Page 23

E vie had slept fitfully and risen with smudges under her eyes and in a vile humor, which boded well for no one in the Spencer household.

“If you snap at me one more time, Evangeline, I will not be responsible for my actions,” Prue hissed at her from across the small table where they ate their morning meal.

Their father was humming at the end while drinking his tea and reading the paper, as usual oblivious to undercurrents… or anything, if she were honest.

Oh, to be that way, Evie thought with a healthy dose of annoyance. It must be lovely to be oblivious to everything going on around you.

“Would you not be a little out of sorts, were you in my position, Prudence?”

“Yes, but I am not the enemy. I am your sister, for better or worse,” she muttered.

Evie poked out her tongue.

“Get your bonnet; we shall take a walk. This house is too small for your vile humors. We shall exercise them from you.”

“I am not a horse, Prue.”

“More of a nag I would say.”

Evie lobbed her toast crust at her sister. Prue caught it with ease and smirked, then popped it into her mouth and made a humming sound. “Father, we are going walking,” she then said rising.

“Lovely day for it,” he said not even glancing out the window. “Have fun.”

The Spencer sisters donned their bonnets, and both took a light shawl, as the weather was not exactly cold, but there was a hint of a breeze, and headed outside.

Arm in arm, they began to wander.

“Are you all right, Evie? We both fell asleep so fast, I did not have a chance to thoroughly discuss exactly what happened with Lord Cavendish?”

“I am well. The man is a nasty individual who tried to scare me, but didn’t succeed,” she lied. In fact, he had succeeded. She’d been terrified, and then Anthony had arrived, and she’d known relief so fierce it had nearly dropped her to her knees right alongside the moaning Lord Cavendish.

“Do you remember when we had that maid, Daphne?” Evie asked Prue.

“Tall, and had a tale for every situation?”

“That’s the one. She taught us that move with our knees if we wanted to ward off a man’s unwanted attentions,” Evie said.

“You didn’t?” Prue slapped her hand to her mouth.

“I did on Lord Cavendish, and it works,” Evie said feeling a great deal better than she had moments ago. Going for a walk was an excellent idea.

“I’m glad you are not to wed him.”

“Me being fake engaged to Lord Hamilton does not solve a great deal, and yet I did not want to wed Cavendish, so at least in that I am relieved.”

“And last night I was suddenly a great deal more popular than I was the night before,” Prue said.

“And Mr. Landon is to call on me later today. We are going driving and stopping to see the exhibition in the park. Several aspiring artists will have set up their easels and will have works on display. Christian is quite taken with art, Evie.”

“Christian, is it?”

“That is his name.”

“Very well, I shall come with you,” Evie added.

“I thought to take—”

“I shall come,” she said firmly. “I want to get to know him, if as I suspect you like him very much?”

“I do,” Prue said, and Evie could hear the excitement in her voice. “Very much.”

“Well then. I’m coming with you.”

“You won’t question him thoroughly over everything will you?”

“Of course not.”

“You’ve got your fingers crossed, haven’t you?” Prue said.

“No, and I promise I will sit in the carriage’s corner gazing out the window, saying nothing.”

Prue snorted her disbelief.

They walked, and Evie’s thoughts went to Anthony.

She and society believed him a reckless man with dangerous habits, but she now knew there was so much more to him.

He could tease and laugh but also be gentle.

Then there was the man who had found her last night and saved her.

He’d looked savage, and then he’d chased her fears away when his big arms had closed around her.

She also knew that Lord Cavendish and others had attended the same school as Anthony and his friends, and after what happened there they loathed each other.

“Will you talk to me about what took place in that garden, Evie?” Prue asked suddenly.

“No, it is done with. I wasn’t harmed, and the less said about it, the better.”

“You cannot shut everything you have no wish to discuss away in that large brain of yours, Evie. Sometimes it helps to speak on matters that upset you, or they fester like that sore I once had on my knee.”

“Charming.”

Prue turned and started walking backward so they faced each other.

“You think things will hurt or upset me, so you don’t discuss them.”

“You will trip if you keep that up,” Evie said.

