“Oh Christ,” Matilda said, “don’t call me that.” But then she took a step forward, and then another, and then she caught Margo in an embrace.
“I love you too,” she said into Margo’s ear. “You ninny.”
“You promise me you’ll be safe?”
“I promise.”
They were of a height, their bodies the same shape. She knew the curve of Matilda’s shoulders better than her own. She was crying, she realized, hot tears that splashed down onto Matilda’s striped carriage dress.
“You smell like you just got tupped in the woods,” Matilda murmured. “Repeatedly. For several days. Without bathing.”
Margo sniffed loudly and considered rubbing her nose on her sister’s dress. “Did you not hear the part in Henry’s speech where we are good and kind?”
Matilda drew back. “I heard him.” Her expression was unreadable. “I hope you did.”
Margo didn’t know what to say.
Matilda pulled her into one more hug. “I’ll write to you when we’re settled. I’ll miss you.” To Margo’s surprise, her sister’s voice caught on the words. “I’m going to miss you so much.”
“Miss you already,” she whispered back.
And with a brief word to Henry and no backward glances, Matilda was gone, darting through the trees and finding her way back to the waterfall, where she’d left her blanket and pelisse and, presumably, her future husband.
Margo tried very hard not to panic at the sight of her sister’s retreating back.
And then she was alone with Henry once again.
Be brave,she told herself, and she made herself look at him.
He wasn’t looking back. He was staring down at the leaf-littered soil, his hands shoved in his pockets, his body a line of tension. His mouth was a grim slash.
“Margo,” he said. He didn’t look up. He appeared to be addressing the ground. “We need to talk about things. About what’s—about what’s happened.”
And her courage broke. “I can’t,” she whispered.
At that, he looked up. His serious dark eyes caught on her face. “Margo?”
She couldn’t hear him over the sound of her pulse beating in her ears. She was alone. She’d lost Matilda. Matilda didn’t want to be one of the Halifax twins any longer, and though she knew it was irrational, her heart twisted in her chest.
Had she ruined that, too? Her twin, her other half? Had she driven Matilda away?
They had been equal partners in everything they’d done, Margo had always thought, but perhaps she’d been wrong. Perhaps she’d led her sister into scandal and infamy just as she’d led Henry into recklessness these last two days.
Perhaps the finishing school had been right. She was an appalling influence on others. She was not fit to be around anyone who was good.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so damned sorry, Henry.”
And then she turned on her heel and ran blindly toward the sound of the waterfall.
Chapter 12
Henry decided to give her an hour before he went after her.
And then he remembered that his watch had been smashed in the carriage accident, and he swore, aloud and obscenely.
Fine, then. He would give her some time. He would give her—oh hell, he didn’t know. Every minute felt like ten.
She was sorry. That’s what she’d said when he’d told her he wanted to talk. She wassorry.
