business. If Vinson were alive, he’d be here. But since he’s not, I am.”
“But you aren’t her brother, are you?” Vane snarled. “Are you happy now that our marriage has fallen apart? Don’t think I don’t know you’ve been waiting in the wings all along for that to happen.”
He dropped into his desk chair and snatched up a stack of correspondence, which he pretended to peruse. He’d been gone for months and had so much catching up to do. Didn’t they realize he was busy?
The other man snatched the envelopes out of his hands and tossed them to the desk. “Nothing matters to me, but that Sophia is happy—and she loves you.”
Vane barked out a laugh, shaking his head.
“I was there the night the two of you were introduced,” Havering said, his voice lowering to a low hush. “She was smitten from the first moment. After you, I never had a chance.”
“You never had a chance before that, Havering, from what I heard,” murmured Rabe, who walked slowly along the bookshelf, reading the spines. “Claxton, I can’t believe you still have these naughty books. How old were we when we purchased them in that back-alley shop? Thirteen?”
“Did someone say naughty books?” Haden inquired.
“They are right here.”
“What did you say?” Havering demanded.
“I told him where the books are.” Rabe pointed to the second shelf from the floor.
“Before that.”
“Before…oh. It’s just that I heard that Wolverton forbade you from marrying any of his granddaughters.”
Havering’s stance went rigid, and he crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s a fine detail for you to throw out now when we’re supposed to be working together.” He clenched his teeth and growled, “Tell me, where did you hear that?”
Rabe merely shrugged and raised his eyebrows as if his words were the undisputed truth.
“If Sophia loves me,” Vane muttered, “she has a fine way of showing it.”
“Havering says she’s destroyed,” Haden interjected. “Her Grace told him you have every right to despise her, not just because of the damage to the house, but because of whatever happened in the moments before the fire.”
“She told you about that, did she?” he growled at Havering. Just the mental image of the two of them sitting alone and talking and Sophia confiding to another man about her unhappy marriage drove him half-mad.
“Not really,” Havering answered. “Whenever she gets to that part of the story, all she can do is cry.”
Vane closed his eyes, doing his best to shut down the onrush of emotion and his regrets. He’d never wanted to make her cry.
“So why did she leave?” he said. “When she ought to have stayed?”
“A fine question, coming from you,” Havering retorted.
“Gentlemen,” said Haden, who looked at his pocket watch. “I really have somewhere I need to be. If the two of you will excuse us, I would prefer a word alone with my brother.”
“I could use a drink,” gritted Havering, scowling at Claxton.
Rabe grinned. “Good thing I know where he keeps the liquor.”
Together the two men disappeared into the corridor.
When they were gone, Vane exhaled through his nose. “There is nothing you can say—”
“Of course not,” Haden snapped. “Not if you’re too obstinate to listen.”
“I’m not being obstinate,” he argued. “Things have just gone too far off course. I tried to win her back, and I failed. No doubt she’s already instructed Wolverton’s lawyers to draw up a formal proposal for our separation.”
“Oh, good. Then you can get on with the business of growing old and bitter and being just like him.”
What a low thing to say to him right now, but nothing he hadn’t already said to himself.
“Don’t bring our father into this.” Vane strode past his brother to flatten his palms against the surface of his desk.
“Vane, it is almost Christmas,” his brother said in a quiet voice. “Which hasn’t meant anything to me in a very long time. But those days we spent in Lacenfleet, however unintended, brought back such memories from when you and I were younger. When we were closer. We spent so many years apart I almost forgot I had a brother.”
Vane closed his eyes.
Haden continued. “Do you know I can’t remember her face anymore? I haven’t been able to for a very long time. But there, in Camellia House, I could almost see her again.”
“That’s not fair,” Vane said.
“I’m so very thankful you thought to put the letter she wrote to me in your coat pocket, so her final words to me were spared from the fire.” Haden rounded the desk and faced him squarely. “But you didn’t ask me about it. Don’t you want to know what her letter said?”
“I don’t know.” He straightened. “She didn’t write the letter to me.”
“She wrote that I must help you to forgive him.” His brother’s gray eyes shone in the lamplight. “And I think she’s right, you know. Perhaps it is as Mr. Garswood told you, that our father suffered that strike to his head, and the injury forever changed him. Vane, we’ve spent our entire lives hating him. Trying to beat him and to prove we were stronger. When really, what we need to do is forgive.”
Vane exhaled and closed his eyes.
Morosely, Sophia descended the staircase, having been forced by her mother to get out of her bed an hour before and dress for Christmas Eve, when all she wanted was to remain abed until she was an old woman, when hopefully, at last, she’d forget the reasons for her sadness.
She wore a gown of deep plum silk with ruched sleeves that were puffed and pleated at the shoulders. The garment had given her such joy during her fittings at the modiste’s shop. Everyone had marveled over the fine sheen of the fabric and declared the hue a perfect complement to her complexion. She might as well have worn sackcloth for all the joy the pretty dress gave her now. Daphne and Clarissa had made a fuss over her hair and tried to cheer her, until at last she had gently shooed them away.
Familiar voices, just around the corner from the lower landing, made her pause near the bottom of the stairs. She made out two figures in the dim lamplight.
“You’re still carrying that wilted thing around?” said Lady Dundalk a bit grumpily.
Beside her stood Sir Keyes, leaning on his cane, with a much decreased ball of mistletoe suspended from his hand.
“There’s one berry left,” he answered cheerfully. “I saved the best for last.”
“Who is the lucky young woman this time?” asked her ladyship drolly.
“Why, you, my dear.” Slowly he lifted the mistletoe above her head. “If you will have me.”
“Oh, Alfred,” she whispered softly, reaching up to pat her gloved hand against his cheek. “What took you so long?”
He bent and kissed on her lips, and the two embraced.
Moments later, Lady Margaretta found her sitting on the stairs. “Sophia, more tears?”
“Lady Dundalk—” Sophia choked. “Sir Keyes. It’s so wonderful that they have found each other.”
“Isn’t it?” A dreamy smile spread across her mother’s lips. “One never gets too old for love.”
“I’ll never have that.” Sophia sighed. “Someone to grow old with, who will love me until the end of our days.”
Her mother tilted her head and let out a low breath. Sophia’s heart shattered a fraction more. Of course her words wounded her mother, whose one true love had been taken from her.
“Oh, Mother. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said it. It’s just that I don’t deserve it. You did. You do!”
“I don’t believe you are undeserving, not for one moment.” Margaretta patted her back, as if Sophia was a small child crying over some disappointment. “Things aren’t irreparable with Claxton. The two of you just need to talk.”
“I can’t ever face him again.” Sophia shook her head and wrapped her arms around her knees. “Not after what I did. He showed me in every way that he loved me, and I just couldn’t let go of the past. In doing so, I
