Cardiff Siblings 01 - Seven Minutes in Devon Read Free Page A

you.”
    With a half-smile, Emma
pushed against her sister’s shoulder. “No one held a pistol to your
head and forced you to marry David, you know. You left me to marry a peer, not the other way
around.”
    “ And I made Mama and Father
very happy in the process,” Vanessa said. Her brown eyes lost a
touch of their glimmer. “How are they? I’ve been worried since the
end of the Season. Mama just seemed so…frail, I suppose.
Weary.”
    “ Not to mention Father was
too indisposed to even accompany us to Town.” Emma looked her
sister in the eye. “They’re both so worried about me, about what
will happen to me when they can’t—”
    Emma cut herself off, pressing her
lips together and pinching the bridge of her nose. Saying the words
aloud was too much. Her heart broke just thinking of all they had
sacrificed to give her a better life, a chance at all of the things
they had never had. She closed her eyes for a moment to regain her
composure.
    “ I can’t allow them to keep
doing this. Mama took me to London for the Season when clearly it
was too much for her. She tried to insist on coming with me here
this summer, even if Father wasn’t well enough to look after
himself.” Emma choked back a sob, then pressed on. She had to get
through this. “If David hadn’t sent Fanny with the carriage to
accompany me here, Mama would surely have come along, even though
Doctor Cary has forbidden Father from being out of bed for more
than a few hours a day and he needs her assistance.”
    Vanessa’s eyes widened. “It’s that
bad? In your letters…”
    “ He’s coughing up blood.”
Which was not something Emma cared to ever put in a letter. If it
were written down, it would be more real. More
permanent.
    Vanessa took Emma’s hand and squeezed,
lacing their fingers together as they had done as girls. “So now
what?”
    Emma fought down her tears. This was
not the time for crying. There were far more important things to be
done. “So now I find a way to ease their worries.”
    Vanessa opened her mouth to speak, so
Emma rushed on.
    “ I know you’re going to
offer to let me stay here, but that’s not what I want. I’ve been a
burden on Mama and Father for far too long. I have no intention of
becoming a burden on you instead of them. You have children of your
own now, and David to look after…”
    Vanessa pursed her lips—a habit
neither of them had managed to break—no doubt learned from watching
Mama. After a moment, Vanessa gave a brisk nod. “Very well. If you
won’t come live with us, what will you do?”
    “ I’ve thought about
becoming a governess. It would be a good way for me to use the few
skills I do possess in a productive manner.” All her reading had to
be good for something other than just her enjoyment.
    A wry smile greeted that
pronouncement. “You know Father would be loath to allow you to go
into service. That would hardly set him at ease, Em.”
    “ I know. Which is why I
intend to find a husband. During this house party.” Somehow . The actual ‘how’
of the operation might prove to be difficult, particularly since
Emma didn’t even know which gentlemen her sister and brother-in-law
had invited to their gathering. And then there was the fact that
she was as comfortable in social settings as an elephant would be
drinking from a miniature china teacup designed for a
doll.
    She used her eyes to plead with her
sister. It had always worked, since they were very little. “But I
need your help. I’m always so awkward and clumsy. I don’t know how
to do my hair in the ways that will attract a man’s attention. I
always say the wrong things at the worst times.”
    “ Or if you don’t know what
to say, you trip over your own feet to distract everyone,” Vanessa
said wryly.
    Emma cringed. “You make it sound like
I do it intentionally.”
    “ Oh, you don’t?” Vanessa
chided. “It’s become such a habit, it’s like an
illness.”
    “ A pox.”
    “ The Black
Death.”
    Emma