Page 56 of From Rakes to Riches

“I suppose there’s no sense putting it off any longer.” Juliet let out a long sigh. “Dearest, there’s something I must speak to you about, and…well, the truth is I’ve been dreading it, as I know it’s going to upset you.”

“What is it? It’s not Euphemia or Tilly, is it?” Dread tightened Helena’s throat. “It can’t be Emmeline. I’ve just had a letter from her, and she seems very well?—”

“No, it’s nothing like that. No one’s ill. At least, not physically.”

“Just say it, Juliet! You know I can’t bear this sort of waffling.”

“Yes, all right. ItisEuphemia. She’s lonely, Helena. She doesn’t say so,” Juliet added, before Helena could speak, “Butshe is. One need only read between the lines of her letters to see it.”

Helena abandoned her tea cake on her plate, her appetite gone. “Yes, I’ve noticed that as well. It must seem dreadfully quiet at home, with just Phee and Tilly there.”

“Yes. I daresay five young ladies make a great deal more noise than two.”

Yes, but it wasn’t just that. Euphemia was the eldest, and she’d taken care of them all after their mother left. Phee’s own romantic prospects had been shattered by their mother’s scandal, so Phee had stepped into their mother’s place. “It must seem to her as if we’ve all abandoned her,” Helena murmured, a pang in her chest.

“I think it must, rather. She knows we haven’t, of course, but what one knows logically and how one feels are not, alas, the same thing.”

“No, they’re not.” Not at all. If she’d learned nothing else since Lord Hawke came to Hawke’s Run, she’d learned that. “But I thought Phee agreed to spend more time here with you at Steeple Cross, and with Emmeline and Lord Melrose.”

Juliet gave a helpless shrug. “I’ve tried to coax her to come here, Helena. Miles and I have done everything we can think of to lure her to Steeple Cross, and I know and Emmeline and Johnathan have done the same. We can’t persuade her to leave Hambleden House.”

“Not even for Tilly’s sake?” Tilly was their youngest sister, and rather a wild little hellion. “Tilly won’t be content to remain cooped up at home if she can be here, or with Emmeline in Kent.”

“Yes, and I’m afraid that only makes it worse. As Tilly gets a glimpse of life beyond the tiny town of Hambleden, she’ll want to leave more often, and Phee won’t deny her. She’d never stand in the way of Tilly’s happiness.”

“Then Phee will be alone.” Alone, in that rambling old place with the sloped floors and drafty windows, with nothing but her memories to keep her company. It was an unbearable fate for poor Phee, so awful it didn’t bear thinking about.

Juliet reached for her hand, her gaze pleading. “Yes. Something must be done, Helena.”

Only then did it dawn on her what Juliet was saying, what she was asking.

One of them would have to go home.

It couldn’t be Emmeline or Juliet. They were both married now, with their homes and their husbands to think of, and children were sure to follow soon enough.

There was only one logical solution, only one of them whocouldgo.

She was going to have to leave Hawke’s Run.

10

“Have you seen Lord Hawke yet this morning, Abby?” Helena paced from the stove to the kitchen table before finally giving up, dropping into a chair and resting her chin in her hands.

Was it really only nine o’clock in the morning? It felt as if years had passed since she’d left Steeple Cross yesterday evening.

“Nay, miss. I daresay his lordship is still in his bed.” Abby sprinkled a dusting of flour over her pastry before attacking it with the rolling pin. “The quality likes to lie about in their beds till the afternoon, you know.”

That made Helena smile, despite the heavy weight that had settled in her chest since her conversation with Juliet yesterday. If Abby knew how early Lord Hawke woke, and what he did in those dark morning hours, she’d faint dead away.

He’d been in his study when she returned to Hawke’s Run yesterday evening. She’d noticed the light underneath the door, but she’d passed by without knocking. If shehadknocked, he likely would have let her in, and then she would have been obliged to tell him she was leaving Hawke’s Run.

Leaving the boys, and Mrs. Norris and Abby, and Hecate, Hestia and Poseidon.

Leaving him.

It would happen soon, too, just after Christmas. She and Juliet had decided it couldn’t wait any longer than that, as Tilly was meant to spend several months of the new year in Kent with Emmeline and Lord Melrose.

She should have told him last night. It was pure foolishness for her to have fled upstairs without speaking to him, as if she were a child fleeing a scolding. It wouldn’t do the least bit of good, pretending it wasn’t happening. It wouldn’t change anything.

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