All the while, she had not looked at him. She did not look at him now.
Joshua tossed a walnut from hand to hand and Cassandra kept on not looking at him.
They played on in silence, without Lucy trying to provoke a scandal, or Isaac talking about Joshua visiting women, or anyone asking awkward questions about dead boys or fathers’ mistresses.
As soon as the last card hit the pile, Lucy rose and shook out her skirts.
“I need my rest,” she said. “It’s such hard work, being the center of attention.” She glared at Cassandra. “I shall be spectacular at the ball, you’ll see, and the day I go to live with Grandmother will be the best day of my life.”
“Mine too. I shall hold my own ball to celebrate the fact that you are gone.”
Lucy tossed her head and stalked out.
Cassandra stood, smiled brightly, and looked at everyone but Joshua.
“I shall turn in too,” she said and headed for the door.
Behind her, Emily leaped to her feet, looking panicked and alone. Impossible to believe the girl was fourteen. In the doorway, Cassandra turned back and held out her hand. Emily dashed over to her and they left together. Well, at least one sisterly relationship had been salvaged.
Newell hovered awkwardly for a moment, then edged toward the door. “I shall retire too,” he said.
“Newell,” Joshua said, yanking off his coat. “I understand you have an uncommonly large number of children.”
“Six, sir. It’s not that uncommon.”
“We’ve taken you away from them. If you need to go home…”
“Mrs. DeWitt has raised this matter,” Newell said. Of course she had. “I can stay longer, if you need me.”
“It’ll be over soon. But for now, you are the official Sister Herd.”
“Ah, ‘Sister Herd,’ sir?”
“Like a goatherd, but for sisters. Keep them fed and watered, make sure they stay in the yard, and don’t let any foxes near.”
“Oh. Ah. Thank you, sir. I think.”
Newell wisely made a run for the door before he could be awarded any more impossible jobs.
Chapter 22
Isaac took his drink to the card table, where he sat and shuffled the cards.
“I should not have mentioned Mrs. O’Dea, should I?” he said.
Joshua snorted. “If you don’t learn to keep your foot out of your mouth, you’re going to break your other leg too.”
Grabbing the bowl of nuts and the nutcracker, he joined Isaac. He sat where Cassandra had been, Cassandra smiling brightly and not looking at him. He felt a little ill, a little hot, a little cold, and his fingers found the knot of his cravat. She thought the woman was his lover, of course, and never dreamed that the truth was worse.
My parents were so much in love…My father’s devotion and fidelity…Fidelity was a cornerstone of their relationship and of our family.
“I never know the right thing to say with them,” Isaac said. “It’s growing up in the Navy. Not a lot of women. You know we—”
“Spare me the details.”
“Details spared.”
Having cast aside his cravat, Joshua settled a walnut inside the nutcracker. He looked up when Isaac made a scornful sound.
“What? What?”
“Nutcracker!” Isaac scoffed. “Can’t you crack it with your bare hands?”
“Is that what you do in the Navy? Crack nuts?”
“I thought you didn’t want the details.”
Joshua flung the nut at Isaac, who snatched it easily out of the air. With a cheeky grin, he positioned the walnut between the heels of his hands, laced his fingers, and squeezed. A moment later, the shell cracked.
“Bet you can’t do that, big brother,” he crowed, peeling the shell off the kernel. “Gone soft pushing a pen around.”
“Ha.” Joshua took another walnut. “I’ll have you know, little brother, that I hauled crates and worked a forge.”
“Our uniforms had buckles made by your factory,” Isaac said. “I remember the insignia. There I was, on the other side of the world, wearing a buckle my brother had made. I wonder if Bram has anything you made, or Mother and Miriam.”
Instead of answering, Joshua focused on the walnut between the heels of his hands. It seemed a stupid, inefficient thing to do when he had a perfectly good nutcracker—also made by his factory—but he was not about to be outdone by his little brother, even if his little brother had spent fourteen years hauling ropes and rowing boats or whatever it was sailors did. Fortunately, he did manage to crack it, and grinned to pretend the red indentations in his skin did not sting.
With a derisive snort, Isaac went back to shuffling. Joshua