Page 46 of The Duke and His Jilted Bride

Lady Seraphina stepped forward slowly. “Your Grace,” she began. Her voice was gentle, well-practised. “I know what we did was wrong. I want to say that without embellishment to you.” She looked at Aurelia briefly. “To both of you. It was wrong, and I am sorry for leaving in the manner we did. It was not calculated. We did not intend to harm you. Though we realise now… We should have gone about things much differently.”

Neither of them replied. Lady Seraphina did not appear surprised by this response. She had obviously not come here expecting forgiveness. But then that begged the question – why had they come here? Eloping did not mean Frederick had forfeited his share of the estate, his titles. They had no reason to come to Carrstone.

“We only need a week,” Lady Seraphina continued. “A week to remain with you here, if you will allow it. We considered other places of course, but…”

“We had wanted to apologise outside the view of London society, but not now,” Frederick finished for her. He looked at the driver and Mrs. Foulger and bid them to leave them alone. Then it was just the four of them in that cold and dim entrance hall. It felt like an entirely other world. “We had planned to establish ourselves at the house in Lowestoft. But when we went there this evening… They said the place had been sold to a local baron.”

Aurelia froze. He must have been referring to the properties Evander had been dealing with recently. But surely Evander couldn’t have known Frederick’s intentions? Unless… No, she stopped herself. Had he been trying to sell them off to spite his brother?

“With that in mind,” Frederick continued, not betraying anything more than the simple truth of the matter, “we came here. You would be within your right to send us away. We will make our beds elsewhere in Norfolk if need be.”

“But perhaps,” Seraphina said,” this will allow us to keep things contained for a while and to clear the air. What do you think?”

“Things will not go back,” Evander said. “You understand that, yes?”

Lady Seraphina nodded. “We know they can't⁠—”

“You must actually understand it. Not just agree to satisfy me.”

Something passed between the brothers then. Some language Aurelia didn't have access to, built from years she hadn't been part of. But Aurelia couldn’t understand. She never had been able to understand him – and maybe that was part of why everything had ended as it had.

“I agree,” Frederick said.

Evander looked at him for a moment. Then said, “Then you may stay the week.”

A breath released somewhere. It had come from Lady Seraphina, Aurelia thought, though she hadn't moved visibly.

Mrs. Foulger appeared from the corridor again and assessed the situation in approximately three seconds, then she began directing the footman she had brought with her to the trunks. She asked whether they wanted tea in the sitting room. And Evander said they did.

Later, the sitting room fire had been made up efficiently. There was a pot of steaming tea on the coffee table between them. The dogs had settled – Titan had come downstairs after hearing the commotion and sat in the corner, while Nike lay under the table where she was technically too large to fit but had committed to trying. Aurelia remembered that Evander had called them guard dogs at some point, but the only thing they really seemed to be guarding was their own peace. Occasionally their baskets in the sitting room.

Aurelia poured the tea because it gave her hands something to do. She faltered on Frederick’s cup, remembering how they had done this before, some time back when the world had made more sense than it did now.

She was angry, yes. She hadn't fully understood this until she was sitting across from Frederick, watching him add sugar to the tea like a man at ease in a familiar room. Why shouldn’t he have been familiar with this room? It had been their summering home since he had been born. The anger inside her was quiet, which was the kind she trusted least in herself. He and Seraphina were talking to one another about the home in Suffolk, how it was a pity that it had been sold because Seraphina would have liked it.

It all seemed absurd. He had left her at the altar. He had done it by scandal sheet, without even the basic courtesy of a conversation first, and now he was here talking with his wife, looking tired rather than contrite.

She set the pot down once she had served herself and leaned a little closer to Evander, who was simmering quietly beside her.

“So… How was the journey?” she asked half-heartedly.

“It was long, mostly. The roads leading into Scotland are not nearly as well-tended as down here. But God knows there are still tolls. Insane, really,” Frederick said.

“They have to maintain them somehow, however poorly,” Evander said, looking at his tea but not drinking from it.

“Dumfries must have been nice,” Aurelia added.

“Nice enough for our purposes,” Frederick said with a smile. He brushed the light brown hair away from his face. “You would know, wouldn’t you, how nice it was? I still remember…” He looked into the distance. “I remember your parents had a home there. Might still – unless my brother has decided to sell it like the manse in Suffolk.”

“It will remain with her,” was all Evander said.

On the surface it was an entirely normal exchange. She might have found it pleasant if she weren't so angry. Frederick still remembered some things about her and seemed happy to talk about her.

Lady Seraphina was watching her, she had been looking since they sat down, eyes moving from her to Evander and back with the scrutiny that had made her effective in every room Aurelia had ever seen her in. She held her cup in both hands, long pale fingers cupping the foreign, glazed ceramic. That would have been hers, had she gone through with the wedding. All of it would have been: the china set, the tea, the house, the other husband.

She and Aurelia had never spoken properly. They had circled the same rooms for months and shared some acquaintances. They had appeared at the same events from time to time, salons and the like. But they had never been in a room like this one, so close. And now they were, apparently, sisters.

Heavens, Aurelia thought, Lydia was going to have an attack when she woke up next morning and realised everything she had missed.