Mistress at Midnight by Sophia James Page A

Lia. I want to sit and read.’ His hand came out and she smiled when warm fingers curled into her own. It had been two years since the father they had known had been largely swallowed up by a stranger that they did not, but sometimes like now there were the old glimpses of him.
    ‘Eat the egg, Papa, and then I will take you into the library.’
    When he finally allowed her to feed him she breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Leonora has a beau coming to see her this afternoon. His name is Mr Rodney Northrup and he is a friend of Lord Hawkhurst.’ Aurelia always told him the news of the house each morning just in case he might take something in.
    Prudence joined her after a few moments, her youngest sister’s face alight with anticipation, her hair a golden froth of curls.
    ‘Leonora says Rodney Northrup is the most handsome boy she has ever met, Lia. She says that he danced with her all night and sat close beside her in the carriage on the way home. She also mentioned that you had had a waltz with the menacing Lord Hawkhurst. Could you not have refused him?’
    ‘Hawkhurst?’ Her father spluttered the name. ‘Charles knew Hawkhurst?’
    ‘Indeed, Papa, he did.’
    Prudence’s eyes widened. ‘Did Papa just understand us, Lia?’
    Aurelia waited to see if her father would say more, but silence seemed to have claimedhim again as he sat and fiddled with a spoon and a fork.
    ‘There are glimmers of comprehension still, Pru, although we have to expect that they will become fewer and further between, but enough of all this for now. Tell me, what is Leonora wearing today?’ The topic distracted her sister completely and as she talked excitedly about a silk gown trimmed with lace, Aurelia wandered her own pathway of thoughts.
    Would Stephen Hawkhurst accompany Rodney Northrup? She hoped that he would not. Please, God, let him not come , she prayed over and over, jolted from her musings as her sister asked a question.
    ‘Did the invitation to Lady Lindsay’s country party include Harriet and me?’
    ‘As you have not even come out yet I should doubt it very much!’
    ‘But we are almost seventeen, Lia. Could we not at least plan a time when we should be able to accompany you to such things? We could borrow the older gowns Leonora no longer fits. It won’t be expensive.’
    The plaintive tone in her voice had Aurelia taking a breath. When would it ever beeasy? The silks were beginning to pay, but their debts were still substantial.
    She should be at the warehouse now, sorting through fabric, but this visit by Cassandra Lindsay’s brother meant that she needed to be at home today, chaperoning her sisters as there was nobody else to do it.
    As she closed her eyes the exhaustion she had felt last night was there again this morning so, after finishing her father’s leftover breakfast, she poured herself a glass of milk. If she became ill then the whole game was lost. One mistake and her father’s second cousin would be in to claim Braeburn House, leaving them homeless and penniless.
    The horror of such a thing happening was not even to be considered and she stood to help her father back to the library. He did not understand what he read any more, but he enjoyed holding the books. She would instruct his maid to keep him there until after the visitors had gone, influenza giving her a good excuse for his absence.
    Rodney Northrup was accompanied by his sister and they arrived well into the afternoon.
    They were all in the downstairs salonwhen they heard the sound of a carriage stopping. Prudence ran to the window to be roundly growled at by Leonora who wanted everything to be simply perfect. Harriet rolled her eyes at Aurelia as they all took their seats again and listened to the approaching voices.
    He was not with them! Relief flooded into Aurelia’s whole body. Hawkhurst had not come with his golden eyes, night-dark hair and menacing certainty. She unclenched her fists, removed her glasses and found herself smiling as