Forged by Fate

Eve winced. “Mia! Would you please mind your tongue?”

“Non, Abby, c’est pas grave.” Garrit covered her hand on the table, squeezing it once. She wasn’t sure if it was a reassurance or an admonition. “We are rather well off, as far as these things go.”

“It doesn’t mean it’s polite to comment,” Eve said.

“But I’m his sister now! Aren’t I allowed to know the family secrets?”

Garrit stiffened, and Eve busied herself grabbing Mia’s plate and stacking it with her own. “Help me with the dishes, Mia. Then you can go run around the countryside with Jean.”

Mia sighed. “Please. You have people to do the dishes for you. Especially now, with everyone and their brother in residence.”

The plates clattered to the table top and Eve prayed for patience. “Don’t be rude, Mia.”

Mia’s mouth dropped open as if to argue but Garrit cut her off. “It’s all right.” He picked the plates back up and passed them off to one of the servants. “We are not easily offended by truth. And Mia is a guest.”

“Which is it, Garrit?” Eve asked. Didn’t he realize how closely Mia skated around the truth? And if she did find out, through some carelessness of Jean’s or even their own, it would only make it all a bigger mess. “A guest or a sister?”

His jaw tightened. “A sister who is staying with us as a guest. If she wants to help, she’s more than welcome, but as she’s never been here, it is only natural her first priority should be to enjoy the activities we have to offer.”

Mia rolled her eyes. “God, Abby. You’ve been so on edge. I thought marriage was supposed to mellow a woman.”

Garrit pinched the bridge of his nose. “Mia, why don’t you find Jean? I’m sure he’ll be happy to get an early start. The traffic can be terrible, midday.”

“Oh, fine. Not like I want to sit here in the middle of your first fight anyway.” She stood up and flashed a smile. “Enjoy making up.”

Eve watched her leave the room, half tempted to cancel Mia’s plans for her. The fact that Garrit found her just as aggravating was almost gratifying—or would have been if she hadn’t forced him into accepting Mia’s presence in their home during what should have been their honeymoon. She sat down again and hid her face in her hands.

“Abby.” Garrit pulled her hands gently away. “She’s right, you know. You have been terribly tense. Is it the family? I can send them away. Put them up elsewhere.”

“No, it’s not the family. The family is wonderful. Everyone who doesn’t know who I am has already decamped, and the rest really do try to make themselves scarce.”

“You can’t let her get to you. She really doesn’t know what she’s saying.”

Eve shook her head. “That’s exactly the kind of justification my mother would have used.”

“And we all know she’s spoiled. But no one expects you to step in as her parent. You’re her sister. You don’t need to police her. Let her enjoy herself until she’s bored with Jean, and she’ll return home.”

She took his hands in hers and stared at them for a long moment, trying to decide how best to phrase what she wanted to say. “Do you know why I married Lord Ryam, Garrit? Centuries ago?”

He shrugged and squeezed her hands in his. “You couldn’t resist the DeLeon charm.”

She smiled. “Partly true, of course. But not the whole truth.”

“His journal says you were in some kind of trouble. Bringing you to the country was meant to keep you safe.”

She nodded, searching his face now. Ryam evidently hadn’t shared the details of this particular drama. Small favors.

“I had a sister. She was my best friend in the world. We told each other everything.”

He frowned. “As is the way of sisters the world over.”

“I told her everything, Garrit. Because I loved her so much. Because we were so close. I thought she would understand. That she would see how much I loved her. I had told others in the past. A husband here or there. People I could trust. And I wanted so much to be able to trust my sister. My Aimee. I couldn’t believe she would betray me.”

His expression was full of sorrow, and he reached out to brush her hair behind her ear. “She’s the reason Ryam had to whisk you away?”

Eve swallowed around the tightness in her throat at the memory. It had been a very near thing. A day later, and Ryam would have been too late. As it was, they had been forced to leave in the middle of the night, slinking out of the city like rats. “She used me, used everything I’d told her to turn me into her scapegoat. Not because she thought I was evil, but because she thought it would make our father love her. Because she thought he would forgive her, if he hated me.”

“Mia isn’t Aimee.”

She shook her head. “I won’t risk it. I don’t want to lose another sister.”

He caressed her cheek. “Je suis desole, Abby. I can only imagine how difficult it must have been.”

“It brought me home. It brought me Ryam.” She forced a smile so he wouldn’t think she was still agonizing over that part of her past. It didn’t fool anyone.

“If having Mia here under these circumstances is causing you distress, I’ll send her away with Oncle Ryan and Jean. She can hardly complain about it if the reason she’s staying goes with her. Tante Clair would love to have her. We could offer it to her as an opportunity to see Paris.”

“I feel badly saddling your poor aunt and uncle with Mia.”

“Abby, she’s a very biddable girl as long as you don’t expect her to be on time to anything. Clair has complained for years that Oncle Ryan never gave her a daughter.”

“And Jean?”

“Jean will be happy for an excuse to return to what he refers to as the ‘real’ city.”

Eve looked out the window. Mia and Jean were just climbing into a car for the drive into town. They were laughing at something together. “Perhaps if Juliette suggests it, Mia will be more willing.”

“I’ve never met a woman who could turn down an all-expense-paid trip to Paris.” He squeezed her hand and then stood up, taking an orange from the fruit bowl with him. “I’ll make the arrangements.”

It would be nice to have a few less people in the house, and a bit more privacy. She sighed and stood, collecting what was left of the breakfast dishes from the table and taking them to the kitchen. It would be nice not to have a staff lurking about, giving her dirty looks when she wanted to cook something for herself, too.

Maybe, if she was lucky, Mia and Jean would start an exodus.

Chapter Seventeen: Creation

“Eve!”

She heard him calling but didn’t respond. Knees pulled to her chest and eyes shut tight, she rocked back and forth on her spine. The tree behind her groaned and rasped, and the leaves fluttered in the breeze.

“Eve?” He was getting closer, she thought, listening to him crash through the brush. And then the sound stopped. She pictured him as he stepped into the meadow. He would see her in a moment, curled up at the base of the tree. But maybe not. She stopped rocking and held still. She didn’t even breathe.

Leaves crunched beneath his feet as he moved closer. “Eve.”

She didn’t speak. But she felt his presence and then the heat from his body as he knelt beside her. He brushed her hair back from her face, and she opened her eyes when she realized he wasn’t going to go away. His expression was dark with worry.

“I’m not supposed to be his wife.”

Reu studied her face. “You heard something?”