“Oh, Tamsin. I’m so sorry.”
“Do you know the worst of it? He’s never changed. He’s just as charming and amusing as he was when we were girls, and just as liberal in seducing anyone he fancies. God help me, even I still succumb to his charms, from time to time, because it’s so much easier than despising him.” She patted her stomach, which had a slight swell. “As you can see. Our fifth. Oh, Sera, what is wrong with me?”
Sera took her hand. “Tamsin, nothing is wrong with you. What could you do differently? Were our situations reversed, would I be any different?”
Tamsin wiped her eyes. “I’m so proud of you, Sera. I’ve read all your books at least twice. And when I saw you speak, I felt, in a perverse way, pride. Because perhaps if it were not for my cruelty to you, you might not have had the chance to lead.” She took a banknote from her pocket and held it out. “I wanted to offer you this, for your institute. Trewlnany pays no attention to his accounts.”
Sera looked at the note. “Five hundred pounds. Why, that’s a fortune.”
“He’ll only spend it on women and horses.”
“Thank you, Tamsin.”
One of the kingfishers chirped, and both of them looked down at it flitting about. Tamsin picked up the birdcage. “I brought you these. I always loved how you had them as a girl. I was envious of them. So when I had children, I gave them kingfishers as pets. We have a lovely atrium for them at Gwennol Bluff. But over the summer, several went missing. And then Mr. Anderson mentioned . . .”
Tamsin shivered. “I’m so sorry, Sera. I wanted to bring you two sweet ones, as a gesture of apology. I’ll take them back if you’d rather not look after them but I remember how much you loved them and it just made me so enraged that Jonathan would be so cruel.”
Sera drew in a breath. “I suspected it was him, but I could not figure out why.”
Tamsin craned her neck. “Surely you know. He’s terrified of you.”
“Him, terrified of me?”
“Because you know about his mother. That he’s not Pendrake’s legitimate son. He thought that’s what you intended to expose in your book.”
He’d told her this secret once, on one of their dreamy afternoons. His mother had been barren, and Pendrake had sired a son with a mistress with her blessing, so he might have an heir. But Sera had never said a word of it to anyone.
“Why would he think I would expose it, when I never have, even back then?”
Tamsin frowned. “He didn’t understand why you would stop at merely embarrassing him, when you could utterly destroy him.”
Trust a man like Jonathan Trewlnany to miss the bloody point.
“My purpose was not revenge. It was to show the world that men like him aren’t held to the same standards. I wanted people to know how it feels to be the woman in the story, to imagine the anger and the unfairness and the loss.”
“Well, in this case you could see how he might worry otherwise. My dear husband does, after all, deserve a bit of revenge.” Tamsin smiled sadly.
“Well, I’ll allow I did take a bit of pleasure in using his name after all this time. But mostly because without the scandal, no one’s interested in the story.”
Tamsin smiled sadly. “No. They never are.”
“Well, they are beginning to see it now. Eventually there will be enough of us who see. And that’s how we will change things.”
“I hope so, Sera. I hope so.” Tamsin rose. “Well, I won’t keep you. I know you’ve just arrived back and are surely tired. Shall I leave the birds?”
Sera looked over at the little creatures. “Yes, thank you. I know two children who might enjoy helping me look after them.”
Tamsin nodded. She turned to go, but then paused and turned back. “Sera, may I embrace you?”
Sera walked forward and wrapped her arms around her friend. “Oh, Tamsin. You’re still a gem, you know?”
Tamsin inhaled deeply. “I’m not. But I’ve missed you. All these years, I’ve looked at this house and wished you were still in it.”
“Well, I’m back for a spell. Visit whenever you like.”
Adam lifted Adeline onto his shoulders and Marianne took Jasper’s hand as they walked from the cottage to Seraphina’s house.
“I’m glad Miss Arden’s back,” Addie chirped. “I think she has missed me very much.”
Adam laughed. “I reckon she will be very pleased to see you.”
He hoped this was the case. He knew there were no guarantees that this happiness he felt would last. He would protect these two, no matter what. But he hoped.
He hoped.
Seraphina was waiting for them on her terrace with a beautiful lunch laid on the table. When she spotted them, she rose, her eyes shining. “Jasper! Addie! How I’ve looked forward to seeing you!”
They smiled at her shyly as she climbed down the steps to greet them.
“May I have a hug?” she asked. When they nodded, she came down to her knees and gave each of them a long, tight embrace.
Jasper reached out and touched the necklace she was wearing. “It’s our amulet!” he said to Addie.
Marianne caught Adam’s eye and bit her lip.
“It’s my favorite jewel in my entire collection,” Seraphina said. “I have something for you, to say thank you.”
Sera led them to a small table, where she had made a stack of flower crowns. She put one on Addie’s head and one on Jasper’s.
Adam met her eye over their heads and touched two fingers to his heart.
Sera blushed bright red.
It made him look down and smile into the knot of his cravat.
“I am very sorry I missed going to Golowan with you,” Sera said to the children. “But I thought we could have our own celebration today. I had cook make pasties just for the occasion.”
“I am very hungry. I shall have two,” Addie pronounced.
“Very wise. That’s how you’ll grow strong and mighty.”
“Addie is already mighty,” Jasper supplied. “She can lift a boulder. She helped me make a fort at the beach.”
“It was huge!” Addie said.
“Very impressive. Are you going to be architects like your papa?”
Jasper considered this. “Perhaps. When I’m older.” He glanced at Adam, as if to check that this hesitation might hurt his feelings.
Adam reached out and ruffled his hair. “You can be whatever you like, my boy.”
Jasper perked up. “Maybe I will write books, like Miss Arden.”
Sera beamed at him. “What a sound ambition.”
“I’m going to be a princess,” Adeline said loftily.
Seraphina and Marianne exchanged identical mordant glances. “Well, no rush to decide just yet, Miss Adeline,” Sera laughed.
A little chirp caught Jasper’s attention. “I hear a bird!” he cried.
Seraphina smiled. “I seem to have made some new friends. Would you like to meet them?”
The children nodded. She took them by the hands and led them to a table where two pretty turquoise kingfishers were perched in a brass cage.
Addie squealed in delight. “Parrots!”
Sera laughed. “They are called kingfishers. I kept them when I was a girl.”