Page 29 of The Spinster's Stolen Hear
Chapter Nine
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, close the curtains!” Bridget moaned, dramatically swinging her forearm over her eyes. “I feel as though my head is splitting in two.”
Pippa stood at the bottom of her mother’s bed, faintly baffled. Bridgetnevercomplained of headaches, and was not prone to megrims, certainly not anything as debilitating as this one seemed to be. At first, Pippa had thought that the anxiety of their travels and reintroduction into Society might be the cause. She had also considered that perhaps her mother had drunk a little too much champagne the night before.
Neither option seemed particularly likely.
“You never have megrims, Mama,” Pippa spoke up, hurrying to close the tiny gap in the bedroom curtains. “I shall ask Cousin Kat to summon the physician.”
“Certainly not,” Bridget snapped, sounding a little more like her old self. “I’ll just rest today, that’s all. What a pity. I was so looking forward to a morning with Katherine.”
Pippa carefully said nothing. It was plain during their stay at Katherine and Timothy’s house that Bridget did not much care for her niece and certainly disapproved of Katherine’s choice of husband. Such sentiments could not be shared, of course, but Pippa lived in fear of her mother saying something inappropriate. It was as if she saw herself as a rich viscountess once more, or even a duke’s daughter, free to say and do as she liked.
Bridget was clever enough to understand this too and had therefore kept her mouth closed until now. Perhaps that was where the invention of the megrim had come from.
“You always told me that a headache or a megrim or a little trifling cold ought not to stop me from doing anything,” Pippa found herself saying, unable to control her mischief.
Bridget sniffed. “I don’t recall saying that.”
“I recall it, Mama. You said, the day of Lord Everington’s ball, that I was going whether I liked it or not, headache or no headache. In fact, you said that megrims were the plague of a weak-willed woman.”
Bridget shifted in bed, adjusting her head against the pillow.
“I have no memory of such a conversation, and even if I had, this is an entirely different situation. Now, are you going to make my apologies to Katherine or not?”
Biting back a smile, Pippa bobbed a neat curtsey. Bridget watched her through narrowed eyes.
“Of course, Mama. I shall go at once.”
***
Lavinia and Katherine were already in the downstairs parlour, with tea-things laid out on a low table. They glanced up at Pippa as she entered, smiling.
“There you are, Pip,” Katherine remarked. “Here’s some tea for you, and you must try these cakes. I must say, I am disappointed that Aunt Bridget cannot join us. I had no clue she was so prone to megrims.”
Nor did I,Pippa thought, taking her seat and accepting the cup of tea. Katherine had taken to calling herPip, as a nickname, and Pippa secretly liked it very much. Bridget, of course, disliked the nickname and thought it common.
“She sends her regrets,” she answered, although Bridget had not actually done anything of the sort. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“One’s health must come first,” Katherine affirmed, leaning back in her seat, hand drifting over her rounded belly. “Or so Timothy reminds me every day. He’s quite nervous about the birth of this baby, poor thing. More nervous than I am, I think.”
Lavinia chuckled. “I do worry about the state William will find himself in when I am with child. You know how he worries, Kat.”
Katherine snorted. “You do not have to remind me. Pippa, you are lucky indeed to be an only child. Siblings are nothing but a headache.”
Pippa couldn’t quite make herself smile at that.
“Perhaps,” she conceded, “but I always wished for a brother or sister. Just one, you know. Besides, if I had had a brother, our lives would have been much different.”
There was a brief silence at that, and Pippa wished she hadn’t spoken. Perhaps it was vulgar to allude to how low she and her mother had fallen. Perhaps it was simply not the custom to articulate the obvious: that had Pippa been a boy or possessed a brother, he would presently hold the title of Viscount, and their destinies would have diverged entirely.
At the very least, debts or no debts, they would not have been turned out of their home so unceremoniously.
She cleared her throat, setting down the teacup.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” Pippa murmured. “I’m so little used to Society, I’m forever saying the wrong thing.”
Lavinia and Katherine exchanged glances. Lavinia leaned forward, taking Pippa’s hand.
