Chapter 16
Sixteen
Aurelia walked slowly behind Evander as he marched toward the entrance hall, whispering something to Mrs. Foulger.
She pressed a hand to her stomach, trying to suppress her rising nausea.
Maybe Mrs. Foulger had been wrong, she thought.
Or maybe this was all a nightmare and she would wake up any moment.
Evander looked briefly over his shoulder at her, expressionless. He slowed his pace just enough for her to catch up to him. And when she did, he offered her his arm and she took it.
The entrance hall of Carrstone was not a small room, but it felt small tonight.
There were three figures by the door. Frederick was speaking to a man, in his travelling coat, hat in hand.
He looked older than Aurelia remembered him.
But maybe it was just the darkness. Lady Seraphina stood slightly apart from him.
She was composed, visibly tired from the journey, shadows under her eyes as she looked around.
Two trunks waited by the door. Nike was already investigating one of them, and a maid came down the stairs quickly to redirect her with no success.
Aurelia had come through with Evander and stopped just inside the doorway.
The kiss was still on her mouth. Frederick was ten feet away.
She kept her face still, pressing her lips together so hard they started to hurt.
There was a rush of feeling – surprise and shame, anger at seeing him and knowing he had been lying to her for months. But more than anything, fear.
Frederick looked between them as they entered. His eyes went from Evander to her and back like he didn’t understand what he was seeing.
“What… What’s going on?” he asked. His voice was almost painful to her ears. Smooth in a different way than Evander’s. It made her want to run away. “What are you doing here, Miss Knowles?”
“Miss Knowles?” Lady Seraphina said, stepping forward. “That’s you, Miss Knowles?”
Evander moved slightly forward, positioning himself between them and Aurelia. “Evidently you've had a long journey,” he said, not even bothering with a greeting. “We should not speak now.”
“What is going on?” Frederick said again, stressing every syllable while looking at Aurelia. “Are you… Did he…” He stopped, looked at his brother. “You married her.”
“I did,” Evander confirmed.
Frederick stared at them. Seraphina made a shocked and unladylike sound, stepping forward.
She was as pretty as Aurelia remembered her.
Dark hair and red lips. Round brown eyes.
She was the envy of every young woman in London.
And now she was here, looking at Aurelia like she wanted to rip the head off her shoulders, though that made no sense.
“When did this happen? We never even heard… We had no idea,” Frederick said.
“I could say the same for you,” Evander pointed out, finally releasing Aurelia. “It happened after you left, by special license. And then we came here.”
Frederick looked at the floor. His jaw worked.
The maid had given up on Nike and was standing by the wall with the man who had entered with Frederick and Lady Seraphina – likely their driver.
Nike had moved on from the trunks and came to stand by Aurelia.
Titan was nowhere to be seen. The dog growled slightly, and Aurelia kneeled down to calm her.
“All right,” Frederick said quietly and quickly. “All right. But…” He looked at Aurelia again, and the expression shifted into something trying to be apologetic. “Did you want this? He didn’t force you, did he?”
“No, not in the slightest,” Aurelia said.
Evander looked at her in thanks, his eyes softening.
“She agreed to it. That you would accuse me of forcing her into something… You know me better than that. But perhaps I did not know you.” He looked at Lady Seraphina, and Aurelia couldn’t help but watch the interaction carefully. “The two of you are settled?”
“Settled?” Frederick guffawed. “Settled in the way that you are settled, yes.” Frederick's face creased. “I didn't think you would—”
“No,” Evander cut in. “I doubt you have been thinking much at all.”
The silence after that was deafening. Nike removed herself and went back up the stairs. Aurelia felt suddenly defenseless. She could feel Lady Seraphina watching her like she was the intruder and not the other way around.
Lady Seraphina stepped forward slowly. “Your Grace,” she began.
Her voice was gentle, well-practised. “I know what we did was wrong. I want to say that without embellishment to you.” She looked at Aurelia briefly.
“To both of you. It was wrong, and I am sorry for leaving in the manner we did. It was not calculated. We did not intend to harm you. Though we realise now… We should have gone about things much differently.”
