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“Firstly, I would appreciate it if you would call me Odite, or Dite is fine.”
“But Evander never calls you that.”
“He does at times but prefers to…” She smiled, shifting her gaze from me to the swans as she shook her head. “Never mind. Um, to answer your question, yes, I am enjoying it. Though I must admit, I am desperately trying to be a good mistress here. As well as a good mother to little Emeline. My mama made it seem so easy to run a house and family, as you may have witnessed.”
I could not imagine what it was like to come from her family, which was so rambunctious compared to here. Even my brother’s daughter, Emeline, was not one to make much noise.
“Yes, your mother is quite the captain. But she is also very kind to her servants. She thanks them repeatedly for their work. She calls everyone by their first name, which I thought to be strange, but I began to do so too.”
“Mama says that once you have good help, they ought to be seen as extended family.” Yet another example of the difference between her upbringing and my own.
“My father believed that there needed to be a clear distinction in social status. Servants were servants, not needing to speak unless spoken to.” This was also why they avoided me as a child, even when I sought to be friendly. They feared my father would hear of it and punish them.
“With all due respect, I believe your father was a hypocrite,” she muttered in clear irritation.
“He was very much the living embodiment of ‘do as I say, not as I do.’ Look at the trouble he has left with Fitzwilliam.” We both sighed. My brother had been rigid and upset of late, but I knew it was not Aphrodite’s doing, for she could do no wrong in his eyes. I had only seen this behavior of his when it came to one person and one person alone—our half brother.
“Evander will not speak much of it. But it is clear Fitzwilliam affects him deeply.”
“He has affected the whole estate, as I have never seen guards here before.” Not footmen but actual guards on the grounds. To prove my point, one walked by on the other side of the stream, and upon noticing us, he bowed before continuing to observe our surroundings.
“Evander insists on them. But in my mind, despite all that I know of this Fitzwilliam, I cannot believe a brother would truly wish to harm his brother.”
Yes, because her brothers loved her dearly.
“Was the first murder not between brothers in the Bible?”
Her frown deepened. “Yes. I suppose that makes me very naïve.”
“What are you ladies speaking of so intensely without me?”
We both turned to see my brother walking down the hill, and the smile returned to her face as she rose to her feet in a single motion, going to him.
“Were you so jealous, brother, that you sought to interrupt?” I asked, not bothering to rise.
“No. I was rather fearful of what tales you were spinning about me,” he said, outstretching his hand for his wife’s, giving it a great squeeze.
“Not every conversation is about you, brother. Odite and I were actually talking of my time in London, how I managed to fall wonderfully in love with a handsome young man, only to be jilted and left heartbroken. Oh, the despair. How my heart weeps.”
Aphrodite’s eyebrows rose in shock. She believed me. However, Evander rolled his eyes at me. “Mind her not. This is what I mean by tales. You would not know it, but she is actually a writer.”
“I am not.”
“I believe there are several journals to prove otherwise.”
“Truly?” Aphrodite smiled. “May I read some?”
“You would have a greater chance of catching clergymen in an alehouse,” Evander teased. “She has forbidden any of us from ever looking at her works. She could be another Lady Elizabeth Cary or Aphra Behn, but we would never know.”
“Could you not have picked better examples?” Aphrodite grimaced, looking at me. “They did not have the best fates.”
He thought for a moment and then said, “Lady Margaret Cavendish then?”
“She married a man thirty years her senior and was barren,” I added, only to see the discomfort on his face grow.
“I shall cease speaking before I am buried.” His frown caused both Aphrodite and me to laugh.
“We shall free you from the topic. Are you going somewhere?” I asked as I noticed he was finely dressed.
“Yes, I shall take my wife’s company now, if you do not mind.”
“I mind.”
“You shall live,” he said, and Aphrodite offered me a small smile before walking arm in arm with him back up the hill. Clearly, she knew where he was going from the way they spoke to each other.
Only when they were mere dots in the distance did I reach into the basket beside me and take out my journal, ink, and quill to write.
