Chapter 15 #2
Ellis found she couldn’t speak, so she nodded.
“May I hug you?” Min asked.
Ellis raced to her, and they embraced fiercely. Several minutes elapsed while they held one another. Ellis couldn’t keep from crying, and from the sound of it, Min was doing the same. When they finally broke apart, they began to laugh.
“Aren’t we a pair?” Min said. She took Ellis’ hand and squeezed it.
“Let’s sit, and I’ll tell you everything.” Ellis tugged her toward a settee. “But first I want to hear how you’re enjoying marriage. I’m so sorry I missed your wedding.”
They sat together, angled toward each other.
Min kept hold of Ellis’s hand. “I understand. I’m so sorry for the way you found out about our mother.”
“At least we’re actually sisters,” Ellis said with a wry smile.
Min began to cry again. “Is it wrong that I’m happy about that?”
Ellis squeezed her hand. “No, I’m happy too. It is the one bright spot in all this.”
“The other bright spot is that the duchess has been sent away,” Min said. “My father is not renewing the lease on her house in Bath, and she’s no longer welcome at the dower house at Beacon Park.”
“Where will she go?” Ellis asked.
Min shrugged. “We don’t know, and we don’t care. I don’t think she has much money. She did ask if she could stay with me. I didn’t respond. Evan wrote her back and told her not to write to us again.”
“Good for Evan,” Ellis said firmly. “I don’t know what’s worse—having a mother and learning these awful things about her or being treated horribly by somebody for so long only to learn that she’s your mother.”
“Your situation is far worse.” Min’s eyes shone with kindness and concern. “Our mother never treated me poorly, not in the way she did you. I should have recognized just how terrible her treatment of you was. I should have stood up for you more. Can you ever forgive me?”
“There’s nothing to forgive,” Ellis said sharply.
“You did all you could. You fought for me on countless occasions, and you won some of those battles. Things could have been much worse. I think if you and I had not gotten on so well, she might have been able to convince your father to send me away. Though, I would have gone to live with my cousins, which likely would have been better.” Ellis didn’t want Min to feel bad about that either.
“There’s no sense in our talking about things we could have done differently. ”
“I remember you wanted to live with your cousins,” Min said softly. “I also remember telling you that I was glad you didn’t, because I liked having you there with me.”
Ellis smiled. “You said my presence meant you could pretend we were sisters.”
Min nodded. “I craved companionship and affection. Sheff was older and mostly away at school, and my father certainly wasn’t paying attention to me.” She met Ellis’s gaze. “I had the governess, and I had you.”
“We had each other.” Ellis squeezed Min’s hand again. “Which is why I’m so sorry I turned away from you. We must always band together.”
“Yes,” Min agreed. “Forever.”
They released their hands and embraced again, though not for nearly as long as before.
When they parted, Min’s expression became wary. “You said you were going to tell me everything. What does that mean?”
Ellis cocked her head. “I wonder if we should invite Pandora and Jo to join us, so that I don’t have to repeat everything.”
Min laughed. “That probably makes the most sense. You should also know that Iona is here as well. I confess she and I have become close in the last several weeks. I hope you won’t take offense.”
“Not at all,” Ellis said. “I look forward to deepening our acquaintance.” But for how long? Ellis had no idea where she would be in a few months. Or perhaps even next week.
“Wait right here.” Min jumped up and dashed to a closed door that likely led to a smaller version of this room. In a house of this size, it was common for the two rooms to join together to form a larger space for balls or other gathering.
A moment later, Min led their three friends into the drawing room. How Ellis wished Persey, Tamsin, and Gwen were here too.
“Is all well?” Jo asked tentatively as she entered the seating area.
“Quite,” Ellis replied. “Thank you for organizing this.” She gave Jo a hug, and their bellies met, Ellis felt a jolt. “Was that the baby?”
Jo laughed. “Yes, she or he is very active in the evening, especially just before dinner.”
“We will dine shortly,” Pandora said. “After Ellis shares whatever she wishes to share.” She sent Ellis a supportive look, which Ellis very much appreciated.
“We need to be closer together,” Min announced as she began to move a chair near the settee where she and Ellis had been seated. Iona and Pandora moved two more, and Pandora ushered Jo into one of them.
Ellis retook her position on the settee, as did Min, and Jo was to her left. “I hope you won’t think poorly of me,” Ellis said nervously.
