Her aunt smiled back at her and dabbed once again at her wet, red eyes. “Is it a good marriage, Sarah?”
Glancing over her shoulder, Sarah looked at Christopher standing with one arm around each of his sister’s shoulders. Her heart felt full. She had a family of her own. “The best marriage.”
“Excellent. I always liked his broad shoulders and his wealth. Your uncle says your husband’s fortune is over half a million pounds in total.”
Suppressing a giggle, Sarah solemnly agreed that both were very fine features of her dear husband. Aunt Venetia gave her one last embrace.
Then Uncle Oscar hugged her and kissed the top of her head. “The workers began digging the canal yesterday. In a matter of weeks, I shall have my lake.”
A memorial service was hardly the time to discuss the creation of a canal with the sole purpose of forming a manmade lake. But people were messy, imperfect creatures, and Sarah loved her eccentric uncle just as he was. “I am delighted for you.”
She turned to say goodbye to Ralph and was swept up into his arms and spun around the church. Her lips were smiling when he set her feet on the ground. “Christopher told me all about your trip. If it weren’t a wedding journey, I would invite myself to join you.”
Sarah loved hearing her husband’s name on her cousin’s lips. Ralph finally saw Christopher’s worth. “That might be a tad awkward.”
“Only a tad,” Ralph said with a wink. “You and I were once an adventurous pair, but life happened, and you have been a kind and dutiful cousin. But I have missed the old you, and I see glimpses of her when you are with Christopher. Go and see the world like we always planned. Manderfield Hall and I will be here when you get back.”
“You think you mean more to me than Manderfield?” she teased.
Not rising to her bait, Ralph shook his head. “I know I do. And that pair of sisters-in-law. Do not fear that I will say anything to hurt their chances in Society. Family squabbles should be kept in the family.”
Sarah touched his arm. “Thank you, Ralph.”
“Aunt Louisa loved you more than anyone else in the world, Freckles, to the very end.”
Touching her mother’s locket, which Nelly had polished back to perfection, tears filled Sarah’s eyes as she nodded. “I know, Flames. I know.”
Still holding the necklace, she thanked everyone in the neighborhood who had come to support her and Christopher. None of them had known her mother well, for Mama hadn’t socialized with the gentry, but that didn’t matter. Funerals were more for the living than for the dead. Sarah was grateful to have so many friends.
One by one they left. Her mother’s bones were properly interred in the cemetery. It would be several months before her monument would be completed. Next to her mother’s grave, Sarah had commissioned a second stonemason to create a statue in honor of Mrs. Moulton, John, Fred, and Francis. She wished Christopher knew where they were buried, but at least there would always be a place close to their home to remember them.
Her father was the last person to speak to Mr. Robinson and then to her. Up close he looked older and grayer. Wrinkles surrounded his eyes and mouth, and there was a sallow color to his skin, as if he’d been drinking too much.
He offered his arm, and Sarah couldn’t remember ever taking it before. She had always been an afterthought to him. An unwelcome intrusion to his all-consuming relationship with his wife. Her mother had once said that children look like their father so that he will care for them. Despite having the same hair and eye color as Papa, however, he had never taken care of her. But perhaps that was best left in the past.
“Thank you for coming, Papa.”
Her father patted her hand on his arm. “Dreadful business. But I knew your mother must have been dead. Nothing else could have kept her from me—from us. Your stepmother is also relieved, as you might guess. We were married by special license three days ago.”
Sarah tried to smile. At least her father’s relationship was legal now. Perhaps the new Countess of Manders would be a grandmother to Sarah’s children. Sarah would try harder now; Mrs. Yardley was no longer the usurper. She was her father’s wife.
“I only wish that my new stepmother might have accompanied you.”
His response was a forced chuckle. “Ursula isn’t overfond of the country.”
“Maybe she can come the next time you visit,” Sarah said as they left the church together. “I should like to get to know her better.”
She saw that Mr. Robinson, Christopher, and the sisters were standing near a statue of the Virgin Mary just outside of the chapel. It reminded Sarah of both of their mothers.
Papa tugged at his collar with his free hand. “The thing is ... Ursula isn’t interested in visiting your mother’s old home. She’s still a bit jealous of Louisa’s memory, and she should be. I will never love anyone like I loved your mother. And I will never forgive myself for that last night—the night she d-died.”
“Everyone in the house knew what the fight was about,” Sarah said quietly. “Neither you nor mother were particularly discreet that night.”
“Then, you know it was all my fault.”
Sarah took a deep, calming breath. “I know that you lost a great deal of money gambling and Mama was concerned that you were going to dice away my inheritance ... a concern that proved to be most correct.”
“I just had a run of bad luck is all.”