Chapter 2 #2
All three sisters glanced toward their aunt, giggling at her red-cheeked response to that statement.
She always blushed when the topic of Simone came up.
She’d been positively plum the one and only time the two women had met.
Caroline was polite—of course, their aunt was too kind to be cruel or dismissive.
But the two women were from vastly different worlds and it was fun to watch her stammer and go pink whenever someone said Simone’s name.
“You will have to return my own,” Caroline finally managed to choke out. “I caught a glimpse of her at the opera the other week, you know. She was in her box with…isn’t she currently with the Marquess of Harding?”
“You know a great deal about a courtesan’s movements,” Arabella teased. “Yes, she’s with Harding. Lord, that man hardly deserves to shine her boots, but there it is.”
“Miss Stanhope is a friend to you girls,” their aunt said, turning away to set her glass on the sideboard. “Of course I notice her.”
Arabella opened her mouth to say more, but the parlor door opened and Caroline’s butler was there. “Supper is served, Mrs. Ashfield, ladies.”
“Thank you, Dennis,” Caroline said, and looked genuinely relieved as they all made their way to the supper table. She was just too easy to tease.
They were seated and a wonderful meal began. They spoke of theatre and music, of old acquaintances and new scandals in Society. At least she and her sisters had more insider information on those than their aunt often did, for they all saw Society from a very different angle now.
“And when will Southwater go to his country estate this year?” her aunt asked as the desserts were brought.
Evelina’s smile softened a fraction, as it always did when Southwater was mentioned.
Over the last two years, and despite Arabella’s annoyance at the idea that he might try to manage what her sister read, he was normally a good protector.
He seemed to care for Evelina and it was evident she felt far more than just attraction for him.
“Harry will stay until the final session of the House of Lords,” she said. “He always takes his duty very seriously. Then he’ll be out in Southwater for a month or so.”
“Will you join him?” Julia asked.
Evelina nodded. “I always do, at least for some of the time. I do love it there. The estate is lovely.”
Julia leaned on the table with an almost gooey-eyed expression.
Unlike Arabella, her sisters still had a good dose of the romantic in them.
Evelina had often spoke about how she thought Southwater would be her last protector.
He’d made promises, it seemed, to keep her almost as his wife.
To put off marrying for as long as he could and to make a political match and nothing more when he did.
Those promises worried Arabella, for she’d often seen courtesans burned by such things.
As for Julia, she had idealized that kind of connection almost from the first moment she took on the life of a courtesan. She was still hopeful she would find a long-term arrangement, perhaps even one day marry.
Arabella felt a twinge of guilt at those desires of both her sisters.
She always felt that more keenly when they were with their aunt.
When she saw the life Evelina and Julia had left to become courtesans like she was.
That had been the only choice, of course, the only mode of escape that Arabella could offer them, but that didn’t change the fact that their dreams of being gentlewomen had gone.
“Have you heard from your father lately?” Aunt Caroline asked softly.
Arabella jerked her head up and snagged her aunt’s gaze. She felt her sisters staring at her and cleared her throat before she answered as carefully as she could manage. “I have. Just his usual monthly screed against me.”
Evelina’s breath caught. “Still?” she gasped. “I thought that ended last year.”
“Oh no,” Arabella said. “He has never missed a one in all the time I’ve been gone from his home.”
“Why didn’t you tell us he has continued?” Julia asked, reaching across the table to take Arabella’s hand. There was fear in her youngest sister’s eyes. The emotion Arabella had tried to protect her from for decades, not just recently.
She shrugged. “It simply doesn’t matter. You don’t need to know what he says to me. He isn’t very creative, it’s the same as it ever was.”
Evelina pursed her lips and it was evident she was truly irritated by that response. “I’m not eight years old anymore, Arabella!” she snapped. “You don’t need to protect me or Julia anymore.”
“I’m not certain that’s true,” Arabella said softly.
Evelina pushed back from the table and shot their aunt an apologetic look. “We have this round and round conversation too often for it to be productive and I have somewhere to be, as Southwater expects me soon. Julia, may I drop you off back at Arabella’s?”
Julia looked from one sister to the other, clearly struggling with who to choose in this quiet argument that occasionally blew up into something louder.
“Go with Evelina,” Arabella said gently. “I’ll stay with Aunt Caroline for a while and then I also have somewhere to be.”
Julia nodded and got up. Caroline led them to the foyer where there were kisses goodbye and promises to meet again soon.
“I’ll see you later tonight,” Julia said to Arabella, and shot Evelina a look before she headed out to the carriage that had been brought around.
Arabella met her sister’s gaze and then Evelina huffed out a breath and kissed her cheek. “You’re impossible and I adore you,” she whispered.
Arabella smiled as Evelina followed Julia into the carriage and she and Caroline waved them away. It was over now, the argument wouldn’t carry on. They would pretend it hadn’t even come up.
“I apologize,” Caroline said as they re-entered the house. She motioned them to the parlor where they’d began the night and Arabella followed her with a shake of her head.
“Do you? I think you wanted that truth to come out and you knew it would cause a scene.”
Caroline shrugged. “Perhaps I did have ulterior motives. Your father’s continued anger… rage toward you has always been frightening, Arabella. You stole his hopes for the future. Not just the ones that moved through you, but through your sisters.”
“If he hadn’t been willing to sell us all, I would never have rushed to save them. Anyway, what’s the point of them knowing? It only hurts them.”
“It allows them the opportunity to protect you as much as you strive to protect them,” Caroline said and took her hand. “I’d like to hope that my brother would never move against his own child, but believe that he wouldn’t? That’s harder to do. Especially when you’re between protectors at present.”
Arabella sighed. “I know what you’re saying. But I’ll settle for one soon enough and then his title and money will likely be enough to keep Father from pushing too hard.” She squeezed her aunt’s hand. “Now I’ll take my leave, too.”
“Not to go home though.”
“You have a lot of questions for a woman who doesn’t approve of my path,” Arabella said with a laugh. “If you must know, I’m going to the Donville Masquerade. And my invitation for you to go there one night always stands.”
Caroline blushed to the roots of her hair and swatted at Arabella playfully. “Go on with you then! Good night!”
“Good night,” Arabella answered, and then slipped out onto the drive and to the carriage that awaited her there. The carriage that would take her to distractions that she hoped might erase the sour taste which remained in her mouth thanks to thoughts of her father’s deep and abiding hatred.