Mary held back her anger. She’d always like Jennie. She’d helped make Jennie the woman she was, and now Jennie was owned by the duke. Mary didn’t like it, but Mary was not Mary at the moment. She was Harriett Lawrence, and Harriett Lawrence had no feelings for Jennie. The girls bowed quickly. Taygete bowed last and didn’t bow low.
The duke looked at them all again and for once, Taygete was glad she didn’t have the family eyes.
Adenburg said, “I thought your only aunt was Matilda.”
Lorena kept her smile in place. “No, Your Grace. You’re wrong. I have two aunts.” She’d emphasized the words ‘you’re wrong’ as though to make up for Jennie’s inability to say them.
The duke grunted and said, “I would mind the company I keep, my lady.” His eyes settled on Taygete.
Lorena ignored the comment and said, “I do hope Her Grace will be able to attend our next meeting. The Duchess of Valdeston and the Duchess of Cort are also on the board.”
Adenburg lifted his brow as though considering.
Jennie returned with the boys.
Lorena crossed the room and wrapped her in a hug, holding her for a long time before she pulled away. “I’ll see you at the next charity meeting, won’t I?”
Jennie simply nodded before Adenburg steered her out of the room.
When the door closed behind them, Lorena said, “I whispered to Jennie all your false names before she left. That way, Adenburg will never know the truth.” She sat down, and her shoulders fell. “I’m worried for her.”
“Yes,” Mary said, “but as she made very clear, she can’t leave those children, even the ones who are not of her blood. I fear I may have influenced her on that account.”
Electra grabbed her mother’s hand. “Do not feel bad because Jennie possesses a heart of gold.”
“There will be no more blame,” Taygete said. “We can try and find a way to make Jennie’s life easier, but outside of killing the duke, there is nothing that can be done.”
Lorena looked away when she said, “I’m sure no one would miss him.”
“Lorena,” Taygete said with reproach.
Lorena frowned and then sighed. “All right, the duke lives.”
“Can we please discuss something good?” Electra asked with fresh tears building. “Please.” She looked around the room, meeting every eye.
Taygete nodded and looked at Alcyone. “At least we all know Samuel will treat you well.”
Alcyone grinned. “He will, won’t he?”
Mary turned to Electra. “What did Windmere say to you that shocked you so greatly before he asked you to waltz?”
Electra blushed. “He asked if I was through.”
“Through with what?” Mary asked.
Electra licked her lips. “Through with entertaining boys with sticks of propriety shoved up their…” She cleared her throat. “Who are simple puppets controlled by whatever rules fit Society’s fancy.”
Taygete blinked.
Mary’s lips were still parted from before Electra cleared her throat.
Alcyone smiled. “What did you say?”
“I said not a word,” Electra said. “I simply let him lead me into the dance.”
A silent Electra? Taygete didn’t know if the world was ready for such a thing.
Lorena smiled. “A triple wedding. My wedding was a quartet, but this will do nicely.”
And finally, they had something good to speak about.
Jennie still nagged at the back of her mind, but without a solution, she let her mind return to Hugh and a smile touched her lips.
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CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
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They drove to the Edvoy estate the next week. The day was gray and cloudy but thankfully lacked rain. The air, however, was cool, and Taygete leaned her head toward the open window and breathed in the scent of earth.
She spotted the sprawling Edvoy mansion on the hill and pulled in a breath when she realized that in a few short weeks it would be her home. It was house her sister had never lived in, since Maia and Hugh had spent their marriage in London.
Perhaps because of her, though she might never know.
The house was made of red brick with white fixtures and large columns stationed at the center and two wings that curved out. There were farmers and sheep in the hills and down toward a valley. It was peaceful, but Taygete was full of turmoil.
The carriage passed the road that would lead to the house and took the one that would lead to the family tomb.
They rode through a forested area with trees creating what seemed like a hidden alcove, and she knew what rested on the other side.
Taygete had been here only once and had been alone.
Since women were not allowed to attend burials, Mary and the family had been forced to come to the tomb afterward, but Taygete had not accompanied the family. No one had questioned it. They’d all thought her to be grieving in her own way. No one suspected the guilt Taygete had carried.
So she’d come alone. It had been during a time she’d been sure Hugh was in London and her family was otherwise occupied. She’d wanted to see Maia and Artemis alone and apologize for what she’d done, but without alerting the estate’s caretaker she’d found the tomb locked. Taygete had been forced to stay on the outside and cry.
Now, she was going with her family and still she felt as though there was so much she had to say that she wished very few to hear.
The short row of trees cleared and a large stone building with iron doors seemed to shoot out of the earth as they drove closer. Dew covered the ground around the tomb and seemed to rise by a foot or so.
It was cooler here, and Taygete regretted not bringing a shawl.
The carriage came to a stop and one by one the sisters climbed out. Together they made their way to the tomb door where a man stood waiting for them.
