Page 42

TWO YEARS LATER

" I t's your turn, Victoria."

Victoria smiled at Edwina across the card table. "I'm aware," she said. "You'll just have to give me a moment to make my decision, that's all."

"Edwina is always impatient," Lavinia said with a laugh. "You're a generous soul for inviting her to play with us at all, Victoria."

"Nonsense," Victoria said. "I do get lonely in this big old house, and it's a pleasure for me to have friends here. I'm thankful to Cressida for getting us all together."

"Well, of course," Cressida said. "You are all my sisters, after all—whether by birth or by marriage. I think I'm the lucky one to have a family that's so eager to spend time together."

Victoria played a card. "All right, Edwina, it's your turn."

Edwina dropped her hand. "For heaven's sake!"

Victoria laughed and picked up the coins they had been betting with. "Don't worry," she said. "We can play again."

"I think I should stop before you take all my money!"

"I'll give it back to you. This is just for fun, after all."

"Where have the gentlemen gone?" Lavinia wondered, looking around. "I've just realized I haven't seen them in ages."

"Oh, Matthew mentioned that he wanted to show the others the library," Victoria said. "It really is splendid. I was very lucky to be left in possession of such a thing when my husband died."

"You were lucky in many ways," Cressida said. "You have this whole manor to yourself now."

"That's true," Victoria agreed. "And more than enough money to see me through the rest of my life."

"Although," Edwina said, a wicked twinkle in her eye, "that's why so many among the ton suspect that you had a hand in the duke's death!"

"Edwina," Lavinia hissed. "That's hardly polite conversation."

But Victoria only laughed. "I don't care what they think," she said. "My days of needing to impress the ton are long over. All that matters now is that I have a home here with Hades and Persephone."

"I can't believe you named your cats that," Cressida said.

"You realize that naming one of your cats after the lord of the underworld and the other after the woman he abducted and married doesn't make you look particularly wholesome and innocent in conversations around the death of your husband, don't you? "

"Well, I just told you that I don't care what it looks like," Victoria said. "I don't care what people think. I know the truth. I never raised a hand against him. And there's certainly no real evidence that I might have. It's all just gossip, and gossip isn't my problem. Not anymore."

"Not now that you don't feel the need to marry, you mean?"

"And why should I marry? To ensure myself a future?

I have a future." Victoria waved a hand at her surroundings.

"I have this beautiful home and enough money to take care of me for the rest of my life.

And as for companionship, I have you, Cressida, and I have Edwina and Lavinia, and all of your husbands.

There's no need for me to concern myself with marriage.

Any benefit it might bring me is something I simply no longer require. "

"You're not afraid an heir to the duke might appear?"

"It's been two years," Victoria said. "The duke's solicitor did warn me at the outset that someone might come and try to claim the title and the property—but no one ever has, and I can't live my life in fear of that. I don't think a new duke is going to appear now. Too much time has gone by."

"I certainly hope you're right about that," Cressida said. "I admit you've found a very good ending for yourself here at Stormwell, but if the duke had any heir at all, he could take it all away from you simply by showing up at your door one day. After all, you have no child yourself."

"And thank goodness for that," Victoria said. "Imagine if I had been left to raise the duke's child on my own."

"You don't want a child?" Lavinia asked.

"I don't want his child," Victoria clarified. "I don't want anything from that man—but because it allows me to fend for myself in this world, I'll accept the fact that I have his home and his money. A child would be a very different thing."

"But since you don't intend to marry, that means you'll never have a child at all," Lavinia said. "Don't you mourn that loss?"

"For a time I did," Victoria said. "But only a short time. The truth is that nobody has everything in life, and I have been very fortunate to avoid a marriage to a truly dreadful man. I don't feel as if I have anything to complain about now. I think I've been given everything I asked for."

As she said this, the three gentlemen came back into the room—Cressida's husband Matthew, the Marquess of Feverton and brother to Lavinia and Edwina, along with Lavinia's husband Seth, the Duke of Loxburgh, and Edwina's husband Allan, the Duke of Harbeck.

"Victoria, that library is really something," Seth said. "I can't believe I haven't seen it in the past two years. Why have you kept it to yourself?"

"I haven't spent much time in there either," Victoria confessed. "It was months before I went anywhere at all in the house after the duke's death."

"You still don't refer to him by his first name?"

"I never knew him by that name," Victoria said.

"Perhaps he would have become Patrick if we had known one another longer, but you must remember—I never had more than a few conversations with him.

