Chapter 6
Six
Despite her resolution, by the time the housekeeper had seen them comfortably ensconced in their rooms and Aurelia had refreshed herself from the journey, she thought she might explode from keeping so many emotions bottled inside.
There was one person she could be open with, at least, and she meant to find her immediately.
She marched out of the room, accosting the first maid who walked past.
“Where can I find Miss Phoebe?” she asked before remembering the afternoon’s revelation. “Or I suppose it’s actually Lady Phoebe.”
The maid gave her an odd look even as she bobbed a perfunctory curtsy. “Miss Phoebe is in the library.”
Aurelia couldn’t help a small smile. Of course Phoebe was in the library.
“Could you direct me there?” she asked, taking careful note of the instructions that followed.
But as she attempted to trace the route the maid had outlined, her brow creased.
The Earl had definitely claimed Phoebe as a sister.
But as the daughter of the previous earl, she should possess the courtesy title of Lady Phoebe.
And yet the maid had called her Miss Phoebe as Aurelia had always done.
And Phoebe had claimed her parents weren’t respectable. None of it made any sense.
When Aurelia reached the door the maid had described, she found it closed. Opening it carefully, she peeked inside, ready to whisk herself away if she had gotten the instructions confused and was in the wrong place. But to her relief, the first thing she saw was row upon row of books.
Slipping inside, she closed the door behind her, taking a moment to admire the room. It was the largest private library she had ever seen, shelves lining every wall and large windows letting in plenty of natural light. The wood of the shelves shone, and she couldn’t see a speck of dust anywhere.
“Aurelia! You’ve arrived!” Phoebe’s voice pulled her out of her contemplation, and her eyes immediately narrowed.
Phoebe’s face fell, and she faltered, stopping several steps away from Aurelia.
“Sorry I wasn’t at the entrance to greet you,” she said hesitantly. “I was going to listen for a carriage, but I got distracted.” She nodded toward the book she had abandoned on the armchair behind her—an ordinary book from the library and not Fable in his inanimate form.
“Never mind that.” Aurelia hurried over to a window seat and collapsed onto it. “You’re the Earl’s sister. The Earl of Windward. The Pegasus Tamer. That Earl.”
Phoebe laughed reluctantly. “I know who my brother is.”
“So why didn’t I!?” Aurelia fixed her with a piercing look, not breaking eye contact until Phoebe cracked.
“I’m sorry!” she wailed, sitting beside Aurelia on the long window seat. “I liked that you didn’t know our connection. Everyone else only endures me because of my brother, and it was nice to know you actually liked me for myself.”
Aurelia took her hand. “Of course I do! And I’m sure plenty of other people do too.”
Phoebe sighed. “Oh, the people here at Windward—the ones who truly know me—seem to like me well enough. But high society only accepts me because of my brother. I didn’t want to leave home and go to the capital at all, but Danton insisted I accompany him this year.”
“But you’re the daughter of an earl,” Aurelia protested. “I understand why I’m barely included in society, but you should be at the center of it.”
Phoebe sighed. “Except I’m not the daughter of an earl.”
Aurelia frowned. “I don’t understand. Your brother is the eighth Earl of Windward. How can you not be the daughter of an earl yourself?”
“He’s only my half-brother.” Phoebe stroked Fable’s back, seeming to draw strength from her furred companion. “We share a mother, but I’m not the daughter of the old earl.”
Aurelia’s brow furrowed as she tried to work out how such a situation had come to be.
“Our mother isn’t…she isn’t a good mother!” The words burst out of Phoebe, and Aurelia’s eyes widened.
“She’s still alive? I just assumed…”
“That she was dead? Exactly.” Phoebe sighed. “I don’t even know her. She’s a frivolous, selfish person from what I’ve gathered. Not that she intends harm to anyone, but she doesn’t heed them much either, unless they entertain her.”
“She just abandoned you?” Aurelia asked, shocked at the mere idea.
