“Your sister.... It cannot be easy to be parted from her so suddenly. I will make arrangements if you ask me. Your family is mine to protect—as you are mine to protect. There are enough rooms here to host a small army. It would be no trouble.”
Bile crept up her throat. He did not realizeprecisely whathe was protecting, but she couldn’t refuse his offer without raising his suspicions. And she wanted to see Eliza again more than anything.
“Then perhaps a visit would not be out of the question,” Margaret replied, reaching nervously for her tea again. “And in the meantime, I will send a note to Brockenhedge to see about Helena. You may enjoy your day in town without worrying about me.”
Alexander smiled half-heartedly down at her.
"It would be easier if you showed me this letter directly,” Helena said, looking back at the manor as they continued their walk toward the river. “No one will see us from this far away.”
“I cannot take that risk,” Margaret argued. “And you arrived so quickly, I did not have time to prepare. His Grace is still here—and the others are home too.”
“I was notthatquick. Well, maybe a little. Brockenhedge is only fifteen minutes away, and I have been clawing at the walls for something to do. My aunt is excellent company... until she is not. And neither of us knows when Mama and Papa are coming back. A little like your father. Oh, please, Margaret, the waiting is killing me.”
Margaret swallowed, nudging Helena’s elbow sharply. “Might you not say that so loudly?”
They paused at the edge of the path where the trees thinned. The river glinted between the birches in the weak, late-morning sun. There were no gardeners in sight, but Margaret cast a cautious glance behind them all the same.
“Do you really think someone is listening through the hedges?” Helena asked. “Honestly, Margaret, you are just as paranoid as Aunt Jane.”
“You would be just as cautious in my place,” Margaret muttered. She listened for sounds and heard only the distant hiss of the Avon River. “And Lady Jane’s suspicions are not unfounded. No one can be trusted. Not even those we hold closest, as evidenced by Augusta’s recent actions.”
Helena sighed, then made a point of going around and checking for spies before returning to Margaret and dragging her a few meters from the main path.
“It’s clear. Now, you said Augusta hid the letter from you?”
“Only for a few days.” Margaret hesitated, jaw tight. “It arrived at Somerstead Hall from a courier in town. Augusta intercepted the letter when she heard my name being called, and when she saw my father’s handwriting, she could not bring herself to give it to me, worried it would sadden me.”
“And has it?”
“What do you think?” Margaret pressed her eyes shut. She had read the letter so many times that the words were burned into her eyelids. “It was dated a week ago, Helena. You know what that means... My father is alive, and given how the letter was delivered...”
“He is here... in Wiltshire.”
Margaret let out a shaky breath, the words appearing in her mind.
What I left behind haunts me. Not the comforts of our house, the titles and trappings of our life—but you, my daughters, and my wife. You are my pride... Ruin was inevitable, and I could not bear for you to watch it consume me. Far from you, I have notbeen idle. I have tried to rebuild what I squandered in silence. And when the time is right...
“I will return to you,” she finished aloud. “That is what he wrote.Not as a beggar or a king, but as the father I wish to be. When the time is right, we will meet again.And when I find you, Margaret, I will look upon the new life you have built without me and stand at its edge with a smile. Your support at this time means everything.”
She waited a moment. Helena had gone quiet. She stared at Margaret wordlessly, looking as perplexed as Margaret felt.
“He plans to return?” Helena gazed off into the distance. “This is madness...”
“More than madness, it is simply cruel.” Margaret clasped her hands tightly, suppressing her rising anger. “To think of him presenting himself before Alexander... I would die of shame, Helena. And if I do not die, my husband may very well cast me off, and that would just as easily cause my death. It is one thing to be the son-in-law of a man who, in essence, no longer exists. But if Papa does resurface... No, I cannot think of it. I wish never to see him again.”
“You do not mean that,” Helena said, shaking her head. “I am far from your father’s greatest defendant—curse him for abandoning you—but I know you, Margaret. If he were to reappear, you would accept him back into your life. And if there’s a chance he has amended for his past?—”
“He could not. It’s impossible. Thetonmay have warmed to Mother and me again, but we were not the ones who cheated and lied. And what he has written about my support can only mean money. He is not looking for forgiveness. He is looking for money.”
She laughed miserably.
“I was so much happier when I knew nothing, when I could pretend that he was gone for good. Since reading his letter, I have only felt sick—as though a disaster is fast approaching, and there is nothing I can do to stop it.”
The thought was too much to bear. Margaret fell to the ground and clasped her arms around herself. Tears fell from her eyes as she rocked back and forth, remembering how frightened she had been when the bailiffs had come and taken everything; how determined she had been to rebuild their lives; how nervous but hopeful she had felt on the day she had married Alexander.
“Oh, Margaret... No, Margaret, you mustn't.”
Helena dropped into a crouch beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She pulled her in close, stroking her hair. She whispered some words of encouragement, though Margaret could barely hear them through her sobs.
