“Matilda!” Anna leaped out of the carriage, throwing her arms around her friend. “Oh, it is so wonderful to see you! And you look so well! This sea air must agree with you.”
Matilda squeezed her friend tighter. “I thought you had all forgotten me.”
“Matilda, be serious,” Anna chided playfully, pulling back. “How could any of us forget you? We have all been terribly bored without you. Balls and parties are as dull as dishwater when you are not there. Your absence has been keenly felt, believe me.”
Matilda held Anna’s face and kissed her forehead. “I do not believe you, but I am grateful for you trying to soothe my pride. It is of tremendous comfort and shall nourish me for weeks in this faraway place.”
“Has it been so awful, my dear Matilda?” Worry strained the elfin features of Anna’s face, her huge eyes crossing slightly as she tried to focus on her friend, up close.
Matilda flashed a wicked grin. “Not so awful, but that is not a discussion for the footmen to overhear. Come, let me show you to your chambers where you may rest if you wish. Then, I thought we could have luncheon in the summer house? Along with our sandwiches and cakes, I shall offer up some other, more delicious morsels.”
“Whatever you think is best,” Anna replied, clearly bewildered.
Matilda paused, sighing. “I have missed you.”
“As I have missed you.” Anna brightened, tugging on her capped sleeves which were a size too small, cutting into the flesh of her upper arm.
Matilda noted the garment. “I would offer you something else to wear, but my dresses would swamp you.” She narrowed her eyes. “Have you gotten skinnier? You are rake-thin, Anna.”
“I am as you saw me last,” she protested. “But… is there something wrong with my dress? Is it not appropriate attire for Whitecliff? I wanted to wear something nice.”
Matilda took hold of Anna’s hands, if only to stop them from trembling. “You look exquisite, my sweet Anna, and it is entirely appropriate. I thought you were tugging on the sleeves because they were uncomfortable; I must have been mistaken.”
Anna relaxed, her hands stilling. “Oh, that! Yes, they are a mote too tight. I think I will change before luncheon, but I do not need to rest. I am eager to hear everything about your honeymoon!”
“Excellent!” Matilda looped her arm through Anna’s and led her into the shade of the manor where Albion had made himself scarce at his wife’s behest.
Selfish as it might have sounded, Matilda wanted her dear friend all to herself for the afternoon before they all sat down to dine together in the evening. Matilda had already explained to Albion that, of all the Spinsters’ Club, Anna was the one who had urged Matilda to be kinder to him, but he was still hesitant about meeting her properly. In essence, it would be a first introduction.
And she will adore you; I know she will.
* * *
“He gave this to you as a study?” Anna stood in the center of the summer house, her mouth hanging open. “I have never seen anything more beautiful. It is like having a piece of Kew Gardens for yourself. Oh, heavens, I am so jealous! Is it wrong to be jealous?”
Matilda laughed, opening up the doors that led out to the fishpond. “It is not wrong, but I shall not revel in it. I have been lucky, that is all.”
“Well, I wish I had a crumb of your luck,” Anna sighed, breezing out onto the sandstone terrace that stretched all the way to the fishpond itself.
Luncheon had already been prepared on the outside table, cushions plumped on the wrought iron chairs that flanked it with an awning overhead to temper the sun’s fierce rays. All Mr. Algernon’s doing and a task he had done exceptionally well. Everything was perfect, exactly as Matilda had imagined it, down to the spray of freshly picked flowers that acted as a pretty centerpiece.
“You will find your happiness, Anna,” Matilda told her, ushering her into her chair. “If I can find untold joy with a man, so can you. He is coming, whoever he is, and I know he will be worth the wait.”
Anna squealed, startling a blackbird. “Untold joy? Happiness? Is it true?”
“You say I have not been forgotten, but evidently you have not read the letters I have sent you,” Matilda teased, pouring two glasses of lemonade from a crystal pitcher. Chunks of ice floated decadently, clinking against the sides. The valet had thought of everything.
Anna shot her friend a pointed look. “Matilda, your letters have had nothing of importance in them whatsoever, not regarding your marriage anyway. In the last one you sent, you spoke about hermit crabs for a full page and the benefits of rosehip oil for another page. Not a single mention of your husband.”
“I knew you were visiting.” Matilda grinned. “I wanted to keep you in suspense.”
Anna sipped her drink. “You are mean. A full page about hermit crabs! I thought you had taken leave of your senses when you started the part about imagining what it would be like to be a hermit crab.”
“I do feel as if I have taken leave of my senses,” Matilda confessed, sitting back in her chair, trailing her arm out into the bright sunlight. She did not care if she freckled. Freckles were beautiful to her.
Anna leaned forward. “Because of him?”
Matilda nodded. “It is the strangest thing. All my life, I have scorned the idea of romantic love and marriage, despite having a father who loved his wife ferociously.” She paused. “It is one of fate’s little tricks, I suppose, to force me to reassess my beliefs.”
