Page 104 of The Dravenhearst Brides
“The what?”
Xander frowned as he handed over the correspondence. “The event next week. The lawmakers have called for a vote on the Twenty-First Amendment. Merrick has been asked to speak alongside Colonel Blanton at a dinner, on behalf ofthe state’s bourbon makers.”
She sensed from his tone she should know this; it had been discussed before. Margot hated that Xander, of all people, was currently more lucid than she.
“Right. That’s right.” She nodded and smiled, absentmindedly rubbing her stomach. Perfectly normal to be tired. Perfectly normal. “Thank you, Xander.”
“Perhaps it’s not my place,” he said, folding his tremoring hands, “but are you quite well, ma’am?”
She forced out a chuckle and waved away his concerns. “Quite, merely tired.”
Perfectly normal to be tired. Perfectly normal.
“Indeed. It’s only…”
“Yes?”
“I know what it is to lose time, ma’am,” he admitted. “I know what it looks like when it happens to others. It happened to someone else many years ago, the woman who was mistress before you, Babette.”
A sour feeling invaded her gut. “Yes—you know all about Babette, don’t you?”
Xander flinched. She wanted to take the insinuation back, but she didn’t. His observation made her scared. And defensive. He wasnoticing.
And ifXanderwas noticing her failings, she was in real trouble.
“I wonder, does your wife know?” she asked tartly. “Does Evangeline know what happened between you and the former mistress of this house?”
Xander was silent for a long time. “She’s shown you things,” he finally said, his voice grave. “What has she shown you? What have you seen?”
Laughter pealed in the corner of the room. Margot cringed.
Babette, enjoying the show.
“I’ve seen everything,” she lied.
Xander’s eyes burned. She couldn’t identify the emotion within. Fear? Guilt? Rage? All three could make people do terrible things.
“Does that frighten you?” she asked, tilting her head.
“No. No one believes a madwoman,” he said.
“I’mnotmad.”
“You are haunted. It’s more or less the same thing—I would know. I myself have been haunted for years.” He spun on his heel to depart but hovered in the doorway. “She has power like you wouldn’t believe. She made me do it.”
“That sounds like an excuse.” Margot narrowed her eyes. A man was just as culpable as a woman, no matter what the Bible said about femininity and piety, about filial duty. Load of hogwash.
Merrick and Babette’s atheist ways were clearly rubbing off.
“Aweakexcuse,” she added, staring him down.
“It is,” he whispered, a shadow of regret flickering behind his eyes. There and gone.
He vanished into the depths of the manor.
Moments later, the conversation disappeared from Margot’s mind altogether.
Eleanor was calling her for tea. She mustn’t be late.
