Page 56 of The Trials of Alaric
“I do not understand any of it,” said Tarquin, taking the paper from Alaric and scanning the words as he spoke. “No. It doesn’t make any more sense to me when I read it myself. Were they all like this?”
“Not really,” Alaric said, then reconsidered. Some of them had seemed impossible, at least at first. “Or perhaps. They have all been hard to interpret. If this one refers to a famous love story, then I have no idea which one. Well. Perhaps Bea has an idea.”
“You know it is a good sign, don’t you, when the lady you are trying to win is helping you to do so.”
“I think she has decided I am the best consort for Claddach,” Alaric confided. “After all, it was for the island’s sake that she agreed to choose from those who succeeded in her father’s trials.”
“Yes, but surely falling in love with you changes that,” Tarquin argued.
“In love?” Alaric said. “She is attracted to me, Tarquin, but she is not in love. At least, I do not think she is. She hasn’t said.”
Tarquin sighed. “I suppose you haven’t toldherthatyoulove her. Why not, Alaric?”
“I do not want to burden her with my feelings.”
His brother shook his head, but if he had more to say, he didn’t speak it, for the door opened, and his wife entered, her eyes damp and shining, but her smile broad.
“Alaric, your Lady Bea was so kind,” she said. “I am quite forgiven, though I do not deserve it after the wicked things I allowed Tarquin and your father to believe. She said, if you have forgiven me, Alaric, when you were the one most sinned against, then that is all to be said about the matter.”
She stepped into her husband’s waiting arms. “She said she quite understood why I was afraid to say anything, and she isglad that Tarquin is such a wonderful person. Tarquin, she said I was not a sinner, but that I had been sinned against.”
“That is what I have been telling you,” Tarquin told her, kissing her hair.
“Is she downstairs?” Alaric asked.
“Yes, in the green parlor. Refreshments are going to be served, but I said I needed to wash my face.”
“I will see you soon then,” said Alaric, and hurried downstairs, giving the couple their privacy.
*
Bea had neveradmired Alaric more. Poor Eloise! But poor Alaric, too, to have been accused of such a dreadful thing and to have his own brother and father believe it. How wonderful he was to not only forgive his sister-in-law, but to immediately volunteer to help his brother rescue her.
Even so, her conversation with Eloise had unsettled Bea. It was not jealousy. Eloise had said quite enough for Bea to be certain that the lady was head over heels in love with her husband. But Alaric must have loved her once. He had asked her to marry him. He had been jilted in favor of his brother. Did seeing her again bring back all that pain?
“Bea?”
Bea blinked at the sound of her name, and realized she was sitting in the parlor with the other young ladies and ignoring them all in favor of thinking about Alaric.
“I apologize, Ellie,” Bea said. “I was distracted for a moment. I did not mean to be rude.”
“She is thinking about Mr. Redhaven,” said Cousin Dorrie, and she and her sister giggled.
“Why should she not?” Reina asked. “He is handsome, clever, kind, and attentive.”
“He is also the front runner in the trials,” Christina pointed out. “He and Lord Lucas, but we all know Lord Lucas only has eyes for Ellie.”
“In fact,” said Cousin Lucy, “with my brother gone, Sir Henry Dashwood doing so poorly in the trials, Lord Lucas disqualifying himself by falling in love with Ellie, and Ambrose Howard making up to Dorrie, it is just as well Mr. Redhaven is so gorgeous, Bea. I would not want to have to choose between Fairweather and Meadowsweet. No offense to your brother, Ellie.”
“Mr. Meadowsweet has also expressed an interest in another lady of the house party,” said Sarah Howard, with a smug smile.
“Oh my,” Dorrie said. “Another one drops off Bea’s list.”
Lucy smirked. “A choice between Fairweather and Redhaven is no choice at all, especially now that Mr. Redhaven is reconciled with his brother. What do you think, Dorrie? Is Mr. Redhaven still in love with his brother’s wife?”
Aunt Jane, whom the sisters had clearly forgotten, observed, “Dorothy’s conversation has been bordering on the vulgar, young ladies, but Lucy has just slipped over that border. Another topic if you please.”
“You asked me a question, Ellie,” Bea reminded her friend.
