“Oh, dear,” Abigail said. “He will be afraid to allow me out alone. I have already added Ellen to his staff in the past few days—she was the poor seamstress I told you about. And now Edna. I should have thought first before speaking, shouldn’t I? Oh, dear.”
“Well, I am very happy for Edna,” Laura said. “And I have great faith in Lord Severn’s understanding.”
“That is the whole trouble,” Abigail said. “He is by far too understanding and too kind. And, oh, Laura, I have just thought of something he said last night after we . . . When we were in b . . . I have just remembered. I think I should go to see if Edna needs any help. Don’t worry about Boris. I just know everything is going to work out splendidly and you are going to be my sister. I can think of nothing I would like better.”
She hurried from the room and up the narrow stairs to the lesser servants’ attic. She tried not to remember his voice murmuring quietly into her ear that he loved her. She did not want it to be true.
She would be his wife, perhaps even his lover. But she did not want to be his love. She did not want him to love her. She would not be able to live with herself or her guilt if he loved her.
THE EARL OF SEVERN had warned his brother-in-law to come early with his news the following morning, since he was to accompany his wife to Mrs. Harper’s. But he had not really expected the man to walk in on them when they had scarcely sat down to breakfast. Abigail had been looking pale and distracted. She had tossed and turned and muttered in his arms through much of the night.
“Ah, breakfast,” Boris said, smiling broadly at them and rubbing his hands together. “I have come to join you.”
Abigail looked closely at him. “What is it?” she asked. “Oh, what is it?”
“Does it have to be anything?” he asked, laughing at her. “Can I not just join my sister and brother-in-law for breakfast?”
Abigail scrambled to her feet. “Tell me,” she said. “Tell me or I shall beat a tattoo on your chest.”
Boris laughed again. “Can you not control her, Miles?” he asked.
“No,” the earl said. “But then, I have felt no great urge to try to do so yet. Sit down, Boris. What will you have?”
Abigail had her hands clasped to her bosom. “It has happened, hasn’t it?” she said. “I can see by your face, Boris. It has happened, hasn’t it?”
He walked all around the table without saying a word and suddenly caught her up by the waist and swung her in a full circle.
“I could do no wrong,” he said. “It was one of those charmed nights. I was afraid that I was going to be accused of cheating, everything was going so well. It seemed too good to be real. A fortune, Abby. A veritable fortune.”
Abigail shrieked and the earl nodded to his butler to leave the room.
“Enough to pay Papa’s debts?” she asked. “Or some of the worst of them at least?”
“Better than that,” he said. “I can spend the rest of today going from creditor to creditor, Abby, paying them all off. And even then there will be some left.”
She gasped and linked her hands behind his neck.
“I have been thinking all night,” he said, “about what I will do with it. And I am quite certain in my mind now, though it was the first idea I had. I am going to buy my commission in the Guards, Abby, at the grand old age of two-and-twenty. It is something I have always dreamed of doing, and I am going to do it.”
“Boris.” Her voice was a high squeak and she bumped her head hard against his chest and hid her face there. “Ohh!”
The two gentlemen were entertained to the sound of noisy gulps and sobs. Boris winked at the earl over her head.
“May I offer my congratulations?” the earl said. “I did not think it could be done, Boris, and have been disapproving of your methods, as I told you at the picnic. You have proved me wrong, and I am glad of it. I hope, though, that you will not press your luck and return to the tables.”
Abigail’s head came up and she glared into her brother’s face. “I’ll kill you,” she said. “If I ever hear of your playing even for pennies, Boris, I’ll kill you.”
He took her face in his hands and smiled down at her. “Never again, Abby,” he said. “Not even for ha’pennies. Or farthings. I swear to you.”
She swung away from him suddenly, her face alight. “You see?” she said to her husband, wrapping her arms about his neck. “I told you so, did I not? But you would not have any faith in luck. I told you Boris would win a fortune soon.”