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"Edwina, you do not—”
"Tommen Pierce," she cut him again. "Justfor the ball," she insisted, smiling.
"Very well, Sister." A grin illuminated his face. "As you wish."
"You can consider it the beginning of your payment to me,” she jested. “You owe me nine-and-ten years."
“I know I have caused you great suffering. Is there a chance that we could bargain?" He palmed his nape, a sheepish look on his face.
"Oh, Ihaveforgiven you, Tommen, but you must still pay, and that begins with attending my ball.”
He bowed. “Yes, Your Grace.”
* * *
That afternoon, Edwina was in a sitting room on the second floor that she was planning to turn into her own private sitting room, enjoying her solitude when a knock sounded. She frowned, wondering who had found her here. “Come in,” she called.
The door opened and Elaine poked her head in. "Am I interrupting something?" She stepped in, closing the door behind her.
"Not at all, Your Highness," Edwina responded, setting the book in her hand down. “Please, make yourself at home.” She gestured for her to take a seat.
"Oh, Iamat home." She sat down on the sofa opposite Edwina. She seemed different this afternoon.
"Well then, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" Edwina asked.
"I hardly think you perceive my company as a pleasure." Elaine laughed a little.
"I have not been in your company long enough to think of it as a displeasure, but you are correct. I did not appreciate your intrusion earlier."
"I rather think that you took the intrusion quite well. You did not bow down."
"Is that a compliment?" Edwina raised an amused brow.
"Oh, is that what such comments are called now?" she asked, displaying that pride that Edwina was coming to associate with being a Winfield. Albert and Steven had it, too. She smiled when Albert came to mind.
"Compliment or not, the fact remains that we are related now, whether or not we like it. We can either antagonize each other or strive to cooperate and respect each other, and perhaps in time, we might learn to appreciate our relationship.”
Elaine held her gaze for a long moment. She looked very much like her brother. "I hear you are quite fond of my lake," she suddenly announced. "That you have claimed it even."
Edwina felt the corners of her mouth twitch. "Yourlake?" she asked. "I hardly think that anyone can lay any claim on nature. It is there for everyone to admire and enjoy." Edwina amusingly challenged her. "I should think that I have more rights to the lake now. After all, you abandoned it for years."
A broad smile appeared on Elaine’s face just then. This was the first time Edwina was seeing such a smile on her face. "I like you. I thought I did, but I am certain of it now," she said.
"I beg your pardon?" Edwina was sure that if she had been drinking or eating something in that instant, she would have choked on it after hearing such a confession, in so abrupt a manner.
"Come, do not look so surprised." Elaine waved a hand. "You left quite a grand first impression, you see. You entered the foyer, dripping wet with an equally wet puppy in your arms, and you were not concerned about what people thought of you. I knew then that you were not a conventional woman. I decided to have a bit of a jolly while discovering what to finally make of you."
"Are you in the habit of playing such games with everyone you meet?" Edwina could not conceal both her surprise and amusement at the turn of events.
"Only with the people that matter. And you are right. Even if you weren't Albert’s wife, Glass Blanket ceased being mine the moment I left it."
"Oh," Edwina gasped. Either Elaine was a different person altogether, or she was foxed, although she did not appear to be foxed.
"I think you make a fine addition to the Winfield collection of odd individuals, Your Grace," Elaine added.
Despite the way she had phrased the statement, Edwina detected no snobbery in it. This was her sister-in-law being genuine. Appreciation emerged between them in that instant, and Edwina knew that she had just been accepted. She was a Winfield now.
"Thank you," she said. "And I think it is time we abandon the formal address. I am not fond of it."
