Brevart snorted and snapped his paper, but made no other commentary.
“But we’re all doing the best we can with the situation we’re in. Yvienne has found us Mathilde; she is learning the marketing; and soon – well, enough for that. But this is our new life and we must make the best of it, and some day things will get better. Fighting with Samwell isn’t helping.”
The kitchen door rattled again and she was both ashamed and relieved for the interruption. Brevart alerted like a hunting dog. “Is it them? Have they come home?”
“Yvienne, is that you?” Alinesse called out.
There was an odd croaking, and then Mathilde and Yvienne came in, with a rush of cold and wet air.
“We got everything, ma’am, and more,” Mathilde said. “It was very successful.” She came over with her basket, and her parents exclaimed over the bounty it held.
Tesara rolled her eyes. Seriously? Her parents were ridiculously fawning where Mathilde was concerned. She felt like telling them about reading Yvienne’s letter, if she thought they would believe her. Instead she stood aside as Mathilde showed her parents the purchases, explaining how she was going to cook all of it. Brevart made approving noises as if he understood dredging anything other than a canal, and Alinesse made comments, and it was all tiresome. Then Yvienne spoke up, croaking in an almost unintelligible way that she had a sore throat and was going straight to bed.
“I have sandwiches for tea,” Mathilde announced, deflecting the parents’ concern for Yvienne. “And I’ll make an oyster soup with barley.”
She had tea on the table in fifteen minutes, and then wrapped up in her shawl, she took herself off home. With suspicious timing, Uncle came in the front door just as the sandwiches and soup landed on the table.
“Sandwiches and oyster soup!” he exclaimed, helping himself to an entire sandwich before Alinesse could even sit down. “The perfect topper to a successful day.”
“Plotting again?” Brevart muttered.
Samwell gave a little “maybe” shrug. “I wouldn’t call it plotting, Brev. A bit of dealing, a bit of charm, you know how that is.”
“Oh, yes,” Brevart said, with deep sarcasm.
“At any rate, the only important thing is that it’s going well. Very well indeed.” He bit deep into the pâté. Tesara lifted her eyes heavenward but caught Alinesse looking at her, and focused on her soup. Samwell said through a full mouth, “You’ll want to know about it, Tes.”
“I doubt it,” Tesara said, with deep reserve.
“Nothing is set yet,” Alinesse said, her voice like ice. It set off alarm bells. Tesara glanced at her mother. What did she know?
Her brother snorted. “Trap’s baited. At least the Colonel is intrigued.” He threw another glance at Tesara. She gave him a level gaze back and blew on her soup, affecting disinterest. “It’s about time some people around here pulled their weight.”
“Yes, as opposed to drinking down at the docks,” Tesara snapped.
“Tesara! Both of you,” Alinesse said. She put down her spoon. “That’s enough, Samwell. Leave it.”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t told her,” Samwell said. He gave a disgusted laugh. “Alinesse, we’ve talked about this. I can hardly keep him interested without some encouragement.”
“Told me what?” Tesara said, her heart sinking. To be involved in one of Uncle’s schemes was bad enough, but Alinesse had clearly considered it.
“Nothing,” Alinesse said at the same time that Uncle said, “Colonel Talios has expressed interest in marrying into the family.”
Her mouth dropped. So here it was. Uncle had taken it upon himself to find a suitor for her, despite her evident unsuitability. She laughed.
“I thought I was too useless and plain to attract a suitor,” she said acidly.
Uncle Samwell shrugged. “He’s quite an admirer of yours. Of course, he hasn’t actually met you. Try to keep your pertness to yourself until after the wedding.”
“Mother!” Aghast, Tesara looked at Alinesse. “You can’t be serious.”
But they were serious. They had discussed this behind her back and then Uncle had gone forward and offered her to one of his cronies. It would have been different if they were still rich. Then an arranged marriage would be a marriage of equals. Merchants married merchants and kept the money in the family. But this was not the conventional marriage mart. This was beastly. If she had nothing to offer a man except for her youth, what sort of man would take that kind of bargain?
“Tesara, for goodness sakes, don’t be so dramatic!” Alinesse said. She was livid. Tesara had a moment of bitter understanding that both she and Samwell were letting Alinesse down. Again. “When I was your age I had half a dozen suitors. He’s just asked to speak with you. And you don’t have to promise anything. It’s just a fact that if you have one suitor, then others do tend to gather round. It doesn’t have to be Colonel Talios. It could be any number of men who might overlook…”
“What, Mother? My poverty? My lack of accomplishments? This?”
She raised her broken hand. Alinesse’s breath caught in her throat and she looked away. Her father winced, and Uncle Samwell pursed his lips in a silent whistle.
“Tesara, it’s not your hands that will drive off a suitor, though if you continue to be bitter about it, it won’t help,” Alinesse said.
“Bitter? I shouldn’t be bitter?” Tesara felt the words tumble out, bound up in tears. “You left us there!”
“All you had to do was be a good girl, but no, you couldn’t even manage that! Always had to cause trouble!”
Tesara took great breaths to stop her sobbing. Peripherally she was aware of her father and uncle getting up and leaving the two women to fight. In the dim candlelight, her mother was a rigid shape, her eyes glaring.
“How dare you blame me,” Tesara choked out.
“How dare you blame me,” Alinesse threw back in her face. “We sent you girls away to safety. You had Michelina.”
Tesara struggled
