“What—no. No you may not!” Clarence drew himself upright, nostrils flaring. “This is quite enough!”
Clarence glared around the room, and Celia watched his gaze dismiss each person. It was easy to follow his thoughts: a servant, a child, a Black, a ruffian, an ex-slave.
Clarence shook his head, impatient. “I must ask you all to leave. I have come to speak with my sister!”
No one obeyed. Leavenworth sat down, which was courteous to Celia’s lead as the hostess. Marianne brought Celia the almond cake.
Clarence sniffed. “My—own—sister. I have a perfect right to speak to my sister in private.”
“Kilairne.”
Peter entered the room, quiet as a cat. He was smiling slightly, but he was not amused. He glided around the dining table, every eye fixed on his every move. He reached Clarence and did not bow.
Peter put out his hand.
Clarence, uncertain, put his in it. “Alcott.”
They shook, one solid jerk.
“You have already had one chance to speak to your sister in private,” Peter said, quiet and calm. “After that, you do not get a second.”
Marianne gasped, with delight or perhaps horror.
Peter turned to kiss Celia’s cheek. “Good! You are only just pouring out. I trust I am not too late.”
“Of course not.” His touch gave Celia strength. This was, indeed, her tea tray and her family. She would serve tea to Clarence, one more time, and then she would say goodbye. “Janie, would you please cut the cake? Marianne, kindly pass the plates.”
Celia handed out tea, and with little gestures and careful smiles, arranged everyone where she wanted them. She ensconced herself in a brocade chair, protected within its high scrolled back. Leavenworth was across from her, at the foot of the low table, seated slightly aside because he was dressed for dinner and wearing his dress sword. To her left was the flagstone hearth, with Marianne on an ottoman beside Celia, and Bridget in a rocking chair by Leavenworth. Janie stood at the tea cart, poised as though she were prepared to defend their fortress with rock biscuits and a cake knife. Marsh and JC were outside of the circle; Marsh at the dining table near Janie, and JC behind Leavenworth, directly in Celia’s line of sight. Beyond him, she could look out the windows and refresh her heart with the beautiful green hills.
To Celia’s right was a narrow settee. Clarence sat on the side closest to Celia, elbows pulled close to his body. Beside him, Peter lounged gracefully and kept the conversation flowing.
“This is… quite a roomful of people,” Clarence said, once he had finished his cake.
Celia smiled beatifically at her brother. “I like my rooms full of people.”
“I believe I… owe you an explanation for the night at the Latham’s ball.” Clarence glanced about and leaned closer. “I do not wish to encourage gossip.”
“Kilairne”—Peter crossed one ankle over his knee—“I believe you do not understand how gossip works, if you think that anyone in this room does not already know what you did that night. Your best chance at redemption is to speak particularly loudly and clearly.”
“But…” Clarence dropped his voice. “Theservants.”
Bridget laughed. “My lord, what anyone knows upstairs, everyone knows downstairs. Even Janie, who has never heardof the Lathams, has spent her morning making creams foryoursister’s scars.”
“Not scars!” Clarence protested to Celia. “Surely it wasn’t that bad. Alcott was right there, and you got an engagement out of it. You seem perfectly fine.”
There was a moment of silence. Celia looked at her lap and worried that he was right. She had been overwrought and upset about Henrietta and exaggerated the effects of just a few moments when Edmund had not even truly hurt—
“Cousin Clarence,” Marianne said, “with all due respect, this is not a subject on which you have the authority to speak.”
Clarence’s gaze swung to his little cousin, eyebrows down.
“For you see,” Marianne continued, “all the rest of us have been here with Celia. You left.”
He left. He left, and Celia felt it to her bones.
“Even me,” Marsh inserted bitterly. “I can tell when a poor wee girl is afraid of a drubbing, and that I can.”
“A drubbing!” Clarence exclaimed.
