Page 97 of Aurelia

Arthur grunted at that and turned back to his plate, vigorously attacking his dreary potatoes in vinegar as if it were Guustin’s head on his plate.

Guustin cut Aurelia a wryly amused look. “While the delay is lamentable, I am delighted that I will be here on your first Christmas on the island, Aurelia.”

Celsa’s smile instantly turned into a scowl. “First? She will be done with her work next spring. This will be her only Christmas here. Unless you will be going home to be with your family this year?” Her hopeful smile told Aurelia where the girl stood on that issue.

Honestly. One minute Celsa was embracing her and telling her how much she would miss her, the next, she was all but shoving Aurelia out the door. It was enough to make a person’s head swim.

Aurelia smiled sweetly at the younger woman. “I won’t be going home, my lady. I’m afraid I will be here, plaguing you at Christmas.”

Celsa had the decency to blush.

***

Several afternoons later—on the first sunny day in what felt like ages—Aurelia was finishing up her work when Charles knocked on her workroom door.

“Sir Gideon is downstairs to see you, miss.”

“Thank you, Charles.” She waited until the footman left before removing her apron and checking her appearance in the small mirror that hung beside the door. Once she’d assured herself there were no paint smudges on her nose she began the long trek to the drawing room.

Aurelia had not seen the baronet since the day he had proposed to her. Either bad weather or his other commitments had kept him away until now.

When she opened the door she found not only Sir Gideon, but also Arthur.

“Look who has come to visit!” Arthur said, looking so delighted that Aurelia would have thought that Sir Gideon had come to see him.

Once they had exchanged greetings and lamented the recent weather, Arthur stood. “I will instruct Beekman to have tea sent up. I would love to join you, but I have an engagement I cannot break.” Arthur winked at Aurelia when he thought Sir Gideon wasn’t looking.

Aurelia’s face flared when she saw that Sir Gideon had indeed noticed the wink.

While they waited for the tea to arrive Sir Gideon chatted about growing up on the mainland and his visits to Crewe.

“So, you came to the island often?” she asked.

“More and more as I grew older. Because I am so much younger than his lordship, we never saw much of each other.” Sir Gideon gave a rueful laugh. “Although I doubt Crewe would have had much to say to me even if we had been closer in age.”

Aurelia wanted to demur, but she suspected that was true.

“Arthur, on the other hand, always made time for me, even though I was likely a pest when it came to his taxidermy.”

“Oh?” Aurelia asked.

“Yes, I am a bit of an amateur taxidermist myself. The animals I preserve cannot compare to Arthur’s work, of course, but my mother became very upset when I used arsenic, and her arguments against it were sound. There are those who say mercury is an even more dangerous curative, so I have had to rely on older herbal methods, with less satisfying results.”

Could arsenic or mercury be a reason for Arthur’s prolonged sickness? He seemed to be getting worse, rather than better. While Aurelia wanted Roland to return for selfish reasons, she really hoped he came back soon because he needed to do something about Arthur’s deteriorating health.

“—and the earl was often quite cruel to him.”

Aurelia’s ears perked up at the word earl. “I have never seen his lordship be unkind to Arthur,” she said with a little too much heat.

Gideon chuckled. “Not this earl—the last one.”

“Oh.” Aurelia felt a bit foolish for flying to Roland’s defense.

“Crewe and Arthur were inseparable from the moment Arthur came to live here. Indeed, Arthur has only ever had good things to say about this earl. But the last Laird of Crewe could be a, er, difficult character.”

“Why would he be unkind to his own nephew?”

Gideon’s cheeks darkened slightly and he glanced at the door. “I thought you knew that Arthur was illegitimate.”