Oh, she wouldn’t be marryinghim, but whomever she approached next—or whichever poor sod was unlucky enough to fall for the spell of her beauty—would never see the darkness of her heart.
Thanks to him.
CHAPTER 3
The week following their tea at Dumpkins, Tiffany and Bonnie were hiding in the garden. Not the inn’s formal garden, which Mother hired someone to tend to every Monday afternoon during the warmer months so the guests would always have a pristinely landscaped natural retreat. No, this was the small garden off the kitchens where Ember used to hang the laundry, and where the girls had always escaped to when necessary. The bushes were overgrown, and the herbs were the most important plants.
And of course, there was the well.
Since she was a little girl, Tiffany had always been fascinated by the old well; with its moss-covered stones and ivy growing up the posts. She’d been convinced it was the home of fairies at one point, but now she knew it just contained frogs.
Which was pretty much a metaphor for her life these days.
“Are you certain she did not see us escape out here?” Bonnie murmured worriedly.
Tiffany waved her hand as she settled on the cool stones, knowing she’d cleaned them well enough there was no chance of dirtying her skirts and hearing her mother’s anger later. “I told you, she was busy berating Annie in the front parlor. We should be safe for a half hour at least.”
With a sigh, her sister settled onto her favorite bench and plopped her book on her lap. “I do not think either of us realized just how much Ember did for us until she left.”
Tiffany nodded mournfully. “I honestly had no idea so much work went into keeping the inn running. I know Ember mostly attended to us and Mother?—”
“At least you are willing to help with the washing these days,” Bonnie teased, flipping through her pages and looking for her bookmark. “Mother has the maids running ragged from adding on all the new chores now that Ember is gone.”
“Well, we cannot very well force the lasses to work double without more pay, can we?”
“Why not? Thatiswhat we expected from Ember.”
Tiffany sighed and rested her head against the ivy-covered post. “Yes. I wish I had realized…” she murmured, the knot of shame still twisting her gut.
It seemed she had plenty to be ashamed of these days.
When Ember’s father had married Mother—second marriages for both of them—Tiffany had been thrilled to get another sister. But, as Mother explained, Ember wasn’t alady. She wasn’timportant. Therefore, after her father’s death, it was perfectly natural to give Ember more responsibilities—of the dirty, back-breaking kind—to make sure she had her own place in the world.
It wasn’t until she’d left that Tiffany truly understood what that meant. Mother had used Ember as an unpaid drudge, and their stepsister had accepted the role, until she could break free.
Now Mother was frantically trying to get by—at the same level of ease and comfort as before—without having to pay another worker. This meant Tiffany and Bonnie were taking on more tasks and avoiding Mother’s anger when she realized her preciousprincesseswere being forced to work.
“Well?” Tiffany prodded, closing her eyes. “Get on with it.”
Her sister chuckled. “You will make a great lady in a castle someday. Mother’s lessons in imperiousness have worked. Where were we?” There was the rustle of pages as she flipped through the book. “Oh, yes,The Frog Princess.”
As Bonnie read the old fairy tale, Tiffany allowed her mind to wander. A great lady in a castle? That had been her dream.
But the dream had changed when she’d danced with Lysander Oliphant. Oh, she’d danced with himbecausehe was a viscount, but she’d begun dreaming about a forever with him after she’d felt the tingle in her arm from his touch, and the way the sparkle in his warm hazel eyes made her breathless. And when he’d leaned in, close enough she thought he might kiss her, Tiffany had almost swallowed her tongue in anticipation.
Yes, Lysander had become her dream, and not because he had a castle and almost five thousand pounds yearly.
Although, of course, that helped. At least where Mother was concerned.
But the way he’d treated her at tea last week—the anger and accusation she’d seen in his eyes as the afternoon had gone on…?
Tiffany wrapped her arms around her middle.
It was clear. Lysander Oliphant was no longer interested in her, and she could guess why.
“Tiffany.” It wasn’t until Bonnie called her name that she realized the story was over. “Do you recall when we were both young coming out here to catch frogs?”
Tiffany’s eyes shot open, and she gasped. “No, I had forgotten that!” Glad for the distraction, she sat upright, a smile blooming. “That was back when Father was still alive, remember? He would take us on his knees and kiss us and call us his ‘bonnie lasses,’ and we would come out here to play!”
