Page 34 of An Honorable Deception
Alethia looked away. “Perhaps we can take the journey to the animals in stages. To the balcony for breakfast, then down to the ground floor afterward. Then ... where are they kept?”
Zelda shook her head, though whether it was over the deflection or the plan she wasn’t certain. “Opposite side of the house. We will do better to walk through it than around it. You could breakfast with Lady Lavinia and Marigold though, over there. They ought to be eating about now. They always do so rather late on Saturdays.”
She must have risen earlier today than she had the previous ones. “You don’t think they’ll mind?”
Zelda gave her a strange look. “You are their guest. They will be glad.”
She was indeed their guest—one thrust upon them by fate and the Imposters and their own sense of Christian duty. That didn’t mean that the two ladies who had been friends all their lives would want her intruding upon their private breakfast, despite how kind they’d each been.
But Zelda knew them both better than she did, so perhaps itdidmean that. “All right then. Thank you.”
Zelda led her through the house and out a door still onthe first floor but overlooking the courtyard rather than the lawns, and the moment she opened it, laughter trilled to her ears on the breeze. Such laughter didn’t always make her feel welcome in a place—gatherings of girls her own age always made her keenly aware of how little she was like them. But these two had already proven that they weren’t the catty, social-climbing sort. And when she stepped into view, still using Zelda for support, genuine joy lit both their faces as they called out her name in greeting and pushed to their feet to welcome her. Lavinia pulled up another chair, and Marigold moved the cushion from her own to the new addition.
Zelda nodded her approval. “I will tell Drina to add an extra bowl of porridge and plate for fruit.”
Alethia thanked her and eased into the chair.
“We had a wire from my brother,” Marigold volunteered as Zelda moved off, smiling. “He ought to be home in another hour, at this point. He indicated that his meeting with Mr. A was informative.”
She’d been wanting to ask how the Fairfaxes knew the Imposters, what they’d hired them for in the past—because how else would they be acquainted? And how had it resulted in what seemed like more than the usual investigator/client relationship?
She didn’t dare, though. People didn’t hire the secretive firm, it seemed, for anything they wanted to become public knowledge.Discreet disclosureswere their byword, after all. It would be rude to press for details they hadn’t already volunteered, and she had no desire to offend them.
She focused on the news instead of her curiosity, offering a smile. “Excellent. And again, I am in debt to you for going so out of your way—I still can’t believe he went back to London to pass my information along to Mr. A firsthand.”
Marigold shrugged. “Quicker than the post, and more dependable than a private courier. Besides, he no doubt slipped into the Session underway.”
“My father said there was nothing of import up for vote this last week.” The words slipped out before she could stop them. “Not that his opinion is a reason for anyoneelseto duck out of the Sessions.”
Marigold looked amused. “Everyone takes a week off here and there at this point in the summer, my lady. I daresay they’re eager to call the Sessions over and escape London for a while.”
“Where did your parents go?” Lavinia asked the question innocently, and why wouldn’t she? It was a reasonable question. “You mentioned a house party?”
Alethia nodded and rubbed a damp palm over her leg. The wound there was beginning to itch. “Yes, near Ipswich. A friend of my uncle’s.”
Lady Marigold narrowed her eyes as if she were reading some mental list. “Your ... mother’s brother? Your father has only two sisters, if I recall.”
It shouldn’t surprise her that the lady knew those details—she was everywhere, at all the best parties. To say their families moved in the same circles was an understatement. The true surprise was that they’d never officially met before. “That’s right.”
Lavinia’s fingers went tight around her teacup. “I imagine your extended family was glad to have you back in England after your father’s term in India, though they were no doubt proud of him.”
Small talk—so why had that made her hand go taut? “My aunts received us home very happily, yes. My uncle visited regularly in India.” She paused, hesitating over the usual response. But it would be rude not to ask, wouldn’t it? “I’mafraid I know little enough about the families of the aristocracy that my mother has deemed me hopeless. Do either of you have aunts and uncles? Cousins?”
Lavinia glanced at Marigold, who smiled. “None that close for Yates and me. We do have a distant cousin who grew up here as our father’s ward—Graham Wharton. He’s an architect based in London, married to one of my dearest friends, Gemma, who is the daughter of our former steward. They are the closest thing we have to family on either side these days—well, aside from the Caesars.”
Alethia smiled at that. Then her gaze drifted back to Lavinia. “And you?”
She regretted it when those too-familiar shadows flashed through Lavinia’s green eyes. “My father has a sister, though we rarely see her. My mother’s parents are still alive and visit at Christmas most years. And...” She faltered, looked down.
Marigold frowned at her.
Lavinia forced a smile. “And that is all the family I have in England.”
There was something more than that, but she knew those shadows too well to push. Knew that if she did, her own shadows could well spring out again, and despite Zelda’s advice, she had no words to conjure up. No desire to unburden herself on these new friends who had already taken on enough. They were helping her in her quest to find Samira.
Her demons, as Zelda called them, could stay locked away, where they couldn’t harm anyone. But still the woman’s words echoed through her mind as they chatted, as Drina brought their breakfast up, as they ate.“Whoever has told you never to speak of it—you let them win when you obey.”
Words she well knew she’d be chewing on indefinitely.Because as much as they resonated in her soul and as true as she knew they were, they also weren’t.