Taygete met the older gentleman’s eyes and recognized him immediately.
The man smiled. “Angel,” he said in a heavy French accent.
Hugh came to stand next to her and startled Taygete when he asked, “Angel?” He’d ridden in the carriage ahead of them.
Edward Rowe smiled at his lordship. “That is what everyone at the hospital called her.” Rowe had been raised in France, but his family was English. He’d been one of Taygete’s first patients and one of her easiest. He’d broken his right arm on the boat, but once it was back to new, he’d returned to fight only to return to her hospital and have the arm removed a few months ago when it grew badly infected. By then, Taygete had become very experienced and she'd overseen Rowe’s recovery before he’d left.
She had worried that he’d have trouble finding work and was glad to know Hugh and his estate managers were willing to hire injured soldiers. So, in his own way, Hugh had helped as well.
Taygete looked up at Hugh. “Don’t worry. Angel is as much a compliment as it is a bad omen. I’m there when joy and tragedy strike.”
Understanding filled Hugh’s eyes and he smiled down at her. “Then perhaps they should have realized you were named after a powerful being.”
Taygete smiled.
“I am very grateful to you,” Mr. Rowe said to Taygete. “Had I not removed my arm, I’d be dead.” Then he looked at Hugh. “And I am grateful to you, my lord, for the opportunity to serve.”
Hugh nodded.
Taygete’s heart raced as Rowe turned to open the tomb.
The iron doors only squeaked slightly as they were opened, and then Rowe slipped inside. A moment later, the darkness became bright and Rowe returned.
Mary and Titan led the way inside, and Alcyone locked her arm around Taygete before they proceeded.
Rowe had lit the standing candles in the labyrinth well, and Taygete looked around to mind that many Vances from the past rested here.
They walked a short
distance and then Mary turned right and came to a halt as they stood before Maia’s grave.
Taygete had to pull in a breath at the stone’s beauty. What could have been a small, raised rectangle platform to mark where her body rested was instead a stone that had been sculpted with leaves spun around columns. At the heart of it was not only Maia’s name, but Artemis’ as well.
Mother and daughter together forever.
Taygete heard a sniff and turned to look at Alcyone. She was openly crying, and such an action from Alcyone was surprising. Electra, however, remained silent as she stared around the room.
Taygete did the same and noticed how light spilled in through the glass windows, brightening the room more than the candles did.
When Alcyone reached up to wipe her eyes, her bracelet caught the light, a diamond-encrusted rope that had a ruby, which was her birthstone. It had been a gift from her fiancé, Samuel Fortiere, along with many other things.
Electra had also received many gifts. She currently wore a string of white pearls around her throat that Taygete had watched Lord Windmere place on her. She wasn’t sure Electra had taken it off since.
Taygete had received her own treasure trove, but hers was a ring of diamonds that she never took off. She looked over her shoulder for her fiancé and when she couldn’t find him, she wondered at Hugh’s location. Didn’t he know that he was part of this family as well?
Taygete slipped away from the others and moved back down the row of small tomb chambers. She saw a light moving in the room next to Maia’s and went inside.
Hugh was there, and his hand rested on two large stones that rose to Taygete’s hips. On the stone boxes were two people etched out of stone, and she didn’t have to read the engraving to know who they belonged to.
They were his parents.
She stayed at the curved entryway and watched as his gloveless hands touched the rough surface of stones, and her heart ached for him. His face was drawn into pain, but then she watched as it cleared and a small smile touched his lips.
He looked up as if he’d known she was there all along. “One day, this will be us.”
She smiled and whispered, “I do hope you are not planning our death.”
His blue eyes were warm. “No, but I plan to be with you for eternity.”
She leaned against the stone for support as emotions made her nose sting. Was it foolish that she’d wondered where he planned to rest his body after death? There was a place next to Maia that she knew had been meant for him, yet even in death, he would choose her.
“Come here,” he said.
She went to him without hesitation and wrapped her arms around his middle.
His body folded down onto hers and his hands pulled her closer. “We can never go back, but from this moment forward, I will not have my guilt of past choices stand between our happiness. No one truly deserves it, so I’ll be damned if I take you for granted.” He pulled away and met her eyes. “I’m yours, Taygete, from this day on and forever.”
“And I’m yours,” she promised. Yet she knew those words were not enough. She had to tell him the whole truth if she was going to live without guilt.
She took a step back and felt her body hit his mother’s stone before she spoke. “Before we finish with the past, there is something I must say.”
He remained silent and clearly attentive.
