“I am hungry, as well,” Eliza declared mutinously, linking arms with Nelly even as she glared at her elder sister.
Regina glared right back. “You are making a spectacle of yourself,” she hissed.
“No more than you, with your sour face,” Eliza shot back, her voice rising, gaining the interest of more than one passerby.
“Damnation,” Ash grumbled. He reached into his pocket, retrieving some coin. “Here, buy whatever you like.”
“Hoorah!” Nelly cried in triumph as she snatched up the coins without a thank-you and dragged Eliza within the shop.
Regina, giving her guardian a look of disgust, marched to the next shop and stared blindly into the window.
Ash gave a sigh and ran a hand over his face. “This was a mistake, Bronwyn. I should not be here.”
Bronwyn, for her part, didn’t know if he was referring to the outing, or the Isle of Synne completely. But she could not back down now.
Though how was she to move forward? She could insist they spend time together, but she could not force them to interact. If only she wasn’t so rubbish at things of this nature.
Which was why she had sent a letter to Honoria just that morning. She only hoped her friend arrived soon with reinforcements.
As if she had heard her name echoing through Bronwyn’s head, Honoria appeared, her younger sister and cousins in tow.
“Bronwyn, imagine seeing you here,” she exclaimed, giving Bronwyn a surreptitious wink before she turned to Ash.
“Your Grace, how lovely to see you again. You, of course, remember my sister, Miss Emmeline Gadfeld, as well as my dear cousins Miss Felicity Gadfeld and Miss Coralie Gadfeld?”
“Of course,” Ash said with a smile and a bow. Though Bronwyn could not fail to see how strained that smile was. He looked, quite literally, as if he wished to be anywhere but here.
Bronwyn bit her lip anxiously and looked to Honoria. Her friend motioned with her eyes to Regina. Of course.
“Regina,” she called out to the girl, “have you met the Gadfelds?”
Having been backed into a corner, Regina could do nothing less than acknowledge the newcomers. Heaving a sigh, she approached.
“Yes, we met at the wedding,” she said mechanically. “How do you do?”
The Gadfelds all smiled and bowed. Coralie, ever bright-eyed and curious, sidled up beside Regina. “What is it you were looking at there?” she asked, pointing to the shop window.
Regina blinked, flushing, even as she peered back in confusion at the window in question. “I…I’m not certain.”
Coralie nodded, as if that made perfect sense. “Mrs. Jensen’s hats are odd concoctions, aren’t they? But the tourists do seem to like them. Are you interested in millinery?”
“Not particularly,” Regina answered stiffly. Suddenly, giving Ash a rebellious look, she turned back to Coralie and said, “I prefer to wear men’s hats, actually. And trousers.”
She no doubt expected scandalized shock. Instead, Coralie nodded once more. “That sounds wonderfully freeing. I think I should like to try it myself sometime. But where were you all off to? If you have no other plans, perhaps you might accompany us to the Quayside Circulating Library?”
Regina, looking suddenly lost, as if she could not quite comprehend Coralie’s kindness, cast an uncertain glance in Ash’s direction.
Bronwyn’s hand was tucked in his arm, as it had been since their arrival in the town center, and she could not fail to feel his small start. Her heart twisted, not only for his reaction to Regina looking to him for support, but also that the girl had actually done so. Why could these two not see that they needed each other dreadfully?
Squeezing his arm, she prodded him to answer the girl’s silent question.
“Ah, er, yes.” He cleared his throat. “That sounds like a lovely idea. Why don’t you go ahead while Bronwyn and I wait for your sisters?”
Regina’s face relaxed as she turned back to Coralie. “I have never been to a circulating library,” she replied in as soft a voice as Bronwyn had ever heard her use.
“You will love it,” Coralie replied with a wide smile. “And they have just received the latestGaia Review and Repository. I’m aching to get my hands on it. S. L. Keys has been writing the most delicious gothic romance as a serial for it, and we are all waiting on tenterhooks to see what comes next.”
“Gaia Review and Repository?” Regina asked, not pulling back when Coralie moved closer and linked arms with her.