Page 35 of An Earl's Scandalous Return
That joke seemed to brighten her a little, and she drank her wine as she thought.
“I suppose I will bring some food from the inn tomorrow. We can sit in the church and have a more relaxed conversation. You do not need to say anything. I know I was very hasty in speaking today, but I thought perhaps she might be more inclined not to run away if she knew she had a sister. For we are surely sisters if we look so alike.”
Arabella swallowed hard, but her eyes were sparkling.
“A sister, Edward. I cannot believe it. Why would my father wish me to keep away from her? I feel as though a sister could have made all the difference in the world to me. Alvin is very dear to me, and we are close, but like you, he is a man, unable to understand a woman fully. But to have a sister who understands everything …”
She paused, and he saw her lift a finger to wipe a tear away as she glanced at the hearth.
“That could have been a very great balm to me after my father died and after …” She looked down at her hands then.
Edward then considered breaking down the doors of the past, asking her what he wanted to know, but he saw the confused, worried, and hopeful look on her face, and he knew it wasn’t the right time to muddle things. She was about to get a new family member, and he didn’t want to get in the way.
There will be plenty of time later.
“I understand. I have always wanted a sibling to share in the joys and tribulations of life, especially with a mother gone and a father so ill. But good friends have taken their places. When we return, I should like to spend some time with Alvin. We wrote letters over the years, but that is no replacement for the real thing.”
He smiled at her, and she at him, and for a time, he felt as though all was at peace. They drank and spoke of the day and what they would do tomorrow. It was enough for now.
Chapter 38
Seraphina didn’t go home immediately, as she’d told the strangers. Well, they were not strangers completely, for she knew their names now: Edward and Arabella. Those names, especially Arabella’s, rung inside her mind as she’d wandered home down the country lanes.
Her basket swinging in her hand, Seraphina let her thoughts wander. Her father, Gregory, had always done right by her, even if he was sometimes a little more rigid than she would have hoped for.
But many of her friends from the village, too, had rigid fathers, but they had mothers to soften them. Seraphina had been told that her mother had died in childbirth and that her father had had to take care of her himself since she was a babe.
Seraphina paused in one of the laneways and leaned against the backside of a cottage. She pulled out an apple from her basket, rubbed it on her apron, and took a bite.
Perhaps that is not true, then, if this Arabella thinks we are sisters. Maybe my mother is somewhere else, still alive, wondering where I am.
That idea gave rise to an old hope she’d had ever since she was a child: to know and to be loved by her mother. But Arabella had not mentioned a mother; she’d only said that Seraphina was the Earl of Montrose’s daughter.
Silently, Seraphina mouthed the words. She had heard of earls before but had never met any. They sounded like faraway princes from stories in faraway lands. And she might be the daughter of one? Taking another bite, a little furrow formed in her brow.
If that were the case, then why had he discarded her and left her to live her life in boring old Maidstone instead of taking her into his house and raising her as his own? A little anger and resentment formed in her breast, but she wasn’t sure who it was for.
Pushing off the wall, she tossed the eaten apple aside and wandered home. Her father was already there, reading a paper by the hearth. His right leg was aching him more and more of late, the result of a riding accident, and so he could only work the mornings until it started to hurt.
“There you are,” he said, putting the paper down and giving her a little smile. “Where have you been then?”
“Just the market,” she said with a sigh, not looking at him. “Sally Higgins wanted to have a long talk about meeting with Caleb Brewster, and so she took up all my time.”
Her father chuckled at that and returned to his paper. “I can certainly see that. The girl could talk the ears off a rabbit.”
From her place in the kitchen, Seraphina could see the back of her father’s head as he read. His bald spot seemed to be getting bigger day by day, but the rest of his hair was dark, as were his eyes, and the beard on his chin. Unlike other fathers in the village who could hardly read or write, he’d taught himself somewhere along the way, so he had told her. He’d taught her, too, but she was always hungry for more.
She pulled everything out of the basket and then cut a few things for the evening meal. But her mind was elsewhere. While the morning had started off normal enough, now it seemed like her whole world had turned on its head.
She was looking suspiciously at the man who had raised her as his own, wondering if it could all be a lie. She didn’t want to believe it, but to see herself in the mirror when she looked at Arabella had changed things. They had to be family, didn’t they?
In an hour, when she was taking the meal to the table, she was ready to ask him. Surely, he knew something, and he could answer her. It just would take courage that she needed to have. Once they were seated and her father began to eat, she closed her eyes and let the question out.
“Da, are you really my father?”
At that, a spoon clanging as it fell against the wooden table was the only sound in the room. Her father looked at her with widened eyes, but he quickly picked up his spoon and put it into his bowl. The expressions that flit across his face in seconds told her everything she needed to know.
“What do you mean?” he asked, looking angry.
