Page 24 of The Last Casterglass

“Perhaps a bit of embellishment?” she suggested hopefully to Tilly. “A bit of lace, or if that’s too young, then some nice beadwork along the neckline?” She glanced at Althea. “Really, darling, I thought you knew me better. I never wear anything plain.”

“I tried,” Althea mouthed to both Olivia and Seph, and once again Seph found herself smiling, struggling to hold in an unexpected laugh.

“Now your turn,” Olivia cried, and grinning, Althea ducked behind the screen. When she came out again, everyone oohed and aahed at the sight of her in a simple column dress of cream satin, with a matching bolero jacket trimmed in cream velvet.

“You look like the ice queen,” Olivia exclaimed. “But nicer, of course. Much nicer. Not icy at all, really.”

“Well, I didn’t feel I could go too crazy, considering,” Althea said as she studied her reflection. “You don’t think I look too mutton-dressed-as-lamb?”

“Not at all!” Olivia assured her. “You look thirty-five at the absolute oldest.”

“Well, here’s hoping.” Althea let out a shaky laugh as she ran a hand down the length of her dress. Seph was surprised to see how nervous and uncertain her sister seemed. Althea always seemed so confident, annoyingly so, yet right there, as she gazed at herself in the mirror, she looked vulnerable.

Maybeeveryonewas vulnerable, in one way or another, Seph reflected. Some people just hid it better. She thought of Oliver again, seeming so hurt, and along with a pang of remorse she felt a flicker of hope. Theywouldstart over, she thought fiercely.Shewould. She already was.

“I think this calls for champagne,” Violet announced after Tilly had taken the dresses away to be altered. “All my gorgeous girls together! There’s a bottle of Dom Pérignon in the cellar. I’m going to bring it out.”

“Oh, Mummy, you don’t have to—” Althea protested, and Violet spread her arms out extravagantly.

“Why shouldn’t we celebrate? It’s not often we’re all together like this, sharing each other’s company.” Her gaze, turning shrewd as it so often could, rested on each of them. “I want to celebrate all of you. And what better way to do that than with oodles of champagne?”

“I think that Dom Perignon is worth a thousand pounds or something,” Althea whispered as Violet went downstairs. “And I have a feeling Daddy was saving it for something special.”

“Well, maybe this is something special,” Olivia replied. “You’re getting married, the castle has been a success, and we’re all together.” She lifted her shoulders in a smiling shrug. “Why shouldn’t we celebrate?”

Althea looked as if she was going to protest but then she laughed and shrugged back. “You’re right. Why not?Carpe diem, and all that. Right, Seph?” She glanced at Seph, smiling, and Seph smiled back.

“Right.”

Carpe diem.Truer words, she thought, had never been spoken.

Violet returned a few moments later, brandishing a dusty bottle in one hand, and some vintage coupe glasses in the other.

“Who wants to do the honours?” she asked, and Seph found herself saying, “I will.”

If anyone was surprised by her willingness to engage, they didn’t show it, and Seph took the bottle, popping the cork with deft aplomb while everyone clapped. She was smiling again, she realised, more than she had in a long time. It felt good, even though her cheeks, unused to the effort, ached.

She poured champagne into all the glasses and then they raised them in a toast as Violet declared grandly, “To us!”

“To us,” they chorused back, and then everyone took a sip of the cold, crisp champagne.

“I feel positively decadent,” Olivia remarked. “Sipping champagne at eleven o’clock in the morning!”

“Your aunt Matilda always started the day with a mimosa,” Violet remarked. “Without fail.”

“Is this the same Aunt Matilda who was a moody kleptomaniac?” Althea asked. “Why have we never heard of her before?”

“No, it was a different one,” Violet replied seriously. “An actual aunt, rather than a cousin. She died when you were quite young. She was your great-aunt, actually, I suppose. She used to come to Casterglass for a month every summer. She played a marvellous game of bridge.”

Olivia raised her eyebrows. “We hadtwoAunt Matildas?”

“Yes, I suppose you did,” Violet mused with a tone of surprise. “I suppose it was a more common name, back in the day. Strange, though…I’ve never been partial to it, myself. As a name, I mean. Although your aunt Matilda was lovely. Not the one who took the shepherdesses, of course…” She shook her head as she took another sip of champagne. Olivia met Seph and Althea’s glances and suddenly, as if they’d rehearsed it, all three of them burst out laughing.

Seph couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed like this, if she ever had, so her stomach hurt and her cheeks stretched and she felt as if she were floating inside. It feltgoodto laugh. It felt healing, like she was letting go the parts of herself she’d held on to for far too long. The hurt, the bitterness, the resentment, the insecurity. Oh, they were all still there—she knew that. Shedding such old habits and hurts wasn’t so easy that they slipped away with no more than a belly laugh and a glass of champagne. But she’d loosened her hold on them, just a little bit, and for that Seph was grateful.

Change was possible. Fresh starts did happen. And today, she thought as she swallowed the last of her champagne, was a brand-new day.

Chapter Ten

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