She licked her lips and went on. “I blamed myself for Maia’s death. The year you married was… hard for me. I’d already began working as a nurse and one day, I’d had too many drinks with a few of the patients and did something terrible. I shared my feelings for you.” She held his eyes as she recalled the story. “I told men who were little more than strangers that I was in love with you and that you were mine even though you’d married my sister.” The last part, she could not hold his eyes and say. “I was young and foolish, and when they suggested I write Maia a letter in order to share my feelings, I did. It wasn’t until the next morning that one of the soldiers confessed to accidentally mailing it.” She shook her head. “I thought that when you came weeks later to tell us that Maia had died in haste on her way to Southampton, it was because of my letter. It wasn’t until Jennie told us what had happened that my mind was changed.” Yet still the guilt of that letter hit her hard. “I should never have written that letter. I don’t know where it is if Maia didn’t get it.”
“Your sister didn’t get it,” Hugh said.
Taygete looked up at him. “How do you know?”
“I went through every inch of her things when I found out she’d been kidnapped. I needed to know the whole story. Your letter wasn’t there.”
“Perhaps she got rid of it,” Taygete reasoned. “Or perhaps she hid it very well.”
Hugh shook his head slowly and said, “No. I found other letters that if Maia was so inclined to burn, she would have.”
Taygete frowned. “What do you mean?”
“She had a mass of letters from a Benedict Cox,” he shared. “They were all dated before I'd met her, yet still she kept them, as was her right. Some of them were full of love, but the final letters were not.”
Taygete hadn’t known her sister had kept anything from Cox. “He hurt her. She’d loved him, and he hurt her.”
“I gathered that from the letters,” Hugh said. “But I did not worry about this Cox fellow. Maia was a good wife, and though our emotions for one another did not run very deep, we shared an affection.”
Taygete nodded because she didn’t know what else to say.
Hugh touched her chin. “Letter or not, your sister would have wanted you to be happy.”
“I know,” Taygete whispered. “That’s what hurts the most. She was such a good person. I strived to be that for such a long time. I worked day and night to atone, but the guilt would not rid itself of me.”
“Taygete,” he whispered. “I fell for you the moment we met. We cannot control our emotions, only our actions. You stayed away from me for years, believing yourself to be doing the right thing. What made you change your mind?”
“Besides your persistence, you mean?” she asked with a smile.
He returned her grin, and his thumb brushed her cheek. “Yes, I mean besides that.”
“I wanted you to be happy,” Taygete said. “I didn’t want Titan’s fate for you. You didn’t deserve that.”
He was staring into her eyes when he pulled in a breath. “So, you were planning to live with your guilt in order for me to be happy? If that does not prove you a good woman, then I’m not sure what does.”
Taygete swallowed and tried to look away, but Hugh would not let her. He captured her face in his hands and said, “The best way to honor your sister is to be happy without guilt.”
He was right. She knew him to be right, but still…
“I feel as though I’m taking my sister’s place.”
His expression became strained, and he seemed to struggle to find his words before he said, “But do you not see it? Taygete, you are taking no one’s place but your own.” He lowered his face close to hers and whispered, “You belong to me and me you. It is what it is.”
It is what it is.
And just like that, Taygete pulled in a breath that seemed to fill her in places that had gone unfilled for years.
Hugh was right. By his side was where she belonged.
It was what it was and that would never change.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“Always.” He kissed her lightly then took her hand to join the others.
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EPILOGUE
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Three Weeks Later
Taygete smiled at Chief Justice Nicholson as he gave Taygete and Hugh his congratulations on their wedding. He, along with many other powerful judges and members of Society, had been invited. Everyone but the Duke and Duches
s of Adenburg, and only because Taygete couldn’t risk the duke seeing her with her sisters so soon after they’d lied to him. It was only by luck that everyone’s face had been reddened and puffy with tears. Lorena believed it to have been enough for the man to never realize that Harriett and her daughters didn’t exist. Without any other Lawrences alive besides Aunt Tilda, who already said she’d lie if asked, there was no one the duke could find to verify the words as fact or fiction.
Since the incident a month ago, Taygete had seen Jennie whenever Lorena hosted a ‘charity’ meeting, which was actually nothing more than a Spinsters’ Society meeting in the end. Jennie, Taygete, and her sisters had all been sworn into the group and Jennie had wept at finally having friends again. Apparently, the duke didn’t like his wife being where he couldn’t go, but with the Duke of Cort and the Duke of Valdeston’s urging, Jennie was allowed a few hours a week to meet with her Sisterhood. It was all that could be done considering the circumstances.
She still felt sorry for her brother, but was glad that Titan had set his mind on righting the wrongs of the past, though that hadn’t extended to Livingston, who’d been thrown in prison after Hugh found evidence against him. Livingston was heading for Australia for his crimes, which set Jessie free.
Now that the war was dying, Orion was home and remained close to Titan.
“It was my brother who urged me to come,” the Chief Justice said. “And he asked me to wish you well.”
Taygete was surprised that Master and Commander Levi Nicholson had bothered, but then she wasn’t that surprised. He’d always been a nice man, and she hoped he found someone who would love him just as much as Taygete loved Hugh.
They were currently at the wedding breakfast, which was being held at Aaron’s house once again.
Miss Taygete’s Sweet Sister’s Society Page 20