Page 61 of The Duke's All That
But Elspeth merely pursed her lips and raised a brow, eyeing her from her position behind the gleaming counter. “And we do not have a single patron right now. Truly, it’s silly for all of us to be here. Take the afternoon off.”
“Yes, do,” Millicent piped up from her place at the window, where she was dusting an already spotless display of their latest arrivals. “There’s nothing to do here anyway. And besides, you’ve yet to figure out how to end S. L. Keys’s latest story. I’m so excited to see what will happen to Josephine.”
Both girls nodded at that, their eyes glowing, and despite the heartache from the letter this morning, Seraphina’s chest warmed. She had told them about her secret writing, and had told the Oddments as well, and for the rest of her life she would never forget just how thrilled each and every one of those women had been that she had made a success of herself with her writing.
Unfortunately, Millicent was also too correct, in that Seraphina had been unable to write these last weeks. She might be tempted to blame it on her decided lack of nightmares, or on finally sharing the burden of her past.
But she knew only too well what it was: She missed Iain, so much her chest hurt with it. Even now, as she thought ofhim, she found herself unconsciously rubbing at her chest, right over her heart.
Phineas, of course, would sense her disquiet. He had kept close to her as he usually did these past weeks. Yet his attentions had seemed somehow more than they had been, his mood almost morose. Like now, as he flew from his perch to land on her shoulder and rubbed his cheek against hers. Right against a patch of wetness. It was then she realized she had begun to cry.
Reaching under her spectacles, she dashed the tear away, scowling down at the swipe of moisture on her fingers. She had spent nearly a decade and a half remaining dry-eyed, in complete control of her emotions. But ever since her return to Synne she had found herself crying at the drop of a hat. The cover of one of her favorite novels came back damaged? Tears. A small plant grew out of a crack in the pavement and bloomed with a brilliant flower? Tears. No matter if the occasion was even remotely happy or sad or even something that should be seen as absolutely mundane, she found herself blubbering like a baby.
Really it was most annoying.
“Seraphina?” Elspeth said, concern lacing her voice.
Seraphina threw her hands up in the air. “Fine. You wish me to take a walk? I shall take a walk.” She scowled at them. “But I want you both to know I am not happy about it.”
Her sisters merely smiled serenely. “Of course you’re not,” Millicent said placatingly. Retrieving Seraphina’s pelisse from the back room, she took Phineas while Seraphina shrugged into it before placing the parrot back on her shoulder. “Now, Phineas,” her sister said to the bird, who looked at her with bright eyes, “you take good care of your mistress. And don’t let her return for an hour at least.”
With that, she herded Seraphina and Phineas out the door of the Quayside, closing it firmly behind her.
But at the end of that hour, Seraphina found she was no better than she had been. In fact, her mind was even more tangled in grief and memories. Truly, what was wrong with her? She knew there could be nothing between her and Iain, and had made the decision to leave Scotland with that knowledge. And she had spent the last month trying to forget him. Like she had told him that last day, they could not go back to what they’d had, no matter how differently they might wish it.
Yet with one letter informing her that their divorce was now complete, she found that emotionally she was in an even worse place than before.
Sighing, she kicked a small rock. It bounced across the pale sand before being swallowed up by the surf. Her heart was heavy in her chest, and even Phineas was quiet on her shoulder, as if he was mired in his own sad thoughts. Reaching up, she scratched him behind his neck.
“Let’s go back then, shall we?” she murmured to her pet. “Being out here with only our thoughts for company is doing neither of us any good.”
Phineas gave a subdued little chirp, which Seraphina decided to take as agreement. Turning about, she began the long trudge back down the beach. The wind whipped up, biting through her clothing, and she cupped a hand about Phineas to protect him from the cold. “We’ll warm up in the office, and have a nice hot drink,” she said as they left the beach behind and made it onto the Promenade, whichhad only a few stragglers walking on its wide path that ran parallel to the beach. “By then I’m certain there will be plenty to keep us busy, certainly enough to get our minds off of Iain.”
But even as she thought it, she knew it was merely wishful thinking. No amount of hard work would keep her from remembering what it had felt like to be held in his arms. Nor would it erase her wish to find herself back in his arms, this time for good. She was so mired in these morose thoughts, she did not immediately notice the decided crowd of bodies in the Quayside when she returned.
“There,” she grumbled as, Phineas having alighted from her shoulder, she worked at removing her pelisse. “I have taken a walk. I do hope you’re happy—”
But the words stalled in her throat as she spied the group of familiar and much-beloved faces gathered in a circle of seats that had been placed in the middle of the space.
She blinked as she took them all in. Besides her sisters and, for some reason, Lady Tesh, there were also the Oddments: Adelaide, Honoria, Bronwyn, with her husband, Ash, and…
“Katrina?” she breathed.
Miss Katrina Denby—or, rather, the Duchess of Ramsleigh since her marriage earlier that year—rushed forward, tears in her eyes. At once Seraphina was enveloped in her friend’s arms.
“Oh, I have missed you, dearest,” Katrina said.
“I have missed you as well,” Seraphina managed, just before her throat closed up from tears. Damn and blast, these emotions were highly inconvenient.
Blessedly Katrina’s overlarge and exuberant dog, incongruously named Mouse, decided he was due for his ownwelcome. He pushed his muzzle between them, demanding attention, long tail whipping back and forth in a dangerous manner.
“Oh, very well, you brute,” Seraphina managed as she knelt and buried her face in the animal’s neck. A perfect subterfuge, for it allowed her to compose herself.
Her tears successfully wiped dry on Mouse’s black-and-white-spotted coat, she gave a sniff for good measure and rose. “But what are you both doing here?” she asked her friend, even as she accepted a hug from Katrina’s husband, Sebastian.
To her surprise, however, Katrina—and everyone else present—looked exceedingly sheepish. Before she could make sense of it, Lady Tesh spoke up, her brusque voice carrying and firm.
“You’ve a great many people who care about your well-being, Miss Athwart,” she said, her heavily beringed, gnarled fingers combing through the frizzy mop of white fur atop her pet Freya’s head. “So when your sisters sent out the call for help, we did not hesitate to answer. Even my former companion here,” she grumbled as Katrina, with Sebastian sticking close to her side, resumed her seat beside her. “Though she would not come when it was merelyIasking her.”
