Chapter One
Saying goodbye to Mr. Robin Cooper was very much on Tessa Abbott’s mind as her last full day in his home ended. Unfortunately, her cousin’s mind was focused on an entirely different gentleman.
“Oh, please say yes to William’s brother’s offer of marriage. We could be sisters then, not just distant cousins,” Anna Cooper pressed as the candle sputtered and died, leaving them in complete darkness in Tessa’s bedchamber. “I know you like George Leven enough to at least consider him,” Anna argued without the faintest idea she was so very wrong.
Tessa was, unfortunately, already in love, and to give George false hope, or marry him, would be cruel in the extreme.
Tessa lay on her back and stared into the darkness above her head as she grappled with the best way to decline her cousin’s suggestion without revealing her reasons for doing so. “I don’t like him enough to marry him. I was only being polite for your sake. I never meant to encourage a serious attachment,” she revealed in a whisper.
“Well, George is mad for you, no matter what you did or didn’t do. He talks about you all the time. He’s even talked about leasing a property on the same street where William and I will live, too,” Anna assured her as they lay under the comforter of Tessa’s bed together, as they’d done on so many other nights before this one. Tessa had been a guest of the Cooper family for some time, a recipient of their charity and surprisingly warm affection. “You have to marry someone eventually to have a family of your own. Why not marry George?”
Of course, Tessa wanted a family, but it didn’t seem likely that she could marry Robin Cooper. The object of her affections was oblivious to her admiration. “Perhaps I will meet the love of my life in Begley,” Tessa suggested.
Begley Cottage was a world away from London. It was where Anna’s crotchety grandmother, Tessa’s great-aunt, lived all alone.
Anna burst out laughing, and Tessa quickly slapped her hand over her cousin’s mouth to quell the sound before the noise of it traveled too far. She did not want to bring Mrs. Cooper into her room tonight or disturb Robin. “Quiet, or you’ll wake them.”
Mrs. Cooper and the unattainable Mr. Robin Cooper had been her two favorite people, but they were also the people who had the power to hurt her most of all. She was entirely at their mercy.
“Mama can sleep through anything at this time of night,” Anna complained. “But heaven forbid we disturb his peace.”
“Shh, you’ve no right to complain about your brother,” Tessa insisted. “Robin has been very generous to allow me to stay this long.”
“Not long enough for my liking,” Anna whispered angrily, citing a well-worn topic of private complaint. “Robin has funds enough to keep you, and yet he still hasn’t expended the energy to set up a dower, even when he hinted he might.”
It was inevitable that Robin had been unwilling to dower her, but as an orphan and a very distant relation, she had no right to expect anything at all. She was lucky this family had allowed her to live with them for this long.
To every other relation, she’d been considered nothing more than an unpaid drudge. Convenient until they had no use for her.
Anna had declared Tessa her sister right from the start. She was deeply offended by Robin’s reluctance to dower her, reducing her appeal to potential suitors. However, no man truly gave her a second glance once they learned she was a charity case.
“I suppose if I am ever to marry, I will have to attract a suitor with my smile and my flirtatious wit,” she joked.
Anna hooted with laughter. “Timid little you? Flirtatious? I swear you and my brother are the two souls most likely to never be described as having great wit or to flirt, and certainly not ones to ever let anyone know your deepest, darkest feelings.”
Tessa liked Robin a great deal for all of those reasons, so she silenced Anna again with her hand over her mouth. She liked Robin’s quietness, his unchangeable nature, and also their secret conspiracy to dampen Mrs. Cooper’s theatrics. Robin claimed that no greater source of entertainment could be found in England than when his mother was outraged.
Tessa did agree with Robin perhaps too much, which unfortunately had rendered her somewhat invisible to him. Robin had never noticed that she’d fallen for him almost on the very day they’d met.
“Please say you will write to me every day. I dread to think of how much quieter you will become in that dreary place.”
Tessa very much dreaded living with old Mrs. Cooper, but she didn’t dare reveal how much. She didn’t want to spoil Anna’s wedding day tomorrow. “Will you be content to know I plan to run around the Begley Cottage once a week, laughing at nothing at all.”
“She’ll think you wild and might just send you back to us.” Anna huddled closer, resting her chin on Tessa’s shoulder. “I will miss you,” Anna whispered in her ear. “I tried to convince William to let you come and live with us in our new home.”
“I will miss you, too, but I would never follow you to your new home. You’re to be a newlywed.” Tessa fought back the tears by laughing. “I expect you will be too busy leading William a merry dance.”
Anna gave her a tight squeeze. “You may be right about William and me.”
Tessa’s tears fell, but she dashed them away with the back of her hand. Anna was loved. Tessa was not. She forced her sadness away. “When you marry William tomorrow, I want you to start off on the right foot. You’d better let him catch you a time or two.”
“Oh, I will.” Anna giggled softly. “I know what to do. Mother and I had the talk about doing my solemn duty to my husband the other night.”
Tessa twisted up and around on her bed to stare at her cousin in shock. “No!”
“Oh yes,” Anna chuckled evilly. “I have all the details that I know you’re dying to hear. Shall I tell you now so no one else can embarrass you?”
“Yes, please,” Tessa begged. She’d been waiting for, and fearing, the talk for as long as she could remember.
Anna leaned close and began to explain how a lady went to bed an innocent and woke up a woman with the hope of a family inside her—adding many intimate details of what happened between men and women in the privacy of a bedroom. Tessa was blushing twenty shades of pink by the time Anna finished. Tessa could only imagine her fantasy—the sandy haired Robin—touching her in that manner.
“Oh my,” she gasped.
“I couldn’t stop laughing at Mother’s expression when we met with William for tea after the talk. Every time her eyes dipped from his face, I wondered if she remembered what she said we would do together. It was simply too horrifying for words to contemplate.”
“I’m glad I missed it.”
Anna gripped her hand tightly. “You were stuck with Robin as he sorted through those old newspapers looking for that story he mentioned.”
Tessa smiled at the happy memory. Time spent alone with Robin was precious and very rare. “He never did find out who was investigating the thefts.”
“If there ever was such an article to be found.” Anna wriggled again, throwing the heavy comforter off her legs. “Do you ever wonder if he makes up those strange searches for information just to avoid speaking to us?”