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“Ames is in London, building a business making furniture. He wanted to be sure he could provide for me before we marry.”
“You are engaged!” Hattie’s head shot up.
“No, not exactly.”
“Then promised?”
Giulia paused for a moment, wondering what to say. A solemn wind passed over the group and Amelia moved beside her and took Giulia’s hand in her own. “To be honest, I am not sure,” Giulia whispered. She thought back to their conversation when Ames had produced the letter from her uncle—the forged letter, she now knew, though she’d yet to discover who forged it—and then how he’d obtained a ticket for her to travel to Halstead. He had packed her belongings and given her such a lingering kiss on her forehead, that she knew he was saying something more than she had been able to read at the time.
Sympathetic eyes trained on her and she laughed mirthlessly. “Do forgive me. I am not usually such dismal company.”
Amelia squeezed her hand and pulled another quilt from the floor, this one a beautiful combination of pinks and whites. Hattie scooted closer on her pillow bed and leaned against the edge of the sofa where Giulia was sitting. Mabel sat up, clutching a pillow to her stomach and giving her full attention to Giulia. For the first time in her life, Giulia felt like the center of attention in a good way. The circle of arms, open ears, and sympathetic gazes did not feel like pity, it felt like concern, and she found herself spilling the contents of her own worries easily.
“I’ve known Ames most of my life. He is older than I am, but we always felt like siblings. That is, until we got older. When I turned fifteen Ames gave me a kiss for my birthday, and it was all downhill from there. I fell for him instantly.” She smiled at the memory. They had been on a ship traveling back to London at the time and Ames had pulled her from the sick room where she was helping to care for a sick passenger and his son who had taken ill. The kiss had left her lightheaded and giddy and she’d been ready to commit to that man’s kisses for the rest of her life. Since then, he’d cared about her, protected her, and had known her better than nearly anyone else.
“When my father died,” she continued, “he left everything to Ames, surely in the hope that we would marry and share the inheritance. We traveled back to London under the chaperonage of a doctor. When we arrived in England, however, I received a letter inviting me to Halstead and Ames wanted me to go. He was not ready to wed and told me he needed to be sure he could support a family before taking a wife.”
No one said anything, and Giulia continued, quietly. “I have not received word from Ames since I left London.” She sucked in a breath and focused on her lap. “And I cannot help but wonder why he has not reached out to me. If his woodworking business is failing, I would not push him away. Though I highly doubt that will be the case. Either way, I cannot account for his silence.”
“Do you believe he has planned on taking your father’s inheritance all for himself? Leaving you nothing?” Mabel looked affronted.
“It wasn’t much to take. And he earned it, after all. I am sure Ames assumed I would be accepted at Halstead with open arms and cared for by the earl.”
How could he believe otherwise? Ames couldn’t know that the invitation was falsified.
Mabel was mollified. “And you have been.”
“Well, open arms may be a stretch, but I am being cared for.”
Hattie looked up, sorrow etched on her face. “Have you considered writing to him? He might be very busy. Perhaps he has not had a moment to think about it.”
“It is an option,” Giulia said, shrugging. “But I cannot bring myself to reach out to him first. It is childish, perhaps, but I wonder if his regard for me is flagging. I am afraid to write to him for fear that he will return a letter breaking our connection for good.”
Three kind faces tilted toward Giulia and she chuckled a little to ease the tension. She’d brought with her a melancholy that weighed down the room. Smiling, she said, “He does care for me a little, at least. He made sure I had a chaperone on the ship home—she was a respectable doctor’s wife—and then again, in London, before he sent me here.”
“He was looking out for your best interests,” Mabel conceded.
“Yes, he always was good at that,” Giulia agreed.
“Well, you need not fear for your future, Giulia, for you have friends now,” Hattie said as she reached up and clasped Giulia’s free hand tightly in her own.
“Yes,” Mabel agreed as she stood and crossed to a table along the far wall that Giulia had not noticed before. She returned with a small box. “Now, shall we drown away those sorrows in a time-honored tradition?” She cocked an eyebrow and presented the box, opening the lid to reveal an abundance of red and white striped sweets.
“Peppermint.” Hattie reached up and took one before settling into her pillows again and savoring her treat. Her head turned away slightly, and Giulia noticed what was keeping her hair up in its elegant sweep—a charcoal writing pencil. That was an odd hair accessory, to be sure.
“It appears we are missing a good number of them,” Mabel said, eyeing the box of peppermints.
“Perhaps a groom has found our stash and stopped in for an afternoon sweet,” Hattie said, grinning.
“The same groom who made a mess of the blankets, perhaps,” Amelia added. “Hiding away for an afternoon nap.”
The women sat around in comfortable nonchalance, passing the sweets around and lounging in unladylike comfort for the better part of the hour. Hattie griped about the incompetence of her neighbors, and how she kept finding their animals on her own property. Mabel entertained them with an anecdote about her young sister, and then Amelia turned the conversation toward her brother and his new baby. It took a minute for Giulia to realize that Amelia was not talking about Dr. Andrew Mason, but their older brother, Frederick, recently married and now a father. He lived in London with his wife and Amelia had received a vivid account of the birth from her sister-in-law, which the ladies all laughed over until they could not laugh any longer.
“Oh dear, look at the sun,” Amelia said with a sigh.
“We better head home,” Mabel agreed.
“Thank you for inviting me. I can scarcely recall a more enjoyable afternoon in quite some time.” Giulia looked at each of their faces, cataloguing the images for future reference.
