Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Hello, brother!” Madalene exclaimed.
Ellen watched from her spot beside Mrs. Bradley and the other servants as Madalene leapt into Laurence’s arms. Though she knew it was wrong, Ellen’s heart twisted mournfully as she watched Laurence wrap his arms around her so his little sister would not fall from her vigorous leap at him.
Ellen had thought that, after their moment in the storm, perhaps Laurence would visit her again. That had been nearly two weeks ago, though, and aside from a quick, impersonal hello if they passed one another in the halls, Laurence had stayed away.
She told herself there was nothing to be upset about.
She had better things to think about, such as running the impressively large household, and rejoicing in having Sarah and Jacob back.
Both were in good health and high spirits.
She also told herself that it was clear that their kiss was a one-off, or rather twice-off sort of thing.
Yet as she watched Laurence embrace Madalene, she felt the aching loneliness she’d been trying to bury rising all over again.
“How was your time in London? Did you cause a ruckus?” Laurence asked as he put Madalene down.
Madalene’s smile was impish as she fluttered her lashes.
“I always do,” she replied with vigor. “Cousins Morris and Shirley send their love, by the way. They insist you make time to pay them a visit.”
Laurence rolled his eyes as his lips drew back into sneer of sorts. If Ellen wasn’t so annoyed with him, she would have laughed at how comical he looked.
“I am sure,” he said dryly, and left it at that.
Madalene smirked at him as she shook her head. Then her eyes darted to Ellen so fast that it made her jump.
“Brother!” Madalene exclaimed with obvious offense. “What on earth are you doing, making my sweet, new sister-in-law stand with the servants?”
Laurence appeared flustered and started muttering something Ellen could not make out, as Madalene walked toward her with determination. Before she could speak or even take a step back, Madalene flew at her with open arms just as she had done with Laurence, and hugged her tight.
“Hello, Madalene,” Ellen gasped, struggling to breathe under her sister-in-law’s tight embrace, “I am so happy you had a good time in London.”
“Oh, pish posh!” Madalene exclaimed, pulling Ellen back so she could get a good look at her.
“Forget about my time. I want to know about yours! Why are you standing with the servants? Has my brother been an absolute ogre to you? He can be that way, you know. All snarly and distant. God knows what is wrong with him.”
Ellen’s brows raised in amusement as she glanced toward Laurence, who stood frowning as he rubbed the nape of his neck. She decided then that if her husband would not speak to her, she would play with him a little.
“You know, he is an ogre, is he not?” she replied.
Madalene laughed as a blush crept up Laurence’s neck, and he muttered something under his breath about ogres before he shot them both an annoyed look.
“Well, allow the ogre to get out of the way then,” he retorted. “Clearly you two need time to catch up.”
“Shoo shoo,” Madalene said, dismissing him with a wave of her hand without even looking at him.
Laurence’s intense gaze fell once more on Ellen; his green eyes sparked in a way that made longing pool into her lower belly.
Talk to me. Why won’t you talk to me?
Then he was gone. Turning his back and walking away from them.
“You know, it was not as if your brother forced me to stand with the servants,” Ellen said, feeling a twinge of guilt for agreeing that he was an ogre. “I did not wish to get in the way of your reunion with your family.”
“Oh, are you not the dearest thing?” Madalene sighed as she looped her arm with Ellen’s. “But you are family now, as well, and I know my brother. It is you I must learn about. Come, let us take tea in the women’s parlor and talk.”
Ellen panicked as Madalene turned to Mrs. Bradley to give her the order. Madalene seemed warm and bubbly and outgoing, but so had Judith when they had first met. Judith had helped Benedict to ensure her plan to run away would fail. Could she trust another woman who called herself a friend?
“Gosh, the feel of you,” Madalene noted as she pulled Ellen along to the women’s parlor. “You are as stiff as a board! What has got you so tense? Is it me?”
“Um…” Ellen muttered, fidgeting with her fingers.
Madalene groaned and rolled her eyes as she let go of Ellen’s arm to fall back into the nearby pink velvet chaise, sprawling in an overdramatic fashion at which Ellen could not help but smile.
“What am I saying? Of course it is,” Madalene went on. “I am told often that I am far too ‘much’, you know. Too cheerful, too giddy, too, too, too—I am simply too!”
“No,” Ellen laughed. She could not help it. Even through her hesitance, she could not help but comfort Madalene.
“You seem so very lovely,” Ellen assured her as she wrung her hands tighter. “It is just…I have only had one friend before and she…did not treat me very well in the end.” She paused, then added, “Or perhaps ever, at all.”
Madalene raised a curious brow as she propped herself up on her elbows.
“Intriguing,” she all but sang.
Ellen grimaced.
“More like pathetic on my part,” Ellen answered.
“Mmmm, no,” Madalene said, shaking her head. “I do not yet know this story, but I am certain that is not the correct word.”
She bounced up onto her feet as the maid came in with the tray of tea, which Madalene quickly waved off.
“No, no, I changed my mind. Bring us some red wine instead, please,” she ordered with a cheeky smile.
The maid bowed her head before turning back around and returned a moment later with a bottle and two wine glasses.
“Much better,” Madalene praised.
Ellen watched in amusement as Madalene dismissed the maid with cheeky warmth, then poured each of them a glass of wine so full that it nearly reached the brim.
“That is a lot of wine,” Ellen pointed out as she accepted the glass.
