Nobody objected, and as he turned his back on the happy party, he heard laughter break out at something Alexander had said or done.
William shouldered open the double doors at the opposite end of the drawing room and stepped out onto the small balcony. The air was cool, which was surprising for July, and he breathed it in deeply. The sky was clear, and stars were peeping out one by one over the ridged roofs and whitewashed walls of Bath. It was as if the whole city had been preparing especially for the moonlight, to glow and shine.
He had been there only for a few minutes when he heard a footstep behind him.
“What is it, Kat?” he asked, not turning around.
His sister chuckled, coming to rest her elbows on the wall beside him. “How did you know it was me?”
William shrugged. “Process of elimination. Henry is too engrossed in his work, Alexander is not speaking to me, Mother isn’t likely to notice, and it’s not as if any of my in-laws would notice anything was amiss.”
Katherine pursed her lips. “Why is Alexander not speaking to you?”
William pushed a hand through his hair, the dark chestnut locks all of the Willenshire siblings had, with matching olive skin and hazel eyes. William’s eyes, however, were shaped more like his father’s. Another similarity he would rather do without.
“Oh, it is not so dire as all that. We did manage a modicum of reconciliation prior to his nuptials, but… alas, it was merely between him and myself after Henry and you departed. And Mother, of course, though she naturally exacerbated the situation. Words were exchanged—words which apologies cannot entirely mitigate.”
Katherine frowned. “What sort of words?”
“I’m sure you can imagine. I was not particularly helpful when Alexander was endeavouring to curb his intemperance, and, of course, he was infatuated with Abigail and not in full possession of his faculties. I was rather unkind and unforgiving, I believe. And he said… he said I was just likehim.”
He heard Katherine suck in a breath. No need to explain whohewas.
“You are nothing like Father,” she said stoutly. “I can promise you that.”
William smiled thinly. “What if I am, though?”
“Youare not.”
“Do you know what it is to feel like a stranger within the very bounds of your own family?
“Yes,” she answered immediately. “I do. Do you not remember? Father thought that ladies ought to be educated separately and kept apart from the men. From the age of thirteen to about seventeen, I exclusively spent my days with Mother. I barely saw you all. It was awful.”
“I forgot about that.”
“I never can,” she muttered. “You aren’t like him, William. You aren’t cruel enough.”
“He can’t have started off that way, though. Can he?”
Katherine was silent for a moment. In the end, William broke the silence first.
“I kept the horse, you know.”
She blinked at him. “Horse?”
“The horse that killed him.”
There was more silence.
“Oh,” Katherine managed at last.
William stared out at the star-studded sky, half speaking to himself.
“I’m sure you remember that day. Father wanted me to ride an unbroken horse and threw insults at me when I wouldn’t do it. He denounced me as a craven, a weakling, the disgrace of his existence, and so forth. He proclaimed that I was no true gentleman. He brought all of you out to witness my humiliation and climbed on the horse himself to make a point.”
“I remember,” Katherine said, voice hushed. “The horse threw him. It was a dangerous creature, and you knew it.”
“I didn’t know it. The thing is, Katherine, I truly was just afraid of the creature. I haven’t ridden since.”
