Charlotte bit her lip, guilt swelling up inside of her.
“I am sorry about that,” Charlotte whispered.
“Don’t be, I’m not sorry for it.” Rose threw the pelisse over the coat stand nearby and linked arms with Charlotte. “You made us confront a few things. Mother and Father don’t argue as much, and our father has helped Harry to see that he does not have to cause so much trouble all the time. Harry is still mischievous, but it’s different now. He’s no longer worried about being sent away to university.”
“I’m glad things are improving.”
Before they reached the doorway, Rose tugged on their connected arms, holding her back a little.
“And how are you?” Rose whispered quietly. “How are you feeling?”
“I… I’m well enough.” Charlotte forced a smile. She knew what her family wanted her to say. They longed to hear that her journey to see Frederica had lightened her spirits, and that the woes of her heart were not so heavy now, but to tell them that would be a great lie indeed.
She had enjoyed her trip. It had comforted her heart more than she had thought possible to see Frederica was settled, and that although Frederica was now under a sternly run household, she was happy and free. Yet the time alone with her thoughts in Cornwall had told Charlotte something very particular—heartbreak is not easy to shake off. It lingers, like a burn beneath the skin.
“Come, let’s eat,” Charlotte urged her sister into the dining room with her. “I’m starving.”
Charlotte sat down at the table to find it was full of her favorite foods. It seemed her family were taking it to heart to try and cheer her spirits. Harry presented her with a present of a new shawl, for no apparent reason, other than just because. Margaret had moved her chair from the foot of the table, where she usually sat opposite her husband, to sit beside Charlotte instead. David had even asked for Charlotte’s favorite champagne to be served at the table.
Charlotte told them of her journey to Cornwall and how comforted she was to see Frederica happy, then she listened to the tales of her family.
“Oh, you should have seen them,” Margaret said with an amused laugh, pointing between Rose and Harry. “My dear, Charlotte, you would have despaired of them both.”
“We were not that bad,” Rose insisted, to which Harry sniggered into his handkerchief. “Maybe we were a little.”
“I now understand what you mean, Charlotte,” Margaret said with a heavy sigh. “You cannot take the pair of them anywhere. Susan and I took them on a promenade. Susan thought it wise that they see from a young age what one is like, so they were not surprised the way you were. They made a scene and Harry promptly fell in the water. I think at least this time he was trying to save Rose’s book from going in.”
“In my defense, I did manage to rescue the book this time,” Harry protested.
“Barely,” Rose laughed. “It was funny to see you falling in headfirst, though.”
To Charlotte’s surprise, she laughed with her sister. It didn’t matter to her so much anymore that Harry and Rose might have made fools of themselves in front of theton. What mattered was this—lightness and laughter. The five of them laughed together as David topped up their glasses with champagne, pouring lemonade for Harry and Rose.
“I have asked Susan to help me train them up a little bit,” Margaret confessed in a whisper. “Though I have also made it clear to your aunt that I do not want her to change who they are at heart. I also don’t want her to inject them with the fear that…”
“That I had?” Charlotte finished for her when Margaret couldn’t quite finish it. “Yes, I think that a wise thing.”
Margaret smiled, clearly relieved that Charlotte had not taken any offence to the words.
“I wish you both luck,” Charlotte teased. “I could not train the pair of them, but between you and Susan, you might just manage it.”
“We are not feral!” Rose insisted, though beside her, Harry had just picked up a chicken leg with his bare hands and torn the cooked skin off with his teeth.
“Aren’t we?” he asked around a mouthful.
David found this particularly amusing, leading the laughter as they all giggled together.
So relieved to find a reason to laugh, it was some time before Charlotte managed to calm her giggles.
This is what life will be, I suppose. You live with heartbreak, but smiles are not impossible.
Toward the end of their dinner, David produced a letter.
“I nearly forgot.” David passed it toward her. “This arrived for us all yesterday.”
She took the letter, seeing that her father had opened it. Her stomach knotted, for she knew the handwriting at once. She tried to persuade herself it was not possible, that this couldn’t be Gerard’s handwriting, yet her heart fluttered in her chest, a tremor of nerves that would not be calmed.
Dear Lord and Lady Winchester, and to your daughter, Lady Charlotte,
