Page 97 of A Lady of Means
* * *
“Olivia, what was that about?”Moria stepped into her sister’s room, closing the door behind her.
“He’s alive, isn’t he?”Olivia said, not looking up from the scientific journal she was reading.
“What do you mean?”Moria questioned, hugging her arms close to her chest.
“Shall I go into detail?”Olivia looked up, narrowing her eyes at her.“I can go into heavy detail if that’s what it takes.”
Moria sighed.
Olivia threw her book down and stood with a triumphant: “I knew it!”
Moria placed a hand over her sister’s mouth.“Keep your voice down.”
“Don’t worry, I haven’t told anyone,” Olivia muttered against her hand.
“Thank god you figured it out before anyone else in this family.No one can keep a secret.”
“Why do you want it to be a secret?”
Noelle called from the doorway, “Why do you wantwhatto be a secret….Moria?”
Moria cursed audibly.Her sister and her lock picking.Why could no one in her family choose a normal hobby like she had, like the pianoforte and embroidery?
Olivia threw on a bright smile.“How…much in love…she is.”
Noelle tilted her head to the side, disbelieving.“You’ll have to put on a better performance than that, Libby.”
Moria threw up her hands.“Devyn…is alive.”
Noelle pushed off the door and came to sit on the bed with her sisters.Ran her hands through her hair, then stood again and paced.Noelle was unnerving when she was so quiet.
“Moria,” Noelle said breathlessly, taking her by the shoulders, “Then you can’t marry the duke.”
“Why can’t Moria marry the duke?”Lawrence questioned from the doorway with his hands at his hips in mock authority.Moria turned to her youngest sister and grunted in frustration.
“Oh, curse you, Olivia!”
Her younger sister held up her hands innocently.
Lawrence closed the door with his boot and came to stand at the edge of the bed with his younger sisters, he crossed his arms at his chest.“I knew something like this would happen.What is it now?”
Noelle hit him in the arm.“It’s not what you think.Devyn is alive.”
Lawrence swore and shook his head.“The nerve of that bastard for not dying when he was supposed to.”
“I know, right?”Moria said.
“But you….you’re glad he’s not dead, though, right?”Noelle bit her bottom lip.
Moria fell backwards on her sister’s bed and looked up at the ceiling.“I’ve never been gladder of a damn thing in my life.”
All three siblings whooped, laughing and jabbing each other in the elbows.Lawrence reached into his boot and drew out a flask.“We are all in so much trouble.”
Kathleen knocked on the door and Noelle shushed everyone.“What are you all doing in there?And without me?”
Moria shook her head.Both sisters raised their brows.Olivia opened the door anyway.
