When she knocked on Regina’s door, however, she found the room empty. Was the girl already waiting below? But no, she was not there, either. A quick search of the house, and she was finally located. Though it was in the last place Bronwyn ever expected to find her.
All three girls were on the floor in the nursery, a small orange kitten playing in the circle they had made with their legs. As she watched, Regina held a piece of string above the kitten. It batted at it, quickly losing its balance and tumbling backward. The girls laughed, their faces alighting with their joy.
“Do you think we can keep him?” Nelly breathed, hopeful eyes wide on her elder sister.
“I will ask Bronwyn,” Regina replied with a smile.
“Oh, she’ll say yes,” Eliza declared happily, tickling the soft pink pads on the kitten’s feet.
“What shall we name it?” Nelly asked.
“Whatever you wish,” Regina said.
The look the younger girl gave the eldest was enough to make tears spring to Bronwyn’s eyes. She had seen a slow shift in their relationship over the past days since Ash’s departure. Whereas before Eliza and Nelly had shown a thinly veiled disdain for their eldest sister, lately they had begun to converse with her, asking her opinion on matters and making sure she was included in what they did.
This, however, was something altogether different. There was genuine affection as Nelly giggled and grabbed Regina’s hand when the kitten performed a clumsy tumble, and something like admiration as Eliza asked her elder sister a question.
She should slip out. This moment among the three was too special to interrupt.
Regina, however, spied her before she could close the door.
“Oh! I’m sorry, Bronwyn. Is it time to leave?”
Cheeks flushing hot that she had been seen, Bronwyn reluctantly moved back into the room. “It is,” she replied. “But you all seem to be having such a lovely time. Would you rather stay?”
“Oh, please stay,” Nelly wheedled, grasping Regina’s arm.
“Yes, please do,” Eliza joined in. “We have to name the kitten. If,” she corrected with a pleading look Bronwyn’s way, “we can keep it, that is?”
Bronwyn smiled. “Of course you can keep it.”
A general cheer went up. Regina, eyes glowing, looked up at Bronwyn.
“I do think I would like to stay, actually.”
“Of course,” Bronwyn answered.
The girl grinned at her before she turned back to her sisters. They fell to talking and laughing, the joyful sound following Bronwyn as she moved into the hall, closing the door behind her.
She was glad, so very glad the girls were forming strong relationships with one another. It was the way it should be. It showed they were healing, and would continue to heal.
And she would not think how it made her feel more alone than ever.
***
The interior of the Quayside Circulating Library was pleasantly cool as Bronwyn hurried through. It was nearly August, and Synne was at its warmest, drawing people from all across England to summer at its shores. Blessedly, however, it was still early in the day; those on holiday were not yet about, and it was easy to move through the library as she made her way to the blue brocade curtain at the back.
As expected, the rest of the Oddments were already seated within the small office. They called out a greeting as she ducked inside and hung up her reticule.
“Bronwyn, I am so very glad you’re here,” Adelaide said as Bronwyn extricated herself from Mouse’s energetic greeting and settled herself into a chair. She held out a plate with two separate piles of pastries on it. “I am trying to decide which recipe is best for a new flavor of cake to serve at the Beakhead, and so far there are equal votes for each. Which do you prefer, the rose hips or the damson plum?”
“We would have come to a consensus if Katrina could decide,” Honoria said as Bronwyn did as she was bid, taking one cake from each pile.
Katrina gave Honoria a wounded look. “I cannot help it; they are both so delicious.”
“Yes,” Honoria replied with exaggerated patience. “But that does not mean you cannot choose the one you prefer.”
“I prefer them both,” Katrina declared. “I cannot choose; it wouldn’t be fair.”