Page 76 of The Seaside Homecoming
She decided she would begin with something smaller. Asimple dress for Mira. If she failed, at least the attempt would waste less fabric.
She borrowed one of the girl’s current frocks from the laundry for size, sketched a rudimentary design, and set to work.
Emily tapped on her window while she was sewing, and Claire rose to open the door to her. Her sister invited her to take tea with them at the York Hotel. “Perhaps tomorrow? I’m not sure who all will be able to join us, but Viola and Georgie certainly. Maybe Sarah, too, if we can pry her away from her to-do list.”
“What time?”
“Whenever it is easiest for you to get away.”
“I usually take a respite in the early afternoon, if that suits.”
“Perfectly.”
Claire agreed, and the plan was arranged.
At the appointed time the next day, Claire changed into her blue carriage dress and stopped by the morning room to remind Mr. Hammond she was going out. His gaze lingered briefly on her dress, but he said nothing.
Claire then left the house and walked the short distance to the York Hotel on the seafront.
Emily had said nothing about Mamma coming, so Claire was not especially nervous. It was only tea with her sisters. Not a court-martial to try her for desertion.
Claire walked into the hotel and found the door to the dining room. She stepped over the threshold and stopped midstride. Her mother sat at a table with her sisters. Seeing her enter, Mamma shifted in her chair, looking uncomfortable. Sarah appeared similarly uneasy.
Emily rose and pulled out the last empty chair for Claire before a waiter could do so. “You’re here. Excellent. Come and join us.”
“Are you ... sure it’s all right? I hope this is not a shock to you as it is to me, Mamma.”
“No, Mamma agreed to come.”
“Please sit down,” Mamma said, with a glance around. “No need to draw unwanted attention.”
Claire sat, feeling uncertain and out of place.
Viola said, “We’ve ordered tea and cake, but if you prefer something else...?”
“No. Sounds fine.”
Georgiana said, “I still don’t understand why we could not all take tea together at Sea View, but the cakes herearedelicious.”
“I have told you why,” Mamma said in a quiet undertone.
Heart burning, Claire spoke in an equally hushed voice. “I am sorry, you know. I never imagined it would come to this. I truly thought he loved me and planned to marry me.”
Mamma huffed. “I don’t doubt you are sorry. I am sorry as well, but it does not change what happened.”
“To Papa, you mean? I know you blame me for his death. Aunt Mercer told me so.”
“She never!” Viola exclaimed, incredulous.
“Shh. Let’s keep our voices down,” Mamma warned. “This is not a conversation for a public place.”
“But you won’t let her come to the house,” Emily reminded her.
A waiter delivered tea and slices of cake to their table. When he had departed, Mamma sipped her tea and leaned in to make her low voice heard.
“I will not sprinkle sugar on the facts. God may be merciful, but our actions, our sins, always have consequences. We may not like it, yet that is the way the world works.”
Claire sighed. “Perhaps I should have married Harrison Welch as Papa wished, then none of this would have happened.”
