like the other people who had made decisions for her without her knowledge, and their motivations were entirely different. This hadn’t been done maliciously, but with love.
And they had no idea how she felt about such things. She’d never told them. How many secrets would she keep? How long could she keep them?
She looked at her fingers, and the grit under her nails from the life she lived away from all of this. So many secrets. So much away from the finery her friends lived in. So many memories that had haunted her, had shaped her, had led her to this mess.
She had no choice. She’d never had a choice.
Her friends were not her family. Her friends were not her father or her brother. Her friends were not Archie.
She was fine. She was safe. She had a voice.
This time, she had a voice.
“Who?” Edith asked them softly, gritting her teeth against the emotions within her.
Georgie straightened in her seat, staring at Edith carefully. “Edith, we haven’t asked her to do anything yet.”
Edith blinked, her lungs releasing tension just a bit. “No?”
“No.” Georgie shook her head in confirmation, her green eyes seeming to see more than Edith wanted to reveal. “We have, however, asked her to join us today. It will be up to you what she is told and if she will suit.”
There was that, at least.
“I h-hope that m-makes you m-m-more comfortable,” Prue offered, trying for a smile as she absently massaged her abdomen.
Edith gave her sweet, timid friend a look. “If only the thing made you comfortable, Prue.”
Prue’s smile turned more genuine. “N-nothing makes me c-comfortable lately. At all.”
The quip did more to settle Edith than anything thus far, if for no other reason than because it was still refreshing to have Prue verbally spar along with the rest of them. Once, she wouldn’t have done so, but her husband had brought confidence into her life along with his love, and the change had been extraordinary.
Edith could only pray for a similar change in her life. Not to give her confidence, or to settle her nerves, but to change her for the better. To improve her situation enough to remove her fears.
But a husband she’d had, and there hadn’t been anything helpful in that.
“It is better than being force-fed a companion,” Edith admitted reluctantly, her thumbnail clicking underneath that of her index finger in a nervous tick. She sighed heavily and sniffed. “I so dislike having no control or say in my own matters.”
“So do I,” Charlotte moaned in sympathy, putting a hand to her brow. “Only yesterday, Mama approved the final details of my new ballgown without consulting me and having no idea what I wanted. It’s too late now, so I can only pray she made the right choice.”
Grace looked at Charlotte with wide, disbelieving eyes, and Edith dropped her head with a soft snort of amusement. “How in the world is that the same thing, Charlotte?” Grace demanded.
“Why do you need to ask?” Izzy answered before Charlotte could. “It’s Charlotte.”
The room laughed, Charlotte included, and Edith’s haunting memories and fears faded from her mind.
For the moment.
“That’s better,” Charlotte announced with a smile at Edith. “It’s been an age since I’ve seen a genuine smile from you.”