“Send her to a play? How would that help?” Benjamin asked, his wrinkled face becoming more creased as he frowned.
Helena held back her smile as her mother turned on Benjamin.
“Oh, your ears,” she wailed. “You can scarcely understand a word I say these days.”
“A wonder when you shout so loudly today.” Benjamin pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.
“I said, maybe you should send Julia away.” Anna tossed the dark locks of her hair that had escaped her updo over her shoulder and gestured to Julia across the room. Helena felt her sister flinch beneath her grasp.
“We could fight them!” Matthew said again, punching the air.
“Matthew.” Everyone in the room but Julia spoke at once, and he lowered his hands again, thrusting them into his pockets.
“We wait for the right moment,” Helena bent down and whispered in her sister’s ear. Helena had seen her parents argue enough times over the years. Their match had been an arrangement, so arguments came all too easily. Helena knew when it was time to speak up and time to stay quiet. Now was one of the latter times, or whatever she had to say wouldn’t be heard.
“Yes, Anna is right.” Gibbs stepped forward.
“Why is it his business?” Julia muttered, appealing quietly to Helena so only she could hear her.
“You know our uncle; he takes the rift between the families very seriously indeed.” Helena patted her sister’s shoulder.
She could still remember overhearing how her uncle wished to challenge the late duke to a duel once. Over what the matter had been, she hadn’t understood, for she was too young at the time to make sense of the situation. It had never come to a duel in the end, but she frequently saw in her uncle’s face the fury he possessed whenever the Moores were mentioned in conversation.
He brushed back his dark auburn hair and turned to his wife, pleadingly. “Kitty, you surely agree.”
“I fear it must be done.” Kitty nodded solemnly.
“Yes, yes, Julia could be sent away.” Benjamin turned on the spot to face Julia. “There’s your Aunt Meredith in Inverness. You could go to stay with her for a while, Julia.”
“Inverness? That is so far away!” Julia complained loudly and moved to her feet. Helena pushed harder on her sister’s shoulder, urging her back down into the seat.
“Keep calm,” she whispered in her sister’s ear.
“I will not go,” Julia muttered.
“You will not row?” Benjamin asked, his brow furrowing into one firm line.
“Benjamin!” Anna waved her hands and faced him sharply, her cheeks pinkening to a shade of crimson. “Step closer to our daughter if you wish to speak to her. Then you might actually stand a chance of hearing what she says.”
Benjamin pinched his brow once again, cast a weary look at his wife, then stepped closer to Julia and Helena.
“I am trying to be practical,” Benjamin appealed to the two of them. It was plain to Helena he was holding back his temper. His face kept twitching, and he stood on the balls of his feet as if he was ready to run from the room. His voice had also been the loudest when they were banished to the other room, but now, he was quiet.
His quiet rage was all the more terrifying.
“You cannot stay here, Julia,” Benjamin said in a low tone. Julia’s hand raised and latched itself over Helena’s on her shoulder. Helena entwined their fingers together, showing she was there for her sister. “If you are sent away, at least that reduces theton’stemptation to whisper about you. A year or so, and they may forget the matter, at least a little. They’ll talk of someone else by then.”
“A year!” Matthew repeated, clearly outraged at the idea of losing his sister for that long. Helena placed a finger to his lips, urging him to be quiet. He pouted once again.
“A year? You expect me to be gone for a year?” Julia asked, her voice light as her tears came.
When the harshness cracked in Benjamin’s face, Helena sensed her opportunity.
Now, it is time I speak.
“Father, pray you, listen to me for a moment,” Helena said in a soft tone. Benjamin’s eyes turned toward her, but Anna flung her hands in the air, exasperated, and marched across the room to stand with Gibbs and Kitty. “I fear sending Julia away would accomplish little. It would injure Julia, for starters.” Julia clasped her hand tighter at the words. “What good comes from driving this family in two?”
Benjamin sighed heavily, clearly taking in the words. There had always been a good bond between Helena and her father. He could fly into rages, but her reasoned arguments often broke through to him in the end. She had to pray now would be one of those times.