“Then I shall trip, and it is not up to you to save me.”

“Prue—”

“I mean it. I am not the only Spencer daughter. There is another.”

“I know, me,” Evie said in a tone that should warn her sister to shut up. It didn’t work.

“Exactly, and since mother’s passing you have taken on the responsibility for Father and me, but you don’t need to. I can look after myself and help with him.”

“Of course I need to,” Evie scoffed, feeling just a little offended that her actions were being hurled back in her face with a lack of appreciation that stung.

“Do you think I am incapable, then? That my only strength is to smile sweetly and catch a husband?” Prue asked.

They had both stopped now and were glaring at each other in the street where anyone could see them. Neither Spencer sister cared.

“Someone had to take charge and ensure there was enough money to feed and house us,” Evie snapped. “I was the oldest, and on the shelf as far as society is concerned, therefore—”

“Says you,” Prue said in that annoying tone only a younger sibling could have, that got right under an older sibling’s skin with far more ease than it should have.

“Don’t be childish,” Evie snapped. “I was the one to do it. I am good with figures—”

“I am equally as good,” Prue snapped back. “But you assumed the mantle of—”

“Prue,” Evie gritted out. “I did not sleep well, and it has been a trying few days. If you wish to have an argument that lasts longer than five minutes, can we postpone it until tomorrow? If not, then prepare for me to lose my temper.”

“Even when we argue, you are taking control.”

“Do you think I wanted this?” The words exploded out of Evie. “Wanted Mother to die, and Father to be hopeless with money and send us destitute?” She turned and walked away from Prue, then back again. “And another thing—”

“Oh goodie, there is another thing,” her sister said, brows drawn together in an angry line like a set of drapes keeping out the cold on a winter’s night.

“I want a better life for you!”

“I want a better life for you!” Prue yelled right back in her face. “Don’t be a bloody saint and sacrifice your hopes and dreams for me, Evie!”

Evie actually staggered back a step at those words and pressed a hand to her chest as if she could stop the pain.

“I want you and Father to be happy, warm, and safe. If that is being a saint, then I am guilty.” Her voice was cold. “Now it is time to return, as Mr. Landon will arrive shortly.”

“Don’t take that pious tone with me, Evangeline Elizabeth,” Prue seethed. “It is always your way to end an argument on your terms. Well, not in this case. I am correct, and I will have my say.”

Evie turned and walked away.

“I think you and Lord Hamilton could have a proper marriage,” Prue said, shocking Evie again, as she’d not expected those words to come out of her sister’s mouth. “He has a fierce reputation that, in truth, terrifies me, but I have seen the way he looks at you.”

Prue hurried past Evie, and turned again to walk backward, which was now extremely vexing and no longer worrying. In fact, she hoped she tripped. Then this discussion? Argument? Was over.

“You cannot be serious,” Evie said, stomping on the seed of hope those words planted inside her.

“We have a deal. I am helping him avoid his aunts’ pressure to wed, and he is helping me avoid marriage to Lord Cavendish and make you popular so you can marry well.

We have a bargain, which will end with the season. ”

“Things change, and I saw how gentle he was with you last night—”

“Must you romanticize everything?” Evie snapped.

“I am not romanticizing; I am being truthful, and if you were not so mule-headed and opened your eyes, perhaps you could see what I do.”

Evie scoffed. “You have known him only a handful of days, and barely held a conversation and suddenly you know he is a good man with a bad reputation, who would be good for me?”

“Yes.”

“No!” Evie shrieked. “Lord Hamilton and I have nothing in common, nor do we wish to. He will wed someone with blood as blue as his when the time is right and carry on with his licentious lifestyle. Now this discussion is over.”

“No, it is far from over,” Prue said. She then turned and the Spencer sisters stormed back to the house in a silence so loud she was sure they heard it an hour’s drive by carriage away.

They rarely fought, and if they did, it was over quickly.

This felt different. A deeper conflict that could have consequences, and yet Evie was hurting too much to bridge the gap.

She’d done everything she could to give Prue this season, and her sister was behaving like she was a pious saint for putting her family’s welfare before herself.

Was she?