Priscilla had lost it.
“Oh, Papa! It’s gone!” She burst into tears and would not be consoled even when Connor drew her onto his lap. “I’ve lost it. And now Eden will be mad at me!”
Eden rose as Connor did his best to comfort his daughter. “Let me go search for it. Priscilla, it must have fallen somewhere between the glassblower’s stall and here. I’ll try to find it for you.”
Of course, she doubted that she would locate that tiny glass swan, considering the number of people who were walking between here and that stall. Someone had either picked it up and kept it for themselves, or the delicate thing had been trodden onand was broken. There was a small chance someone was honest enough to return it to the glassblower’s stall. But Eden knew this was unlikely.
The glassblower had made several swans, and she would simply buy a new one for Priscilla after conducting a token search. She wasn’t sure yet whether to claim she had found the original swan or tell Priscilla the truth and reveal she had bought her a replacement. Well, she would give it thought.
She carefully retraced her steps and was searching behind a row of crates beside the glassblower’s stall when she heard some familiar voices. “Why should I not be angry with Trajan?” Persephone said to her mother, Lady Lothmere. “He was supposed to distract that Darrow girl and keep her away from the duke while I made my move on him.”
“He is trying his best, Persephone.”
“But it is not enough just to talk to her. He has to pretend to woo her. He promised me he would do this. He just has to keep up the pretense for a few more days. How difficult can that be?”
“Not difficult at all, I would imagine. She is pretty whenever she is without those hideous spectacles.”
Persephone laughed harshly. “Ugh, her, pretty? She’s old and washed up. Even Trajan declared he would not marry a girl above twenty and five.”
“Then all the more reason to be grateful to your brother for the sacrifice he is making on your behalf.”
“What sacrifice? A morning of bird watching? We found him playing games with the duke’s boys, and that Darrow hag was nowhere in sight.”
“Child! She is not a hag, and I do not think I like your behavior. You are getting too much above yourself. Do not think the duke hasn’t noticed. I would worry less about her and more about how you are coming across to him. No man wants a wasp for a wife, so you had better curb that sharp tongue of yours.”
“Mama, don’t tell me you like her.” Persephone sounded aghast.
“Yes, it so happens I do. I feel sorry for her because she is a nice person but will never be anything more than a spinster. You are fortunate she is too old even for the Silver Duke. A man like him can have someone young and fresh. Were she a few years younger, I think she might have won his heart.”
“Ugh! Do not even suggest it. He is mine, and I will not let her have him.”
“Enough, Persephone. He already has three spoiled children to plague him. He does not need a childish wife to make a fourth. Come along, let’s look at the jewelry.”
“All right, but when we are married I am sending those children off to boarding school. I have no intention of becoming their mother.”
Eden remained behind the crates, unable to move as Lady Lothmere’s conversation with Persephone sank in. Those beautiful, kind words spoken to her by Lord Aubrey this morning were all a lie.
And she had been foolish enough to believe him.
Was this what was happening to her? Had she grown old and desperate? Deluded enough to believe the handsome viscount’s flattery? Gad, he’d been so convincing, so seemingly sincere in word and deed.
So there it was. The bitter truth.
She was to have no happiness. No Silver Duke because Connor was never going to marry her, and now Viscount Aubrey was out of the question because she was just old and used up as far as he was concerned.
“Lady Eden, is everything all right?” the glassblower asked as she approached him once Lord Aubrey’s sister and mother had walked out. She nodded unconvincingly and then asked about Priscilla’s lost swan. “No, no one has turned it in.”
“Oh, then I will purchase another. Can you please wrap it up exactly as you did the first? His Grace’s daughter is bereft, and I’m thinking that I ought to pretend to have found the original swan.”
He nodded sympathetically. “I cannot give it away for nothing, but you can have it for half price.”
They completed the exchange and Eden slowly made her way back to the food tent. She was distracted and jostled by the crowd, but did not care. She just wanted to go home to Chestnut Hill and have a good cry. But she would have no peace there either, since her father was in residence and would start behaving like a spoiled infant as soon as she returned.
She fixed a smile on her face and entered the food tent. Priscilla and Connor were still there, now joined by his sons, Aubrey, and Aubrey’s mother and sister.
Oh, just wonderful.
Persephone was glued to Connor, her manner proprietary and aggressively wary as soon as Eden joined them. Indeed, if Persephone had been born a cat, Eden knew the girl would be hissing at her and displaying her claws right now.
