Page 47 of His Revelation
She turned and slipped through the gate, but he followed, only to ensure she made it to the door safely, he told himself, but he recognized the lie. He wanted her to turn, to acknowledge him one last time.
She did stop at the door, her shoulders hunched as she dropped her hand to the latch. Silently, he prayed she’d turn, tell him she forgave him.
But of course she didn’t.
When she stepped inside the inn, Lysander sighed and acknowledged he’d well and truly lost her.
If she’d considered it, Tiffany would’ve assumed Mrs. Oliphant, the cook, might’ve been in the kitchen, perhaps joined by Annie or one of the maids.
But she didn’t expect to be confronted by her mother as soon as she slipped inside.
“Where have you been, young lady?”
The lash of her mother’s fury yanked Tiffany’s gaze to her mother’s face. The baroness was livid, judging from the two bright spots on her cheeks, and she was fully dressed, as if she were ready to face the day.
Or as if she hadn’t gone to sleep yet.
“I have made myself ill worrying over you!” Mother shrieked, stepping around the table to stalk toward Tiffany. “Up half the night, wondering where you were, and if I could risk your reputation to call out the men to look for you! This one would say nothing!”
She jerked her thumb, and Tiffany peeked over her shoulder. Behind her, Bonnie hovered near the doorway, wearing her night wrapper, her arms around her middle and looking apologetic.
“I am fine, Mother,” Tiffany confessed wearily, placing her bag on the table and wondering if she had the energy to unpack it.
“Fine?Fine?” screeched her mother, flapping her hands like some kind of big bird. Her shrill voice added to the simile. “You have beengone, with little concern for your mother’s nerves, then waltz in dressed like—likethat?” She flapped her hands at Tiffany’s clothing. “Like some kind ofpeasant? What if someone had seen you?”
Tiffany sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. There’d been a time when her mother’s anger, and her rants, had terrifiedher. A time, not so long ago, when she’d craved her mother’s compliments and assurances of worth.
But the last few days had changed her, in more ways than one.
“Mother, no one knew who I was. I was safe. You were not supposed to find out?—”
“Oh, I cannot believe you think I would be so stupid as to believe thatmensesexcuse from your sister! I am a woman as well, Tiffany! I know good and well that no matter how uncomfortable our courses can be, we are expected to face the world with a smile and pretend our hormones are not crippling us in pain or making us a big, raging ball of homicidal thoughts!”
Tiffany blinked. “Very…accurate, Mother.”
“Now, where were you, young lady?”
I spent the last two and a half daysnotbeing a young lady.
But Mother wouldn’t want to hear that. She wouldn’t want to hear about any of her realizations or epiphanies on the journey either, or the way Tiffany had had her heart broken.
Again.
So she just sighed and admitted. “I went toThe Curios Cabinetin York.” She met Bonnie’s look of hope and had to sadly shake her head. Mother didn’t notice, but Bonnie’s expression carefully shuttered, which told Tiffany she’d understood the adventure had failed.
“You went shopping in York,” Mother repeated slowly, icily, “alone.”
“No, I had an escort,” Tiffany said without thinking. “His name was?—”
The slap took her by surprise.
Her mother rarely raised a hand to her or Bonnie, although Ember had received more than her share of blows. But this slap was the kind which necessitated Mother winding up with her hand over her shoulder, letting go, and whipping Tiffany’s head clear around.
Her cheek burned, and there was a ringing in her ears, but Tiffany didn’t feel any pain. Nay, it was more shockthat her mother had just slapped her.
When she was able to blink the room back into focus, she saw that Bonnie was gone—likely up to her room to mourn the lack of money the manuscript would bring—and her mother was glaring at her.
Coldly, the baroness hissed, “You have been away from home fordays, Tiffany. And now I learn you were with aman? You know there is a word for women like that? You might as well not have returned at all if you were going to shred your reputation so thoroughly.”
