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Ursula swallowed. “I have quite a bit of stamina.”
Rachel’s smile was so light it was like the flicker of a candle. “I don’t doubt that, but you deserve to know what’s in the water. You need to ask. You need to have all of the information about yourself, about our family.”
Her family. The past. Why did people care so much about the past? The past was never coming back. Like her mother. The present was now and the future a door away. Why put the person she loved most in the world through the pain and sorrow of the past again?
Ursula removed her hand and grabbed another cookie, plain sugar, not her favorite, but it would do. The pure sunshine of the butter gave her the strength she needed to shrug and nod.
Rachel closed her eyes, as if she savored the sound of Lydia’s voice as the girl hit a high note, or almost hit one. The shy smile became a giddy grin and her eyes shone when she opened them.
Ursula sucked in a deep breath through her nose. Wood, and whiskey, and cloves and cherries, faint, but even with his back to her, the breeze from the forgotten open window carried them to her.
“Talk to your father, Ursula,” Rachel murmured before rising to congratulate Lydia.
Ursula opened her mouth to call after Rachel, but her eyes locked with Jay’s and all questions, all fears, all warnings vanished as she was lost in the possibilities of the future.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Two days later, the door chimed. Ursula tapped her toe as the butler made the appropriate formalities while she waited in the parlor. Time to teach Jay a few things. Would it force him to see—no, too far ahead.
However, before any of that could happen, the afternoon meeting was necessary. In quiet moments, Rachel’s words weighed heavy on her mind, but before she had any conversation with her father, she needed to be honest with everyone involved, unmuddle what she could before braving uncharted territory.
“Hugo.” Ursula rose to greet him as he stumbled into the room, tugging at his collar. “How wonderful to see you.” She grasped both hands and led him to a chair.
Jay slumped back down to occupy the one next to Hugo. Both Rachel and Lydia rose from the chaise.
Lydia cleared her throat. “We should, um, well, we have recitations to practice and class tomorrow. There are so many things to study and we just have to do the best, to be the best, and we shall excuse ourselves...”
Rachel nodded and grasped her friend’s hand. Before anyone else could respond, the girls fled into the hall, giggles tinkling through the house in their wake.
Isaac stood as well. He shifted from side to side, staring at his feet. Ursula stifled her smile. No one in her family was a dullard. Obvious, but not idiots.
“Rachel and Lydia might want an audience.” She used her gentlest tone.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I thought,” he mumbled. He ran his fingers through his thick thatch of dark hair, just like her father’s, without the gray.
“We’ll play more, later.” She had to dig her nails into her fingers so she didn’t giggle.
Isaac hurried from the room like a spooked horse. She turned her attention back to the two remaining men in the parlor.
Hugo’s face was in his hands while Jay glared at everyone and no one, though mostly Hugo. The laughter vibrated within her. The man wasn’t infallible. Even he could be blind to things right in front of his face.
She brushed aside her skirts so they’d blanket the entire chaise when she sat, as if she perched on a mauve cloud. She crossed her ankles to the side.
“Ursula.” Hugo’s eyes were desperate and his face flushed. “We don’t have a great deal of time. My parents want me to propose at the Truitts’ party next week so they can throw one of their own to announce the engagement to Katherine. You must do something.”
“She’s been doing a great deal.” Jay leaned over the side of his chair to scowl at Hugo. “She’s gone to every party and has been proclaimed one of the most popular women of the season. The gossip columns have carried multiple stories, each lauding her charms and her dancing skills. She’s the most desirable woman in Philadelphia.”
“No, she’s half of the most desirable couple in Philadelphia. Not once has her name actually been mentioned, only yours.” Hugo spit each word. “Moreover, none of this has made a lick of difference to my parents.”
“Your parents are worthless fools.” Jay’s tone was venomous, his scowl now a glower.
If she’d been in Hugo’s shoes, she’d have quaked. Hugo was not so aware.
He gripped the carved edges of his chair and snapped back at Jay. “How dare you? If this wasn’t a false engagement you wouldn’t be so cavalier. I’m sure your mother and father are beside themselves with your names being connected, even if not specifically. I’ll bet there’ve been plenty of concerned friends and relatives paying your parents visits.”
He was going to take a stroll down that path, now was he? Interesting. Ursula pictured Mrs. Truitt in the garden with her sweets and dogs. How kind Jay’s mother was and how not once had she seemed the least bit disappointed in anything about her habits or background or—
“Because why, Hugo? Because I’m a Jew?”
