Page 25 of Lady Fiona's Tall, Dark Folly
To tell him seemed vital to her next breath. "Yes. I devised this years ago."
"I see. For a reason, I presume."
Oh, yes. When I could not absorb the viciousness of my father's attack upon my mother. When he hit her with a candlestick or his fist. When she threw the Ming vase at him and it shattered upon his...
"My darling," he spoke in the darkest whisper. "Look at me. Yes, there. What shadows cross your vision, they are not real. Not here. Not now."
She swallowed, wishing she might touch him, just skim her fingertips on his own to prove her agreement. "Thank you. I know they're not. They're old shadows. Old stories."
"That you survived because you found the courage to live. Tell me that motto, my dearest."
"Dance with abandon."
His smile was all pleasure.
"Sing in the dark."
Fright illuminated his grey eyeslike lightning.
"Live like no one need approve."
"My darling, Fee." He grasped her hand.
She stared into his compassionate gaze and marveled that he seemed the only person in the world who would understand the severity of her little saying. "Like no one need approve...but yourself."
He brought her hand to his lips. His eyes squeezed shut. And he held there for a long precious moment.
She could not move. His homage was all empathy and comfort.
No one had ever offered such solace.
She heard no gasps. If others cast censure on them, she did not look up to search for it.
With great reluctance, she inched away her hand.
"Some day soon I hope you will tell me how and why such words define you."
If she did share that, she would come within inches of sharing too many of her horrid memories. She had courage for much. Had garnered it alone, bit by tiny bit, to piece together a facade that the world knew as Lady Fiona Chastain. She stared at him, afraid she might not ever be able to tell him all of who she was or why and how.
"I will not ask it of you," he said with solemnity. "I wait upon your pleasure."
Her friend Ivy appeared before them. Clearing her throat, her face full of dismay, Ivy sat on the opposite chair. Nervous and wary, she was full of the usual pleasantries that passed time. How cool the day was, how marvelous everyone looked, how delighted Ivy was to be here again this year. She addressed Fifi and Charlton, not at all.
He took the cue he was not wanted. "May I get you another glass of sherry, Lady Ivy?"
"Yes, thank you."
And off he went.
Ivy frowned. "Esme tells me you and she are to talk."
"It's true. And about time we settled our little rivalry."
"So true. Your feud is old and I'm not certain of what it was made."
Fifi sighed. Remembering the times that her cousin tried to imitate Fifi or make friends with her own, she recalled the piqued little look on her cousin's face. Jealousy. Not greed or avarice. Jealousy borne of desire. "Childishness, I'd say, on both our parts."
"One problem settled." Ivy leaned closer and spoke in quiet tones, her gaze upon Charlton. "What's he about here?"
