Page 58 of Fatal By Design
“I was scared, too,” Audrey admitted. “I only wanted to give us some time.”
Millie, still focused on her task of polishing the band, sniffled. Her voice caught. “You were trying to save me.”
She sounded stunned that Audrey would have done so.
“We are sisters, are we not?”
“I haven’t been a good one to you.”
“Millie—”
“No, please. Let me speak.” She set the ring onto the desk and paced a few steps away. “When our mother and uncle rejected Reggie’s proposal, I didn’t fight. I didn’t do anything except bend to their will, to what would make other people more comfortable. I knew the only reason they objected was because of his brown skin. He was the heir to an marquessate, for heaven’s sake, and yet they vastly preferred Lord Redding, an old, white viscount.” She balled her hands into fists. “I was so engrossed in my own life and my own bitterness that I…I looked the other way when I learned you had been sent to that horrible place. I told myself I had my own worries.”
By that time, Millie had been married and a mother. Shehadhad her own worries. Audrey said as much, but Millie shook her head tightly.
“I was a coward,” she blurted out. “A bitter coward, afraid to stand up to our bully of a mother and our equally horrible uncle. I only cared about pleasing her, even if deep down I knew no one, least of all me, would ever be able to accomplish such a feat.”
Audrey listened, fascinated. She had never so much as questioned if her sister felt this way toward their mother and uncle.
“I always thought you were like her,” Audrey said, and at Millie’s pained flinch, added, “But you’re not. I see that now. I’m sorry I was blind.”
Millie shook her head and laughed, though the sound was stunted by the oncoming of tears. “Oh, no. You weren’t blind. I made certain to push you away.”
“But why?”
Millie let her fingers drift toward the ring, but she didn’t touch it. “I remember well when you broke your betrothal to Lord Bainbury. It caused such an uproar, and yet you didn’t let it stop you. You followed your heart. I was envious.” She shrugged. “But I was envious of you long before that. James, he was so smitten with you. So was Papa. You dominated all their attention.”
Audrey reached for her sister’s hand. She held it without saying anything.
“I felt so small and petty today when you threw yourself in front me and tried to protect me. When I heard how much you’d done to try to find me.” Millie’s tears spilled over. “I want to make it up to you, but I don’t know how.”
Audrey winced as she stood, bracing herself against the desk and taking her weight off her injured leg.
“You can start by marrying the man you love.” She squeezed her sister’s hand. “That is still Lord Cartwright, if I’m not mistaken?”
Millie wiped her tears, her smile glittering despite her wet cheeks and stuffy nose from crying. “Oh, yes. It is. I’ve only ever loved Reggie.”
“Then start anew with him. It isn’t too late.”
“Mother and uncle will be furious.” She hitched her chin. “But I don’t care anymore.”
Audrey felt the sting of tears coming on too. It was all too much. Her sister, always so staid and proper and disparaging…had seemed to transform right before Audrey’s eyes. She tried to divert the emotion by picking up the diamond ring and handing it to Millie.
“You’ll need this then.”
Millie turned it over in her palm. “My, but it is ostentatious, isn’t it? I’m not sure I can wear it, knowing that my maid was killed because of it.”
“The ring isn’t at fault. Your maid was killed by Mr. Henley in an act of immoral desperation. She was tricked. I’m sure she regretted it dearly before…before she died.”
And Samuel, the valet, too. He must have informed Mr. Henley of the ring when it became apparent that he’d been swindled by this silver mine con-artist. If he had not breathed a word about it for fifteen years, something serious had to have driven him to do so. But he had misjudged his employer and had likely dug himself a hole he could not rise out of. The other few brutish accomplices had merely been hired ruffians, according to the driver Lord Cartwright had tied up.
Audrey closed Millie’s fingers around the ring. “Even if you don’t wear the ring, it is a symbol. Lord Cartwright never stopped loving you. He knew that one day you’d be together.”
Millie swiped at her eyes again to clear the ceaseless tears. “I don’t deserve your kindness, Audrey.”
“Nonsense. You’re starting anew withReggie,” she said, playfully attempting to tease her sister. But then grew more serious. “I don’t see why we can’t as well?”
Millie took a shaky breath. She squeezed Audrey’s hand, still clasped in her own, once more, and then released it to smooth the front of her skirt.
