Moments later, Margaret fixed herself in the mirror as Augusta worked pins through her dark waves. The slow yet methodical tug of her hair eased some of her nerves – until a knock interrupted them and the door creaked open once more.
Eliza’s cherub face peered through the crack, two green eyes in the dark, wanting to be let into the room. “May I come in, Margaret?”
Margaret turned to wave her inside, her cheeks aching with a smile as Eliza rushed over to her. She grabbed Margaret in a side-hug, squeezing her around the middle.
“You must be careful, Miss Eliza,” Augusta warned, a pin in her mouth. She inspected Margaret’s hair, applying the final touches. “There won’t be time to fix Miss Pembroke’s hair if you ruin it.”
“I won’t,” Eliza protested, stepping back to look at her sister.
Eliza giggled as Augusta patted her head, sending Margaret a fortifying look as she stepped back and left the room.
“Where is Augusta going? She has only just arrived,” Eliza said, taking a bottle of perfume from Margaret’s vanity and studying it.
“She went to get my wedding slippers.” Margaret took the perfume from Eliza and put it back, then seized her sister’s hands. There was an ink stain on her pointer finger, and Margaret wiped it off. “Is everything alright?”
“Of course.” Eliza nodded, her blonde ringlets bobbing around her face. “Mama said we are leaving soon, so I wanted to come and see you.” She twisted her mouth, fighting a smile, until shefinally burst. “Do you like that Augusta is back? I asked His Grace to go and fetch her for you. It was me, Margaret. I did it.”
Margaret leaned back to look at Eliza. “You asked the duke? Don’t tell tales, Liz.”
“I’m not.” Eliza pouted. “When he came around for tea last week, I asked him to go and find Augusta because it would make you happy. And it did make you happy, so I was right.”
She was growing more confused by the second. It wasn’t like Eliza to lie, but Margaret had no memory of her sister ever speaking with Alexander. They had only been introduced once, when he had come to tell her mother about their betrothal.
“I don’t understand.” Margaret cocked her head to the side. “He spoke to you?”
“Yes, he did.” Eliza rolled her eyes, obviously dissatisfied with Margaret’s reaction. “I was sitting on the stairs when he left. I only wanted to look at him, but he stopped and spoke with me for a little bit. He said he was marrying you, and I said I knew. Then he said that he would make things go well for us, and I said thank you, Your Grace, and if you want to make Margaret happy too, you should go and get Augusta back and then go and find Papa.”
“I see.” Margaret’s heart clenched. It sounded so unlike Alexander, but the evidence lay in Augusta’s return. “Eliza... The duke has done a kind thing by marrying me. It’s not polite to ask him for things, and certainly not fetching Papa.”
“But if the duke can make Augusta come back, then perhaps he can make Papa come back too.” Eliza’s face fell. A moment later, she shrugged and walked to the gown hanging from the armoire. “It’s a very pretty dress, Margaret. I like it very much. Mama says you will be the perfect bride.”
Margaret shook her head and extended a hand toward her sister. “Come here, you silly thing.”
Eliza returned to her and sat on Margaret’s knee.
“I am grateful that you asked His Grace to hire Augusta. To think of my happiness was a very nice thing to do.” She took her sister’s hand. Her fingers felt so small in her palm. “Thank you.”
“It was also Mama.”
“Oh?”
“She told me to wait on the stairs to speak with him.”
“Oh.”
Margaret let out a slow, bitter breath.
“Next time, when Mama asks you to do something, you should come and tell me.”
“But you won’t be here,” Eliza replied, cocking her head to the side. “You’re going to live far away.”
So, Eliza had also heard about the move to Somerstead Hall from Katherine.
“It’s only temporary. I will never be very far from you, not for anything in the world.” She pulled Eliza in close, clutching her. “And now, thanks to His Grace, I can finally protect you.”
Katherine was many things, but she wasnotan efficient timekeeper. They had arrived at the church too early, and Margaret had been subsequently stowed in a room with an opening outdoors, from which she could later re-enter the church without being seen.
She paced beneath a stained-glass window depicting the Virgin Mary. Sounds from the nave slipped beneath the door. Guests were piling into the church ahead of the ceremony. It struck her that so many of them, just weeks before, had been watching her family with morbid curiosity. Now they would smile for the Duke of Langley and his new duchess, lauding him as a hero for saving a woman whose own father had abandoned her. Margaret would become the subject of envy and curiosity for at least a few months. Only time would tell how history remembered her after that.
