Page 93 of Three Weeks with a Princess
He nodded. “Very well. Lia, I’ll take Her Grace for one turn around the garden and then I’ll be back. All right?”
“You’re as bad as Charles,” Gillian said. “You men act as if none of us females can possibly take care of ourselves. It’s complete nonsense.” She ignored Jack’s protests and started to drag him off toward her husband.
Lady Anne chuckled. “Brothers can be such a trial, but it seems her ladyship has Jack well in hand.”
“I never had a brother, my lady.” Until recently, that is. Of course, she had yet to meet Captain Endicott, so he didn’t feel very real just then.
“Jack was always like a brother to you, was he not? At least that’s what I’d always assumed.”
Lia thought about that for a few moments. “Looking back on it, I’m not really sure what sort of relationship we had.” She gestured toward the other chair. “Won’t you have a seat?”
“You were close, though,” Lady Anne said after she’d seated herself and arranged the skirts of her stylish summer gown. “In fact, I confess to feeling a bit jealous when we were young. Even though Jack was careful not to mention your name around my mother—or me, for that matter—it was clear he was very protective of you.”
Lia frowned. “Was he not the same with you?”
Lady Anne smiled. “He was a very good brother and still is. But even though we did not discuss you, I could tell you were special to him. I assumed it was because he thought of you as a little sister.” She gave Lia an assessing look. “That, however, no longer seems to be the case.”
It took some effort for Lia not to squirm under the woman’s perceptive gaze. “I’m not sure how Jack sees me anymore—or did when we were younger, for that matter. It wasn’t anything we ever discussed.”
Lady Anne raised politely incredulous eyebrows. “Really?”
Lia shrugged. “It was awkward for all of us, you have to admit, and my grandmother and Lord Lendale never encouraged us to talk about it. Better just to pretend that our odd collection of relationships was quite normal. But to me, Jack was my best friend.” She was silent for a few seconds. “My only friend really.”
Her companion’s eyes warmed with understanding. “Yes, I imagine it was difficult for you. And lonely. You and your grandmother could never truly be accepted into local society, and yet you weren’t servants at Stonefell either. That left you rather betwixt and between, didn’t it?”
It was a surprisingly sympathetic analysis, coming from someone who had every reason to resent her. “I won’t pretend it was always easy, but it was harder for my grandmother.”
“But you had no female friends, nor were you able to attend school in the village. My uncle provided for you, but you never had what anyone would call a normal life for a young girl.”
“No, but there’s truly no need to feel sorry for me. I wasn’t put into service, nor did I have to work in the fields like the children of the tenant farmers. And I had Stonefell, which was a splendid place to grow up. I also had Jack, whenever he came to visit.”
“Was that enough?” Lady Anne asked, sounding genuinely curious.
“I have no complaints,” Lia said quietly.
“No one could blame you if you did.” She sighed. “We were not well-served by our elders, were we? You, Jack, and me.”
Lia shifted uncomfortably against the hard iron seat. “Forgive me, my lady, but I’m not sure what you want from me.”
“Please call me Anne. After all, we’re practically family, as the duchess suggested,” she said with a wry smile.
Now it was Lia’s turn to raise a skeptical brow.
Anne laughed. “All right, I suppose that was a bit much. But I do think we might have been friends, if circumstances had allowed for it.”
“Probably not,” Lia said. “I was too intimidated by you. You were so beautiful and grand, just like your mother.”
“I was an awful snob, you mean,” Lady Anne dryly replied.
“Your ladyship . . .” Lia stopped, because there was simply no reasonable response to that remark.
The elegant eyebrow, so like Jack’s, went up again. Lady Anne was as stubborn as her brother, too.
“Very well. Anne,” Lia said with a reluctant smile. “You said you wanted to offer me an apology for that incident at the Leverton ball. But it’s not necessary. You have done nothing to injure me.”
Anne’s mother was another story, but Lia knew better than anyone that the sins of the parent should not be visited upon the child.
“Mama behaved wretchedly, and I regret that I wasn’t able to stop her. Still, I do understand why she did it. Life has not been easy for her.”
