The Deception Read Free

mark on her cheek, my stomach clenched. Most frustrating of all was the knowledge that I could do nothing to help her escape my uncle’s clutches.
    It would be difficult enough trying to escape them myself.
    * * * *
    The very air of London seemed to act like a tonic on Cousin Louisa. She dragged me around the shops on Bond Street, visibly shedding years with every purchase she made. I was appalled by the amount of money she spent, but she kept assuring me that Charlwood would not be at all surprised.
    “How old are you, Louisa?” I asked as we sat having an ice at Gunther’s after a particularly expensive session at Fanchon’s dress shop.
    “Forty-one,” she replied.
    I had thought she was about sixty.
    “But you’re younger than my father!” I blurted in surprise. My father had been forty-six when he died, and his thick black hair had not held a thread of gray. There were definite strands of gray in Louisa’s soft brown locks.
    She smiled reminiscently. “Daniel did not age, then?”
    “Did you know Papa?”
    “I was at Charlwood the summer he met your mother.”
    I knew this story well. Papa had delivered a horse to Mama’s father, taken one look at Mama and stayed on to school her father’s other horses. They had met secretly all summer long, and in September she had run away with him to Scotland, where they had married.
    Louisa’s smile became even more nostalgic. “Your father was so good-looking, Kate. Lizzie was head over heels in love with him. I helped her pack her bag the night they eloped.”
    I stared. I had not realized that Louisa knew my parents.
    A well-dressed middle-aged woman passed our table and cast a scornful look at my old brown pelisse. I returned her look with one so haughty that she was startled. Old harpy, I thought.
    “I have often wondered if Lizzie was happy,” Louisa said.
    “I think she was very happy,” I said. “Papa was...” I searched for the words that would describe my father. “Oh— the world just seemed so much more vivid around Papa,” I finally said. “It’s true that he was a gambler, and there were times when money was short. But...” My voice quivered, and I folded my lips.
    Louisa kindly gave me a moment to collect myself. Then she said, “You are very like him, Kate.”
    I shook my head. It was true that I looked like Papa, but inside I was quite different. I changed the subject. “It is nice to be away from Charlwood. The place is like a tomb.”
    Louisa shivered. “It has always been like that. When I was young I hated having to go there on a visit.”
    “Was it like that then when my mother was young?” I asked curiously.
    Louisa nodded, then glanced around the crowded tables as if she was afraid someone would overhear her words. “Your grandfather ...” She stopped and looked down at her lemon ice.
    “Yes?” I prompted when it seemed she was not going to speak again.
    She finally said simply, “Your grandfather was a hard man.”
    I said nothing. On the other side of the room a little boy dropped his spoon and called out imperiously for another. A waiter hastened to his side.
    Louisa looked up at me again and said, “I am sure that Lizzie found life with Daniel, however hard, infinitely preferable to life at Charlwood.”
    Two fashionable young men in elegant blue coats stared at me rudely as they passed our table. I ignored them and said to Cousin Louisa, “If you dislike Charlwood so much, why ever did you agree to come and stay with me?”
    She sighed. “I had no choice in the matter, my dear.”
    “Nonsense.” I was still young enough to believe that grown-ups always had a choice.
    “It is not nonsense,” Louisa said sadly. “I live with my brother’s family, you see, and Charlwood offered Henry a large sum of money if he would dispense with my services and allow me to chaperone you. My brother accepted, and so I had to go.”
    “Services?” I asked, puzzled. “What services, Louisa?”
    “I act as my sister-in-law’s