A Practical Arrangement Read Free Page A

table mirror, Evangeline flushed at her mistake. “Oh, Melody! I'm sorry. I missed a hairpin.” Untangling the object, she resumed brushing.
    “ It's all right. You are a hundred miles away, though.” Melody waited, giving Evangeline the option and the space to answer.
    It was why Evangeline adored her only sister so well. Melody understood – at least better than anyone else. Evangeline kept a space between herself and others. She needed that space. It was the sole place she could be Evangeline Grey, embracing her many thoughts and observations without risk of censure. Being with Melody was nearly as safe.
    “ I suppose I am being silly,” she sighed. “I cannot but wonder at Verla Rhodes' comment today.”
    Melody, who had closed her eyes as Evangeline brushed, opened them, finding her sister's steady gaze in the looking glass.
    “ Are you referring to her mention of your conversation with Mr. Masterson?” Melody laughed. “No one takes Verla too seriously, Evangeline. Do not let her ruin any chance at conversation you may have with so handsome a man.”
    “ Humph,” she snuffed. “Mr. Masterson is not a man, handsome or otherwise, I care to converse with.”
    “ Why ever not?” Melody asked.
    “ We both know exactly why not,” Evangeline stated in her no-nonsense way.
    Melody's giggle followed promptly. “Are you worried he'll make you swoon with his charm and wit?”
    It was her turn to laugh. “Me? Evangeline Grey...swooning?” Her eyebrow arched, daring Melody to conjure the unlikely image.
    Overcome with laughter, Melody ceded. “Oh! Evangeline!” she choked out between fits of mirth, “I'd love to watch Mr. Thomas Masterson try to make you swoon!”
    “ That will be quite enough silliness for one night,” Evangeline declared somberly, but her eyes twinkled merrily. “We'll not rest properly if we allow ourselves to continue.”
    Melody quieted as Evangeline brushed on, smoothing over the wavy, auburn curls with her nimble fingers.
    “ Do you never long for love?”
    Evangeline stilled, as habit dictated her do when uncomfortable. “I have love, Melody. I have you and Mother and Father.”
    “ I mean the love of a man...” Melody's voice trailed off, a melancholy thread to her tone. “I do.”
    The simple honesty touched Evangeline, yet she could not truly empathize. “No, Melody,” she replied, running the brush once again through her sister's hair. “I prefer to avoid the attentions of men, any attentions.” She placed the silver brush on the dressing table and gathered Melody's hair to begin braiding. “You know how I feel. I suppose you desire the...the...companionship of a man because you were happily married.” She tied the braid's end. “There. All finished.”
    They traded places, Melody unpinning Evangeline's long, brown hair. “It's not the way Mother says it is. It's quite wonderful, being with a man, I mean.”
    “ I've no desire to discover which of you is correct.”
    “ I heard Father tonight, Evangeline.”
    Sighing, Evangeline nodded. “He wants me to marry. But I've no worries, at least for now.”
    It was Melody's turn to lift a brow.
    “ It's not as if suitors are breaking down the doors. And...well, I can be a deterring force.” Evangeline smiled faintly and handed the ribbon back for Melody to tie her braid.
    “ Father wants us settled in our own homes, with husbands. He is only thinking of our futures.”
    “ You'll marry well and I shall live with you. I'll have a handsome allowance – at least enough that I won't be a burden to you.”
    “ And what? Never have your own home? Your own child?” Melody wrapped her arms around Evangeline's shoulders. “I want you to be happy. You have so much to give.”
    She stiffened under the close, intimate touch, regretting the pain of rejection that flashed across Melody's face. Would she never be able to mask her discomfiture, even to spare the tender feelings of her own dear sister? It was no use. Evangeline