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Flags flew in Alice cheeks. "I know what I saw-"
"Alice! That's enough." Whitticombe rose; his gaze locked with his sister's. "You mustn't distress people with your fantasies."
There was an emphasis in his words Patience didn't understand. Alice gaped. Then her color surged. Hands clenched, she glared at her brother. "I am not-"
"Enough!" Leaving his seat, Whitticombe quickly rounded the table. "I'm sure everyone will excuse us. You're clearly overwrought."
He manhandled Alice, incoherent with rage, from her chair and locked an arm about her scrawny shoulders. With a strained smile for the rest of the company, he turned her and marched her, stiff-legged, from the room.
Slightly dazed, Patience watched them go. And wondered how she'd weathered potential calamity without uttering a single word.
The answer was obvious, but she didn't understand it.
Somewhat subdued, the rest of the household dispersed. All made a point of smiling at Patience, to show they hadn't believed Alice's slander.
Retreating to her room, Patience paced. Then she heard the tap of Mi
An instant after that, Patience tapped on the panels, then entered. Mi
"Well! That was a bit of unexpected excitement."
Patience fought not to narrow her eyes. Indeed, she fought to retain a proper degree of calm in the face of Mi
They knew. And that was even more scandalous, to her thinking, than the fact Vane had spent the night-a number of nights-in her bed.
Lips thi
"No." Mi
Patience stared at her; Mi
"You don't understand-"
"On the contrary, I understand very well." Mi
"It's obvious," Timms chimed in. "But these things take time to sort themselves out."
They thought she and Vane would marry. Patience opened her mouth to set them right. Mi
"Simple? Bah!" Mi
Pacing again, Patience recalled similar words-after a moment, she placed them as Lucifer's-to Vane. Arms folded, pacing slowly, she wrestled with her thoughts, her feelings. She should, she supposed, feel some measure of guilt, of shame. She felt neither. She was twenty-six; she'd made a rational decision to take what life offered her-she'd embarked on an affair with an elegant gentleman with her eyes fully open. And she'd found happiness-perhaps not forever, but happiness nonetheless. Bright moments of glory infused with heady joy.
She felt no guilt, and not the slightest regret. Not even for Mi
But honesty insisted she set the record straight-she couldn't leave Mi
"Very wise." Timms bent over her stitching. "The last thing you want is a Cynster taking you for granted."
"What I'm trying to say-"
"Is that you're far too wise to accept without being convinced. Without gaining a few meaningful assurances." Mi
Patience stood, stock-still, for a full minute, staring into Mi
Mi
Timms snorted. "Just make sure he gets it right."
Mi
Patience blushed. She waited, suitably penitent.
Mi
Patience looked long into Mi
Mi
She had from the first visited her father's character on Vane. Now, holding one up against the other, that was patently a false image, a superficial glamor. Vane was an "elegant gentleman" in appearance only, not in character. Not in any of the ways that were important to her.
As for her not being her mother, that was unquestionably true. Her mother had possessed a quite different nature-if her mother had sighted her father going into a conservatory with a youthful beauty, she would have put on her most brittle smile and clung to the pretense of not knowing. Not for her such meekness.
She knew what would have transpired if the beauty Vane had retired with had not been so i
If she married Vane… The thought drew her into a daydream-of ifs, buts, and possibilities. Of how they'd interact, adjust to each other, if she took the risk, grabbed fate by the throat, and accepted him. It was a full five minutes before her mind moved on and the implication of Mi
Mi
Patience blinked. Abruptly, she looked at Mi
"Oh." Lips lifting, her heart leaping, Patience could think of nothing more to say.
Mi
The incident at breakfast cast a long shadow. When the household sat down to lunch, the conversation was subdued. Patience noted it, but, her heart light, paid it little heed. She was waiting, as patiently as she could, to see Vane. To look deep into his eyes, to search for what Mi
He hadn't appeared for their usual midmorning drive. As she settled her skirts, Patience wryly reflected that, even a few days ago, she would have interpreted his absence as evidence of waning desire. Now, buoyed by an i
Alice did not join the table. As if in apology for her morning's outburst, Whitticombe set himself to be more pleasant than usual. Edith Swithins, beside him, was the main beneficiary of his careful erudition. At the end of one particularly tedious explanation, she beamed.