Chapter Forty-Six
By the time they arrived at Sutton House, with Rebecca, Theodore, and Grace in tow, Frances had convinced herself she was happy.
Rather, she was happy, and felt like she was a part of a family where everyone truly liked each other—but only so long as she didn’t want more.
Like a husband who looked at her the way Lord Wiltshire still looked at Lady Wiltshire, even after decades, or children she could pretend to be at her wits’ end with while secretly hoping to keep them close forever.
She went up to her chambers and saw the last of the supplies Sarah left out for her monthly courses.
Frances had been tucking everything away in a chest, not yet ready for anyone to know what she might be.
She put her hands on her stomach, not feeling any different, but the possibility of what may be growing inside her womb made sleeping in her big bed alone almost bearable.
Her heart leapt at the knock on her door, but she tried not to show how it dropped when she opened to find Rebecca and Grace waiting for her.
“Is everything okay with your rooms?”
“They’re perfect, as always,” Rebecca assured her.
“Nathaniel is in his study with Teddy.” Grace rolled her eyes, clearly upset she wasn’t included, but also telling Frances she hadn’t been as stealthy as she’d hoped with her reaction.
“How may I help you girls?”
“Not help, so much as—”
“We wanted to invite you to a party,” Rebecca explained.
“We know you normally sleep with Nathaniel, but he snores, and we don’t,” Grace chimed in.
“Not every night, obviously, but we used to all sleep in Lizzie’s room sometimes. She wasn’t married at the time, so we understand if you would rather not…”
“But you’re our sister now, so it’s only right that you join us.”
Frances could see Grace had no idea about her marriage being any different than anyone else’s, but Rebecca was hiding her eye roll over Grace’s cluelessness. Or perhaps trying to be considerate of Frances’ delicate situation.
“She means to say it would be rude of us not to invite you, and we would love to have you, but we also understand that not everyone enjoys such situations.”
Even if Nathaniel had been in her bed right now, Frances would not have turned down her new sisters.
Nor her real ones, at this point. Sometimes, she imagined the conversations she and Nathaniel would have if they were a real couple.
How she would tell him she was leaving him for his sisters, and he would pretend to be offended, but she would remind him she needed his sisters to like her, and he would tell her they already loved her.
Then he would kiss her and tell her to enjoy herself, but that kiss would be deep and passionate, on purpose, to make her weak in the knees and reconsider how much she truly cared whether his sisters liked her more than they already did.
Unfortunately, Nathaniel wasn’t waiting in the bed for her. He wouldn’t even notice where she slept tonight.
The girls were still waiting for an answer.
“I would love to. Would you like us to sleep in here, or—”
“Becca’s room has our supplies.”
“I’ll be right over.”
By supplies, the girls meant freshly baked biscuits, hot cocoa, and a book of ghost stories they thankfully never got to.
Instead, they talked of Rebecca’s suitors, of Grace’s governess, of all the things they would do once they returned to the country, whether Frances had ever been snowshoeing, and if she could swim.
It was exactly how she’d imagined such a thing would happen among sisters.
She’d spent so much time dreaming of marrying and having her own household so she could be away from her family, but it was painfully clear that she just hadn’t met the right people.
Nathaniel knocked on the door around half past ten, looking confused to find her in Rebecca’s room.
“Were we being too loud?” Grace asked sweetly, stopping whatever reproach he might have wanted to make.
“No, of course not. Frances wasn’t in her chambers, but here she is.”
“Here I am,” she agreed.
“We kidnapped her. Sister-in-law counts as a sister, doesn’t it?” Grace verified.
“Of course, it does. Enjoy the rest of your party.”
Grace giggled when he left, then got right back into her drawing, but unlike her, Frances knew that she and Nathaniel did not share a bed. Which meant that he wouldn’t know she wasn’t in her chambers unless he needed her for something.
She considered going after him, assuming it was something he didn’t want to bring up in front of his sisters.
Then she decided he could run after her and be the disappointed one for a change.