“I wager there is a lot to this story,” Madalene countered, then carefully clinked their full glasses together.
“Now,” Madalene said, taking on a suddenly commanding tone. “Drink. And talk. I simply must know everything.”
Needing the wine to loosen her tongue, Ellen took a longer pull from the full glass than she normally would, and as she began to feel the delightfully dizzying effects of the spirit ease the tension from her mind, she began to talk.
At first she was tentative, telling Madalene how kind Judith had been when they’d first met. As her full glass reached its bottom, though, Ellen found herself pacing the room as she aired out every slight Judith had tossed at her.
“And I did not even want to go to that masquerade!” she exclaimed a half hour later as Madalene refilled her glass.
“She put me in this awful dress that certainly was not my color! And it was velvet! I despise the feel of velvet! Yet I let her do it. I let her push and bully me around because I thought that was what friendship among ladies was!”
“Hogwash,” Madalene retorted, then took a sip of her own wine. “She sounds like an evil witch through and through!”
“Ugh! And that was not the worst of it,” Ellen went, feeling the full effects of her inebriation settle in, “When I told her I did not want to marry my cousin… When I expressed my concerns about him being dangerous… What did she do? She went behind my back and told him!”
“I will slap her, I swear to God,” Madalene swore as she shook her head. “What an awful woman!”
Her inhibitions lowered by the wine, Ellen threw her head back and laughed loudly as she pictured Madalene doing just that.
“She deserves it,” Ellen slurred.
“Too right she does,” Madalene agreed with an assertive nod of her head.
“She is the reason why—”
Ellen stopped pacing, but the room kept moving as what happened to her at the inn came back in full force.
Benedict’s rage. His slap. The way he dragged her through the inn and to the auction.
The way he tried to frighten her into begging for his forgiveness.
It all came rushing back with a sickening quickness.
Ellen’s legs buckled beneath her, and she dropped to a sitting position right there on the floor.
“Ellen!” Madalene exclaimed, hurrying toward her. She pried the glass from Ellen’s fingers and took her hands in her own as she looked into Ellen’s eyes.
“Darling, are you alright? Have I fed you too much wine?” Madalene anxiously asked.
Ellen’s bottom lip began to tremble as she shook her head, caught halfway between the pain of the past and the joy of the present.
“Whatever is wrong?” Madalene asked.
She looked into Madalene’s eyes; so very kind and eager compared to Judith’s narrowed, judgmental gaze.
“Did your brother…did he tell you how we came to be betrothed?” Ellen asked.
Madalene’s eyes shone with concern as she shook her head.
Ellen drew in a shuddering breath.
“He rescued me,” she explained. “From my cousin. He was going to do something awful, and your brother…your brother stopped that from happening.”
Madalene’s usually happy expression crumpled into fear, and she took a seat in front of Ellen right there on the floor. She was silent for a long moment as she rubbed her thumbs over the back of Ellen’s hands. Then she hesitantly asked, “Did your cousin…did he take that ghastly auction?”
Ellen’s eyes widened.
“You know about that?”
“I know more about it than my brother believes I should know about it,” Madalene confessed.
“He tries so hard to protect me from the world’s horrors, but when he told me our sister died, I did not believe the story he told me.
So I found my own way to the truth. It was so awful that I stopped my search for information right then and there.
But I know the auction, and whoever runs it is responsible for my sister’s death. ”
Ellen was silent as she took in Madalene’s words. This bubbly, cheery young woman was smarter and more aware than everyone gave her credit for, and she knew right then and there that Madalene could never be like Judith.
“I think you are very brave,” Madalene went on, giving her hands a gentle squeeze.
“For being able to trust my brother to get you to safety. One day you will tell me the full story, but even from the little you have shared so far, I understand that you had no reason to do so. But you did, and I promise you, if my brother has assured you of safety, you will have it.”
Madalene gave her a small smile.
“He can seem cold and standoffish, yes, and at times a downright ogre.”
Ellen nodded, thinking of the distance that stretched between her and her new husband, as well as the small, momentary points where she thought that they had been getting closer.
“But he is a good man,” Madalene added.
Ellen expelled a breath she had not realized she was holding, and this time, it was she who reached for Madalene and pulled her into a hug.
“Thank you,” she sighed, holding Madalene close.
Madalene let out a light laugh as she hugged Ellen.
“Whatever for?” she asked as she eased back.
“For being so kind and understanding. For not holding judgment over me.” She let out a weak laugh. “For not being Judith.”
Madalene let out a loud bark of laughter.
“Ah! Thank you for seeing that I am not!” she exclaimed, helping Ellen to her feet. “In fact, I have a new goal. To show you that all of these bad experiences can be replaced with good ones.”
Though the room still spun a little, Ellen felt more sober than before, and far more sure-footed as she stood up.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Parties, shopping, friendship,” Madalene explained. “We are going to do it all, and I am going to show you what fun is supposed to be.”
Ellen wrinkled her nose as she reached for the platter of nearby biscuits. She bit into one as she shook her head.
“I do not know, Madalene,” she answered around her chewing. “I detested those things before Judith came into my life.”
Madalene shrugged as she also helped herself to a biscuit.
“That is simply because you did not have the proper guide! Trust me, sister. I will show just how fun all those things are supposed to be. You are a duchess now. And my sister! And we are going to celebrate that in fashion!”