The Mistress of Trevelyan by Jennifer St Giles

Author:Jennifer St Giles [Jennifer St Giles]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780982486313
Publisher: Between Your Sheets Distribution
Published: 2011-12-28T13:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Stephen slid into the carriage next to me, opposite Constance, and slammed the door behind him, his manner as grim as the set of his mouth. Apparently he'd failed to convince Katherine to attend the lecture.

He did not take failure well. The jovial shine of his countenance had tarnished like silver left in the rain. I'd seen occasional glimpses of the shadows that lurked behind his smiles, but this was the first time I'd seen his genteel mask stripped away completely. I found the experience disconcerting: as if I'd discovered a beast within a lamb.

"She has not left the bloody house since my arrival." He glared at Constance. "Has she gone anywhere at all in the year I have been away?"

"Once or twice, and only for a short time during the day."

"Benedict should be shot." Stephen spoke with enough force to make me jump. My mind scrambled for a connection between Stephen's anger at his brother and Katherine's isolation. "He should not have let her do this to herself."

"She is a woman grown. What can he do?" Constance said with a shrug.

"He can damn well pay more attention to the sorry state of his household than to finances and business."

Stephen's words surprised me. Not because I thought his statement untrue, but because he concisely summed up a general feeling I'd had. Especially when Benedict had left so quickly the day after kissing me. My eyes widened as the realization hit me. The master of Trevelyan Hill, a man large enough to battle any fabled Viking and win, buried himself in work to escape the unpleasant realities of his life.

Constance crossed her arms. "You are one to talk. At least business produces money. What have you done to help?"

"I had no choice. I had to do what I did." Stephen sighed, and his anger disappeared like a breath of smoke stolen by a stiff wind. "You shop as if money was like manna.''

"Then maybe none of us has a choice either, for I have few joys in life. I have lost everything else." Constance sounded as if a thousand years of futility underlined her words, and I wondered if she was the same person who'd spent the morning with me frivolously shopping. She looked at me, her dark eyes burning with emotion. "Do you believe in fate, Ann? That no matter what you do you can never change who and what you are? That in the end, it is all you will ever be?"

My gaze went immediately to my hands. Hands that were now elegantly covered. But no covering could change the reddened stains of lye and labor. "No," I said quietly. "I believe you can choose." I wouldn't allow myself to believe otherwise.

The rest of the carriage ride to the institute passed in silence, each of us isolated in our thoughts. Mr. Simons met us at the door, his welcoming smile broad until he realized that Katherine wasn't among us.

"She would not come," Mr. Simons stated simply.

"No," Stephen said. "I have learned she has not left the house but twice in a year's time.

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