“We would never think poorly of you,” Min assured her. “I noticed the coach you stepped out of was very nice, if a few years old. It definitely wasn’t a hackney.”
Ellis glanced toward Pandora, who gave her an encouraging nod. “The coach belongs to my employer. Pandora knows who that is, because we happened upon each other one day at her publisher.”
Jo snapped her gaze to Pandora. “That’s how you found her.”
“Yes,” Pandora replied. “But I promised Ellis I wouldn’t tell you.”
“What were you doing at the publisher?” Min asked.
“Working,” Ellis replied. “I’m secretary to Lord Keele, and he’s a principal in Lacey and Company.”
Min’s sable brows shot up. “He hired a woman?”
“He hired a man named Daniel Ellis. It took him a few days to discover what it was that he found odd about me.”
They all laughed.
“He suspected right away that something was off?” Iona asked in her Irish lilt. She had large blue eyes and wavy dark-auburn hair. “Did he suspect you were a woman?”
Ellis lifted a shoulder. “He had inklings, I suppose, but I made the mistake of bending over in front of him, and apparently he didn’t think my backside was at all masculine.”
Iona gasped while the others laughed.
“Your curves gave you away,” Pandora said through her grin.
“Indeed, but my work was good enough that he didn’t want me to leave my post.” Ellis held up her hand. “Forgive me, I’m leaving out a very important detail. One of the requirements of my employment was that I reside in Keele’s household.”
Now, everyone gasped.
Pandora’s blonde brows drew together. “I thought you were living in a boarding house.”
“I was, but Roman—that is, Keele—wanted me to live in his house so I could be available at all times.”
Jo narrowed her eyes. “That sounds dubious. What did he want you available for?”
Ellis understood how a marquess insisting a woman secretary live in his house might appear.
“He wanted me to work. When he made that demand, he thought I was a man. He had no ulterior motives, I assure you. The secretary before me was atrocious, and there was a great deal of mess to be tidied. He wanted someone who could work long hours.”
Min nodded. “So you started working for him dressed as a man, then he learned you were a woman. What did his servants say?”
“I continued as a man until my disguise fell apart one day,” Ellis explained, skipping over the incident when Margot had caught them kissing.
“I was wearing facial hair, and the beard came unglued in front of Mr. and Mrs. Lacey. Surprisingly, they did not have a problem with my being a woman. In fact, they encouraged me to assume my true identity. That was when Roman—Keele—informed the servants that I was actually Mrs. Ellis, a widow. That is also what the Laceys believe. I’m sure you can understand why. ”
“But you aren’t a widow,” Min pointed out. “What will happen when that becomes known?”
“It won’t, for I don’t plan to stay there much longer.” Saying that out loud caused Ellis’s chest to ache.
“I’m surprised you took this risk at all,” Iona said with a slight shake of her head. “I can’t imagine it was enjoyable to dress up as a man. And you wore a beard?”
“I did, and I do not recommend it.” Ellis wrinkled her nose. “But it was all I could think of to find employment that I wanted to do and that would pay me well enough to save money.”
“Save money for what?” Iona asked.
“To make my way.” Ellis looked down at her lap.
“I don’t have a family, and I don’t have a means of supporting myself.
I have no prospects of marriage, nor do I want any.
” She lifted her head and regarded her friends, though she didn’t focus on anyone in particular.
She didn’t want to see their reactions—more accurately, their pity.
“I’m not in the same situation as any of you.
Not even you, Pandora. You’ve an aunt to take care of you. ”
“My aunt would take care of you too,” Pandora said quietly. “I’ve told you that.”
“My father would take care of you,” Min said. “He’s offered.”
“Sheff would too,” Jo put in. “He’s told me that many times.”
Ellis appreciated their help, but she’d been at everyone’s mercy her entire life.
She looked to Min and Jo first. “I don’t want your father or your brother supporting me.
It just doesn’t feel right. Anyway, I have no future in this sphere.
I’m not going to marry the way either of you have.
My future is much more aligned with Pandora.
I would much rather live in Bath or some other town that isn’t London and perhaps become a librarian. ”
She thought about the conversation she’d had with Roman about that. It had been an idle thought at the time, but this was a truly feasible option for her and actually made her contemplate the future with something close to anticipation.
If they didn’t open a library branch in Bath, there would soon be an opening at a smaller branch when they promoted someone to Oxford. Ellis thought she stood at least a small chance of obtaining that position.