Neither of them replied. Lady Seraphina did not appear surprised by this response.
She had obviously not come here expecting forgiveness.
But then that begged the question – why had they come here?
Eloping did not mean Frederick had forfeited his share of the estate, his titles.
They had no reason to come to Carrstone.
“We only need a week,” Lady Seraphina continued. “A week to remain with you here, if you will allow it. We considered other places of course, but…”
“We had wanted to apologise outside the view of London society, but not now,” Frederick finished for her.
He looked at the driver and Mrs. Foulger and bid them to leave them alone.
Then it was just the four of them in that cold and dim entrance hall.
It felt like an entirely other world. “We had planned to establish ourselves at the house in Lowestoft. But when we went there this evening… They said the place had been sold to a local baron.”
Aurelia froze. He must have been referring to the properties Evander had been dealing with recently. But surely Evander couldn’t have known Frederick’s intentions? Unless… No, she stopped herself. Had he been trying to sell them off to spite his brother?
“With that in mind,” Frederick continued, not betraying anything more than the simple truth of the matter, “we came here. You would be within your right to send us away. We will make our beds elsewhere in Norfolk if need be.”
“But perhaps,” Seraphina said,” this will allow us to keep things contained for a while and to clear the air. What do you think?”
“Things will not go back,” Evander said. “You understand that, yes?”
Lady Seraphina nodded. “We know they can't—”
“You must actually understand it. Not just agree to satisfy me.”
Something passed between the brothers then. Some language Aurelia didn't have access to, built from years she hadn't been part of. But Aurelia couldn’t understand. She never had been able to understand him – and maybe that was part of why everything had ended as it had.
“I agree,” Frederick said.
Evander looked at him for a moment. Then said, “Then you may stay the week.”
A breath released somewhere. It had come from Lady Seraphina, Aurelia thought, though she hadn't moved visibly.
Mrs. Foulger appeared from the corridor again and assessed the situation in approximately three seconds, then she began directing the footman she had brought with her to the trunks. She asked whether they wanted tea in the sitting room. And Evander said they did.
Later, the sitting room fire had been made up efficiently.
There was a pot of steaming tea on the coffee table between them.
The dogs had settled – Titan had come downstairs after hearing the commotion and sat in the corner, while Nike lay under the table where she was technically too large to fit but had committed to trying.
Aurelia remembered that Evander had called them guard dogs at some point, but the only thing they really seemed to be guarding was their own peace.
Occasionally their baskets in the sitting room.
Aurelia poured the tea because it gave her hands something to do. She faltered on Frederick’s cup, remembering how they had done this before, some time back when the world had made more sense than it did now.
She was angry, yes. She hadn't fully understood this until she was sitting across from Frederick, watching him add sugar to the tea like a man at ease in a familiar room. Why shouldn’t he have been familiar with this room?
It had been their summering home since he had been born.
The anger inside her was quiet, which was the kind she trusted least in herself.
He and Seraphina were talking to one another about the home in Suffolk, how it was a pity that it had been sold because Seraphina would have liked it.
It all seemed absurd. He had left her at the altar. He had done it by scandal sheet, without even the basic courtesy of a conversation first, and now he was here talking with his wife, looking tired rather than contrite.
She set the pot down once she had served herself and leaned a little closer to Evander, who was simmering quietly beside her.
“So… How was the journey?” she asked half-heartedly.
“It was long, mostly. The roads leading into Scotland are not nearly as well-tended as down here. But God knows there are still tolls. Insane, really,” Frederick said.
“They have to maintain them somehow, however poorly,” Evander said, looking at his tea but not drinking from it.
“Dumfries must have been nice,” Aurelia added.
“Nice enough for our purposes,” Frederick said with a smile.
He brushed the light brown hair away from his face.
“You would know, wouldn’t you, how nice it was?
I still remember…” He looked into the distance.
“I remember your parents had a home there. Might still – unless my brother has decided to sell it like the manse in Suffolk.”
“It will remain with her,” was all Evander said.
On the surface it was an entirely normal exchange. She might have found it pleasant if she weren't so angry. Frederick still remembered some things about her and seemed happy to talk about her.