We exchanged vows, he brought me home and showed me to my room—no, he didn't even do that.

He showed me to my lady's maid, and Elizabeth tended to everything from there.

I expected him to come to me later that night, but the only person who came was Elizabeth, to tell me he had died.

And that was all I ever knew of the duke.

He's little more than a stranger to me."

"It must be odd," Allan said. "Knowing that his home and all his possessions are yours, I mean, even though you hardly knew the man."

"It's fortunate," Edwina cut in. "If he had to die, at least something good came of it. At least Victoria sees the benefit of his life."

"Yes, I agree it's a good thing," Allan said. "I'm just saying it's odd."

"It was extremely odd at first," Victoria said. "But now that some time has gone by, I've gotten used to it. I mean, I've been here for two years, so the house does feel as if it belongs to me now. I'm very comfortable here, and very much at home."

Her guests stayed for a few hours longer before eventually going their separate ways and heading for their homes. Cressida lingered as the others got into their carriages.

"I always hate to leave you," she said quietly. "I don't like the idea of you here on your own. Every time I leave your house, I think about how I'm going to be with Matthew, and you're going to be alone. It doesn't seem right."

"Cressida, you know that I'm grateful to be alone," Victoria assured her sister. "I don't want to have someone with me all the time—especially not someone like my late husband!"

"I know that," Cressida said. "But I wish you could have married someone kind. Someone who makes you feel the way Matthew makes me feel. You deserve that, and it grieves me that you don't have it."

"I don't want you to worry about me," Victoria said firmly.

"Please try to believe me when I tell you that I am happy in my home and in my life.

There's nothing I would change. It brings me joy to know that you are happy with your husband, and I'd like to think you know that I am just as happy here, even though it doesn't look the same. "

"I'll try to trust that," Cressida said. "But if you ever feel lonely, please don't hesitate to come to Feverton Manor. We would love to have you for as long as you would like to stay."

"Thank you," Victoria said. "Having you as a sister and a friend means the world to me, Cressida, truly."

She hugged Cressida again and watched as her sister reluctantly walked away.

Victoria had been telling the truth—she really did enjoy being alone.

She liked the quiet of her big house, the way her footsteps echoed when she walked and the way, when she wasn't making noise, nothing else was either.

She like the confidence she felt that the only people within miles of her were her servants, all of whom were as close as family—she had dismissed those she didn't know very well or trust very much, and the household staff she was left with was competent and familiar to her.

She liked the fact that she could go into her private parlor at night and sit by the fire and feel like she was on an island.

The lights were off in all the surrounding rooms—no candles or lanterns were lit, no fires blazed.

If she wanted to leave this room, she would light a lantern and venture out into the darkness like an explorer ready to conquer the world.

It had been just a few short years ago that Victoria had lived in near-constant fear, that she had felt helpless to overcome the terrors that plagued her. The fact that she was now able to get by on her own, to feel brave and confident, was a source of great pride to her.

She gazed into the fire, smiling. Cressida couldn't understand this feeling because she had prioritized marriage.

And Victoria was happy for her sister, because she knew that Cressida was happy.

That was as it should be. But she couldn't imagine wanting the life her sister had. Not when solitude was her greatest joy.

She was about to pick up her book and begin reading when she heard a distant sound.

It was the sound of footsteps.

Victoria frowned. There were the servants, of course, but they weren't commonly in this part of the house so late at night. She tried to think—why might one of them be coming this way? Perhaps there was something she needed to be told?

She set her book down and got to her feet to wait for the arrival of whoever it was.

But the footsteps didn't come to the parlor. As she sat listening, they moved right by her and continued down the hall.

That really was odd. Every member of her staff would know that she was in this room—it was where she always was at this time of night. And there really wasn't any reason for them to be in this part of the house if they weren't coming to find her. There were no chores to be done right now.

A tickle of fear began to spread in the pit of her stomach.

She tried her best to squash it. There was nothing to be afraid of, she told herself firmly.

So someone was moving around—that was unusual, yes, but surely not frightening .

Hadn't she just told Cressida how comfortable she was with living alone?

How could she claim to feel that comfort, and then moments later, express fear at the simple sound of footsteps?

There was only one thing to be done. She would go out and confront whoever was out there. She would find out what was going on, and then her fears would be at rest.

She strode over to the door and threw it open—And found herself face to face with a man she had never seen before in her life.