“Not quite as bad as that.”
When Phoebe paused, Aurelia spoke quickly. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
Phoebe shook her head and smiled. “It’s not as sad a story as the beginning makes it sound. And given I deceived you, I should at least tell you how I come to have such an odd family situation.”
Aurelia didn’t protest further, curiosity consuming her.
“Danton’s father died when he was only three,” Phoebe continued.
“The old Earl preferred to spend most of the year here at the estate, but our mother never liked being stuck in such a remote location. Once he died, she left almost immediately for the capital and didn’t come back. But she left Danton here.”
“Alone?” Aurelia cried.
Phoebe laughed. “You make it sound like he was left to be raised by pegasi or something. She left him here with the trusted family servants. Honestly, between the nanny, the housekeeper, and the steward, I think they’d been raising him up to that point anyway, so I’m not sure it was much of a change from his perspective.
He certainly wouldn’t appreciate your sympathy.
He always says he has far too many parents, not too few, given all the care they took of him. ”
“So your mother married again,” Aurelia said slowly, piecing together Phoebe’s place in the puzzle.
Phoebe nodded. “She never did return to the estate. But word came about the marriage and that she’d had another baby—a girl this time.” A smile broke over her face. “They had a conclave at that point, and I can just picture it. Three middle-aged adults with a five-year-old presiding.”
Aurelia laughed, and Phoebe continued.
“Danton insisted the baby was his sister and that he wanted to meet her. He said her—my—place was with him.”
Despite her earlier irritation with him, Aurelia’s heart softened at the picture of the imperious, kind-hearted child Earl.
“So the steward and the nanny set off for the capital, their plan agreed between them. They would show up, saying they came on the orders of the Earl, and ask to take the infant to visit her brother.” Phoebe smiled softly.
“But their real plan was that they would keep me at the estate until my mother showed up to reclaim me.” She gestured around the library.
“And here I still am, nearly seventeen years later.”
“She just forgot about you?” Aurelia stared at her. “And your father, too?”
Phoebe shrugged. “She married someone just like her, from what I understand. So they were far too busy chasing their own pleasure to worry about reclaiming me. Every now and then we get a letter from her, so I assume she still remembers our existence. But having an infant in tow was inconvenient, and I think she convinced herself that I would do better in the country with my brother.” A fierce look came into Phoebe’s eyes.
“And she was right. Danton is my true family, not her. Danton and Aunt Ophelia and Nanny and the others. Danton says the same. He says he always had a plethora of parents, and once he had a sibling as well, he wasn’t missing anything. ”
“You’re fortunate to have such an excellent brother,” Aurelia said quietly.
“He is the most excellent of brothers!” Phoebe grinned, her mood lightening. “Even if he insists that seventeen is old enough that I need to experience the capital at least once.”
Aurelia smiled as well, but she couldn’t entirely forget how she had been fooled. “I can understand why you didn’t tell me he was your brother at first,” she exclaimed. “But how could you not tell me when you invited me here?”
Phoebe looked away, her eyes shifting sideways.
“Ha!” Aurelia cried. “I know a guilty look when I see one. Tell me!”
Phoebe winced. “Danton was worried you might not come if you knew he would be here. When he heard you didn’t know we were siblings, he insisted I invite you without mentioning him.”
“That insufferable—”
Whatever insult she had been about to utter was thankfully cut off by the opening of the library door. Both girls turned to see a tall figure shutting the door behind him.
“Danton!” Phoebe leaped to her feet. “I’m being scolded terribly, and it’s all your fault. You should be the one being berated, not me. You actually deserve it!”
Aurelia immediately flushed, but the Earl didn’t look in the least annoyed at his sister’s outburst. Instead, he hurried straight to Aurelia and took her hands in his, taking her so much by surprise that she didn’t have time to remove them from his reach.
“I’m sorry to deceive you, Miss Aurelia,” he said earnestly. “But I know Phoebe wanted you here, and I need your help.”