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‘We must make sure she rests enough,’ Vivienne said. ‘Eveline works too hard as it is.’
‘Mom! Dad! Mammy! For god’s sake! Eveline is not pregnant and you cannot ask her if she is. Okay?’
Arthur winked theatrically and tapped his nose. ‘Okey-dokey, Estelle. Mum’s the word. Ha ha!’ He glanced around the table. ‘Okay, everyone, circle of trust. Eveline is definitely not pregnant and we cannot ask her if she is. Roger, roger?’
‘Roger, roger, jammy dodger, Dad,’ Leo replied with a grin.
Estelle growled and turned her attention back to James, who was smiling at her. ‘When did you last cry?’ she demanded.
His expression faltered for a moment. ‘When I was seven.’
‘What happened?’
He ignored her and pulled another question from the envelope. ‘What do you wish more people knew about you?’
Long held feelings twisted inside her stomach. ‘That I’m not just a loud, foul-mouthed arse.’
‘Those are three of the characteristics I love most about you,’ he replied quietly.
Forcing her gaze to stay down, butterflies took off inside her. Memories of the Winter Ball fluttered through her, but were chased away by visions of Elyse crying.
‘What do you wish more people knew about you?’ she mumbled.
He sighed. ‘That I’m not a soulless bastard and a total wanker,’ he said, repeating the words she’d thrown at him that morning.
Guilt gnawed at her. She’d been vile to him. ‘I’m sorry.’
James didn’t respond, instead taking out another question. He huffed out a laugh then read it. ‘Do you believe that people can change?’
Estelle glanced up the table to her irrepressibly eccentric parents who weren’t going to change for anyone, then at her brother, who’d come out of his shell after meeting Libby.
‘I don’t know. I think at their core, people don’t really change.’
She forced her eyes to meet his.
‘I changed everything about myself when I was seven,’ he said.
Estelle tried to read his expression, but it was as if he’d pulled the shutters closed over his emotions.
Breaking her gaze, he took another slip of paper from the envelope. ‘What was the scariest moment in your life so far?’
Estelle swallowed. ‘There are two. The first was when I was seven, and the second was when I fell off the balcony.’
‘What happened when you were seven?’
She’d given away far too much of herself and her family to her brother’s mortal enemy already this evening, and that story was not one she was willing to share.
‘What was the scariest moment in your life?’ she asked, ignoring his question.
‘When you fell from the balcony.’
Her body flooded with heat as she stared at him, remembering how she felt in his arms, his strength, the rumbling depth of his voice.
She took another question and read it aloud. ‘What is your biggest regret?’
‘Not knowing when to keep my mouth shut. You?’
She pulled a face. ‘If I thought about how much I regret, then I’d never get out of bed in the morning.’ She took another piece of paper out. ‘Is there something you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time?’
