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Caroline laughed. “Inverley offers plenty of ways for her to part with her money if she so chooses. Everything that you may have already seen in other resort towns, I suppose—donkey rides, sea bathing, spa treatments. I am assured by the brochures that we have all the usual activities here.”
Miss Linfield smiled as she broke open a new pack of cards and shuffled them. “It seems you are seeking a more exciting summer than I, Miss Balfour. I am here as a companion to a young lady, Lady Edith, and we are guests of the Martin family for the summer. Lady Edith’s mother has charged me with ensuring that she has a peaceful time after the stresses of her first Season.”
“I can well understand,” Caroline said. “My sisters are rambunctious, and I am hoping they too will settle down for the summer.”
“Well, be careful what you wish for,” Miss Balfour said with a laugh. “I told my mother I couldn’t wait to leave rainy Ireland, and here I am in the corner of England instead of London where I longed to go.”
“My sisters beg me to take them to London, but I am afraid our circumstances are such that their curiosity is most unlikely to be satisfied.”
“How many sisters do you have?” Miss Linfield asked.
“Two sisters and three brothers, two of whom are still in school. The older ones have dreams that exceed Inverley’s charms, I am afraid.” Her smile was strained.
“Family is more important than money, or a Season in the capital,” Arabella said firmly.
Miss Balfour smiled. “I cannot see any good reason why one cannot have it all.”
They were quiet as they played the first round, until Miss Balfour crowed when she won. They were but shilling stakes, but Arabella pushed over coins for both herself and Caroline. Caroline gave her a grateful smile.
“By the way, I heard what that odious toad said to you upon your entrance, Miss Seton,” Miss Balfour said as she gathered up the cards for her turn to shuffle. “Is he always so charming?”
Arabella’s face burned again. “We have known each other for a long time. James likes to remind me that before I got my spectacles, I often bumped into things. He admires Caroline as much as he derides me.”
“A man like that is why I shall never marry,” Miss Linfield said with quiet dignity.
Miss Balfour slowed her shuffling. “I too never seek to marry. I didn’t expect to find myself in such like company this summer. I suppose Miss Seton and Miss Reeve are beset with suitors?”
Arabella’s palms felt clammy. She didn’t dare look up from the table. She had been teased long enough by Caroline to know that her face showed every emotion, whether she wished it to or not, and right now she felt sick with worry.
She wasnotbeset with suitors. But nor did she wish to be.
Caroline snorted. “No one looks twice at an aging spinster with a passel of the least well-behaved siblings in the entire county. I am content to do my duty for my brothers and sisters and see them well settled instead of myself.”
Miss Linfield nodded. “I am devoted to my charge as well.”
Miss Balfour tapped a finger on the pack of cards. “What of Miss Seton?” she asked. “Are you the sole one of us intending on capturing a husband one of these fine summer afternoons?”
Arabella didn’t dare look at Caroline. She cleared her throat. “I—”
“Oh, Arabella has no interest in a husband,” Caroline said as Arabella started to speak.
Wild hope leapt in her heart alongside terror at being perceived, but when she darted her eyes at Caroline, she was looking at the cards in her hand. With a start, she realized there was a pile in front of her as well. She fumbled to pick them up.
“She’s a wonderful painter,” Caroline continued. “Beautiful seascapes. If either of you are interested in artwork to bring back with you, do look her up on Belvoir Lane.”
Disappointment filled Arabella, even though she knew Caroline was being supportive and kind. For once, she wanted to hold onto the dream that maybe Caroline felt something too. That perhaps Arabella wasn’t the only spinster in Inverley who felt the pull toward another woman.
She scowled down at her cards, and hardly paid attention to the conversation for the rest of the evening. Her thoughts were in such disarray that she had to be asked twice if she wished for more wine.
A whole barrel might have done the trick, but it would be a scandal for a respectable spinster to drown her sorrows in a bottomless glass, so she demurred. A glass alone would do nothing to help hide the sadness she felt tonight.
* * *
Mending never truly ended. The basket beneath the chair in the parlor was forever full of socks to be darned, breeches to be patched, shirts and shifts to be stitched back together at their well-worn seams. Whenever she could, Caroline pressed Betsy and Susan into work, though their focus when mending was attaching new ribbon to their petticoats or lowering the neckline again of their worn out evening gowns.
No matter what Caroline did, the pile never grew smaller.
She picked up a linen chemise and threaded her needle.
