Page 90 of The Heiress's Daughter
“Nearly sixteen.”
“Then I think you might have a few more years of growing yet.” She gazed at her new sister, almost overwhelmed by the tumble of mixed emotions. Another sister, one just like her, in more ways than she could count.
Izzy bounced up and down on her toes. “Oh, I’m so excited. I want to hug you.” She stepped forward. “Would you mind?”
Zoë shrugged and shook her head, and Izzy pulled her into an exuberant hug.
“Good morning, little sister,” she said, stepping back but holding onto Zoë’s hands. “I’m so very delighted to meet you.”
Zoë stared at her, looking bemused. “You don’t mind, then?”
“Mind what? That you look like me? No, of course not—you even look like my sister which, sadly, Clarissa doesn’t. She looks like her mother while you and I take after our wicked papa.”
“No, I meant mind that I’m even here. Once people see me, it’s going to cause a bit of nasty talk—especially about you. Bein’ a bastard, I mean. Oh, I shouldn’t have said that, should I, you bein’ one, too? What’s the word that proper ladies use?”
Izzy laughed. “Baseborn? A natural child? As opposed to an unnatural one, which sounds much worse.” She laughed again. “Proper ladies probably don’t even refer to it, but I can see you and I like to call a spade a spade.”
Zoë bit her lip. “Yeah, but when they see us, people will talk. And it could ruin you and ’specially Clarissa, and she’s bin so good to me, I would hate to—”
“Oh, pish tush!” Izzy declared. “Clarissa and I discussed all this when we first came to London, and if you think either of us would prefer acceptance by nasty-minded society gossips to the company of a lovely little sister, you’re verymuch mistaken. Clarissa refused to give me up when Lord Salcott was trying to make her, and before that when our father wanted to get rid of me, and she’ll be exactly the same with you.”
Zoë’s forehead puckered. “Lord Salcott? But isn’t he—”
“My husband, yes.” Izzy laughed. “It took him quite a while to succumb, but he did in the end. And he’ll stand with us, you’ll see.”
“Yeah, but you’re safely married. And to a lord. Clarissa isn’t yet. Though if Lord Randall has his way…”
“Lord Randall? You mean he and Clarissa have finally…?”
Zoë grimaced. “Well, they’re supposedly betrothed, though it hasn’t yet been officially announced—”
Izzy clapped her hands. “I knew it! I was sure Race was keen on her, but I thought Clarissa would never let herself—”
“No, it’s a fake betrothal,” Zoë interrupted bluntly. “Or at least that’s what she keeps telling me. She reckons it’s just for appearances’ sake.”
Izzy frowned. “That sounds complicated. Where is Clarissa? I thought she’d be out here on such a glorious morning.”
“Dunno. I expected her to come out, too.”
“Then I’ll seek her out and discover what’s going on. Oh, Zoë, I’m so thrilled to have a new sister. We’ll talk later, I promise. I want to find out all about you, but first I need to find my sister—myothersister! So exciting to be able to say that! Two sisters! I need to discover what this ‘supposed’ betrothal of hers is all about. I’ll see you later.” She hugged Zoë again, and hurried off to Lady Scattergood’s house.
She found Clarissa upstairs in her bedchamber, splashing her face with cold water in a vain effort to hide her red eyes and blotchy skin. “Oh, love, you’ve been crying,” Izzy exclaimed.
Clarissa burst into tears.
An hour later the two sisters were sitting cross-legged on Clarissa’s bed, facing each other as they used to do when they were children. They’d hugged, wept a little, laughed a lot and hugged again. And then Clarissa had dried her tears, and over hot chocolate and a dish of delicious orange biscuits they’d talked.
Clarissa sipped her chocolate. “It wouldn’t have been so bad if Lord Randall hadn’t kept turning up everywhere. Are you sure Leo didn’t make him promise to keep an eye on me?”
“Positive,” Izzy assured her. “He did ask Race to take you riding, knowing that nobody here can ride, and Hyde Park was too tame for a proper ride. But that’s all.”
“He did take me riding, and I confess it was lovely to be able to get out of London and go for a proper ride—and he brought his cousin Maggie and I really like her, Iz. And if that was all it was…But then he was everywhere—at balls and routs, which everyone knows he never attends—neverused toattend,” she added darkly. “He even went to one of old Lady Gastonbury’ssoirées musicale.”
Izzy laughed. “Serve him right. Was Cicely in good form?”
“And he turned up at Lady Beatrice’s literary society.”
“It sounds as though he really was courting you, ’Riss,” Izzy said gently.
