A Daring Liaison(61)
“Please, Charles, tell them alone. They will have concerns and will want to be free to voice them in a way they would not if I were present.” She feared that Sarah, most of all, would feel betrayed by this development. No doubt she would never have agreed to help her if she’d thought her brother would be at risk. “I would not start our marriage with their resentment.”
“If you are certain.”
“There are things I should take care of, too. I have been putting off dealing with Aunt Caroline’s personal bequests and I will need to gather her papers if I am to remove to your home.”
He studied her face for a moment and she knew he wanted to protest. In the end, he saw the sense in her request. “If you wish. Then I shall call at seven to take you to Carlington’s.”
* * *
The wide white door opened and Georgiana handed the butler her calling card. A moment later he opened the door wider to admit her and Finn, who had been lurking at her back all day. “Lady Aston will see you, Mrs. Huffington.”
Surprised, she gave Finn a nod to wait for her by the door before she followed the butler down a wide corridor to another door on the right. She’d only meant to leave her card and perhaps make an appointment for a later date. Calling unannounced was discourteous, Aunt Caroline had always told her.
A flood of warm afternoon light spilled into the corridor and temporarily blinded Georgiana as she stepped inside wondering what she might expect.
“Ah, you’ve come at last, Mrs. Huffington,” a well-modulated voice spoke as a woman came toward her, her hand extended in welcome. “I have been expecting you since I learned of dear Caro’s death.”
Georgiana’s vision cleared and she smiled. She’d seen this handsome woman at various functions in the past, but they hadn’t been introduced and she hadn’t realized that Lady Aston had an acquaintance with her guardian. She appeared to be of Caroline’s age. “I am sorry if I’ve kept you waiting,” Georgiana murmured as she took the offered hand and dropped a quick curtsy.
The woman laughed and Georgiana instinctively liked her. No wonder her aunt had not given up their friendship, even if it had been through correspondence since her accident.
“No need. I have not been on pins and needles, my dear.” She waved at a grouping of chairs. “I knew you’d come to me sooner or later. Please sit down. I’ve asked Franklin to bring tea.”
Georgiana removed her gloves and perched on the edge of a chair facing Lady Aston’s. “I shan’t stay long, Lady Aston. If you were expecting me, I presume you know why I’ve come?”
“I do, indeed. You’ve brought me something, have you not?”
Georgiana opened her reticule and removed the packet she’d found with Aunt Caroline’s will. “Her instructions were emphatic that I should deliver it into your hands only and that only you should open it. I shall step out of the room if you wish, Lady Aston.”
She waved airily. “Not necessary, Mrs. Huffington. I believe I know what the letter contains.” She slipped a tapered fingernail beneath the seal, opened the packet and dumped the contents onto her lap.
A small brooch studded with tiny sapphires and diamonds flashed shards of light as the sunbeams reached it. Georgiana recognized it as one her aunt had often worn. She must have put it in the packet on their last visit to town. Then a folded piece of parchment emerged. Lady Aston unfolded the page and read, nodding at intervals.
Georgiana knew that she was to stay until the packet had been opened lest there be any questions, and now she wondered what questions Lady Aston might have. The whole thing seemed so mysterious.
After Lady Aston refolded the page and slipped it back into the packet, she lifted the little brooch and turned it in her hand, a melancholy smile hovering at the corners of her mouth. “Caro was given this by her father upon her completion of school. I always admired it so and she promised it would be mine one day. I had completely forgotten until I saw it again. How very like her to keep her promises to the end.”
“She was always a woman of her word,” Georgiana agreed.
“She was also lively and popular. Of all of us at Mrs. Horn’s school, she was most likely to marry well. Then...the tragedy. How very sad for a life so full of promise to end that way.”
Georgiana studied the stitching on her gloves to cover the quick tears that stung her eyes.
“Yet she wrote of you so often, Georgiana, if I may call you that?”