AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Aunt Sarah slowly, cautiously, sank onto the chaise next to Chastity and kept the baby carefully cradled in her hold. “You snuck into bed with me one night, do you recall? And after that, you and Cassie refused to sleep apart.”
Eleanor nodded with a smile. “I remember.” Had it not been for her new family’s tender ways and Cassie’s friendship growing up, things could have been extremely different for her. She was not the only illegitimate child to be claimed by an important member of Society but many did not receive the warm welcome from their siblings as she did.
“Oh blast!” Cassie declared abruptly, dropping her hand of cards onto the table.
“Cassie!” Demeter scolded. “Not in front of the baby.”
Chastity glanced at her child. “I doubt she is going to start uttering blast this very moment.”
Demeter lifted her shoulders. “You do not know what might be absorbed.”
“Well, Demeter, your first word was sh—”
“Aunt Sarah!” they all hissed at once.
“Shoe. I was going to say shoe!” Their aunt huffed. “How I ended up with such prudes for nieces I do not know.”
Chastity rolled her eyes. “None of us are exactly traditional young ladies, Aunt Sarah, do not fear.”
Aunt Sarah gave a begrudging nod. “You are all a little different I suppose, but when I was younger—”
The front doorbell chimed through the house, saving them from another usually wildly inappropriate story of Aunt Sarah’s youth. How many of these stories were true or simply exaggerated was hard to tell, though a few of the older ladies of thetonhad talked of their aunt’s behaviors in the past with a sort of grudging admiration.
It was a miracle she had never fallen entirely out of society or suffered the cut but being a duke’s sister helped, Eleanor imagined.
“Are we expecting anyone?” asked Demeter.
Eleanor shook her head and Aunt Sarah shrugged. They stared at the door expectantly until the footman opened the door and the butler entered with the Reverend Snelling.
Eleanor frowned. The reverend was to be marrying Blake and Demeter next month, but she could think of no reason for him to visit. Something deep in her gut panged, especially when she spied the small man’s reddened cheeks as though he had travelled to their house with great haste.
“Forgive the intrusion, my ladies.” The reverend bowed his head deeply. “I received your letter only this morning.” He patted his pocket where Eleanor assumed the letter sat.
Reverend Snelling gave rather enigmatic sermons given his stature and bland appearance—eyes close together, a lightly sun-spotted face, and pale red hair clinging to a bald spot. She always preferred listening to him over Reverend Gables.
Demeter frowned as they all rose to greet him, Aunt Sarah moved with great care so as not to disturb Nancy who gave a tiny stretch in protest, then settled back against her Great Aunt Sarah’s chest.
Simon the cat decided he wanted nothing to do with whatever conversation this was and leaped from the windowsill to slip past the reverend, ensuring he had brushed past the man’s trousers, no doubt leaving a few white hairs as a protest at the disturbance.
“Forgive me, Reverend, but what letter?” Demeter asked, taking up one of the circle of chairs set out near the fireplace for visitors.
The reverend remained standing, swinging his gaze between Eleanor and the rest of her family. “It is of a sensitive matter...”
“I a-assure you I have no secrets from my family,” she promised him.
He took a hesitant step forward and joined all of them on the chairs. He tapped a hand upon his knee. “It is not up to me to pry into personal matters...” His throat worked beneath his collar. “However, I have guided you all morally since you were children and I feel it best that I...”
Aunt Sarah remained on the chaise with the baby, but Eleanor heard a muffled snigger. No doubt Aunt Sarah was thinking of their investigations or how most of her sisters had met their husbands in unusual ways that the vicar would most certainly not approve of.
“Reverend, if you do not mind, would you explain quite what this letter is about?” Cassie prompted.
“Lady Demeter sent it only this morning,” he said. “I felt it prudent to act right away.”
Demeter’s brow furrowed. “I-I sent no letter, Reverend. What on earth is in it that could cause you such distress?”
The man blinked a few times, put his hand into his pocket, and fished out a letter. Eleanor recognized their father’s broken wax seal upon it. “You did not send this?” He handed it over to Demeter. “You are not intending to break off your engagement?”
Demeter gasped and Eleanor felt the rest of the room hold their breath. Blake had only visited just this lunchtime and he and Demeter were more in love than ever. Neither of them had any intention of calling off their wedding.
