Page 77 of The Best-Kept Secrets
“Dubhán!” Mother’s voice rang with shock.
“Do not test me on this, because I will follow through.” He held his ground. “I will do what I must to protect her from you.”
“After all these years, you are siding against me.” Father looked at him the way one would a bucket of milk that had turned sour.
“You consider my insistence that you behave like a gentleman to be ‘siding against you.’ How has this become the person you are?” Duke shook his head. “Find something to fill your time this evening away from my friends. And if by morning you cannot discover within yourself the civility to treat Miss O’Doyle as you ought, then make arrangements to return to Writtlestone.”
He gave a single dip of his head before turning around. Duke was not an outwardly emotional person. He never had been. But in that moment, he felt a tremendous urge to go straight to Penfield and pummel bags of hay for hours while shouting to the heavens all the frustrated anger he felt. But he had just as strong a desire to lower himself to the floor and cry like a child, to grieve a lifetime that had been stolen from him by a family at war with itself and parents whose selfishness he was finally admitting to himself exceeded their willingness to simply love their son.
He followed the corridor back toward the drawing room, his spirits flagging. This was supposed to have been a joyful gathering of all his dearest friends.
As he came within view of the drawing room door, he saw Eve standing just outside it, watching his approach.
His heart dropped to his feet, pinning him to the spot. “I am so sorry, Eve. I’ve tried to shield you from them, and I’ve tried to put as much distance between them and you as I could, but it’s not enough. This is who they are. This is what they do.”
“You can’t stop them from doing the things they apparentlyalwaysdo in the end.” She’d stepped a little closer, but his heart ached at the remaining distance between them, both literally and figuratively.
“I don’t want them to keep hurting everyone.”
“And I don’t want them to keep hurtingyou.”
No one else had stepped out of the drawing room. It was the closest to a private moment he’d had with her since their first evening at Fairfield. “My aunt and uncle have said that I can make my home with them indefinitely.”
She looked genuinely pleased for him. “You will have your respite.”
He nodded. “And not a moment too soon.”
“But do you know what will lift your spirits even more than that good news?” He welcomed the teasing he heard in her question. It was a glimpse of what they’d shared before, of what he’d had and lost. “Winning this game of three kingdoms. You see, I am about to guesshorseshoe, which I am confident will earn our team a point.”
“I certainly do not want to miss that,” he said, managing a fleeting smile.
He followed her into the drawing room, wishing he could hold her hand as he’d once done, or at least walk at her side. She didn’t seem to intend to hold against him the unforgivable behavior of his parents. He was grateful for that.
But she was clearly not at ease as his friend any longer, and that broke his heart.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“I find I’m rather gladthat it’s raining so much today.” Nia sat beside Eve on a sofa in the drawing room, their eyes on the windows. Artemis, Ellie, Gillian, and Daria were at a nearby table, laughing their way through a friendly game of whist. Lisette was elsewhere in the house with her aunt and uncle. The Pack was, no doubt, up to some mischief or other.
“Why is it you are so pleased with the wet weather?” Artemis asked.
“Because I haven’t the energy for an outing, but I would feel awful if everyone remained in the house on account of me. But I’d also be sad if I were left behind.”
Eve nodded. How well she understood that. She would not be with their friends for their future larks and adventures, and she was already mourning that. But she wouldn’t want them to not enjoy themselves simply because she wasn’t there.
“Will you have enough vigor to join in our games tonight?” Daria asked.
“I don’t know,” Nia said. “I was spent by the time I went to bed last night. I think it was a little too much exertion for me.”
Nia’s coloring wasn’t worrying. She’d assured Eve several times already that she wasn’t experiencing palpitations or lightheadedness. She was worn out, easily tired. But, Eve continually reassured herself, Nia’s heart didn’t seem to be affected.
“I suppose we will just have to hold tonight’s festivities at the foot of your bed,” Ellie declared. “There is nothing else to be done.”
They all laughed at that, teasing Nia and each other. Dr. Wilstead had said Nia needed to keep her spirits up. The Huntresses were miraculously good at that.
Since receiving Dr. Wilstead’s estimate of expenses, Eve had been spinning in her mind the question of how to find the money to see her sister well again. Lying in her bed early that morning, the answer had come as a sudden bolt of understanding.
Eve needed to find employment. While she certainly had the knowledge and ability to be a very good cook or baker, such a thing was not acceptable for the daughter of a gentleman. The only options truly open to her were governess and lady’s companion. She would be separated from her family, pulled from Society, and taken away from her friends regardless. She didn’t particularly wish to add the crushing isolation that governesses experienced to that list of losses. As a companion, she would have the company of the lady she worked for. And she wouldn’t be relegated to dark corners or the confines of the nursery when there were visitors, and she wouldn’t take all her meals alone. Being a companionwasthe better option, provided she could find a lady in need of a companion.
