the bell when you’re ready and a maid will escort you back downstairs,” Miss Darnell said as she pulled the curtains closed. “Now, rest well, for I warn you, when you join us again, I shall be full of questions!”
To which, Helena thought as she sank gratefully down on a bed as soft as Lord Darnell had promised, she was not sure she had any answers acceptable for the ears of a sheltered young maiden.
THOUGH HELENA HAD INTENDED only to close her eyes for a few moments, when she reached consciousness again, she was dismayed to find the room in almost total darkness. She sprang up, a little fear darting through her. If what happened in the next few minutes solidified her determination to leave, would she be able to find her way back through the tangle of streets to Mr. Pendenning’s office? Would anyone even be there at such an hour?
Before she could decide whether or not to tug the bellpull, her chamber door opened and a maid peeped in.
Spotting Helena standing by the bed, the girl bobbed a curtsey. “Begging your pardon, miss, but mistress wished me to see if you was awake yet. The ladies be waiting for you downstairs. If ye be ready, I’ll show you the way.”
“Mistress” presumably being Lady Darnell, Helena hesitated. She might as well get the meeting over with. If ’twas unpleasant…well, she’d already determined to leave. But she would do so properly, after expressing her gratitude to Mama’s cousin for her courtesy—not sneaking out like a prisoner breaking parole.
Mentally armoring herself for the confrontation, Helena followed, then paused on the threshold while the girl announced her. Taking a deep breath, she walked in.
She found Charis Darnell sitting on the sofa beside her mother’s cousin. Before Helena could utter a word, Lady Darnell jumped up and hurried to her.
“My dear Helena, please forgive me! My wretched nerves. I had worked myself into such a state waiting for Adam to return with you that when I perceived you at last, such a look of poor Diana about you, I was quite overcome!” Lady Darnell held out her hands. “Please tell me you’ll pardon an old woman’s foolishness and let us start over.”
Hesitantly, Helena offered her hands. To her surprise, the woman seized them and pulled her into a hug.
The soft brush of blond curls against her cheek…a scent of roses…the warmth of a rounded female form holding her close…All these touched something deep within her, flooding her with memories of a loving embrace.
After a moment of shocked surprise, Helena returned the pressure of the older woman’s arms. She clung fiercely to Lady Darnell, the contact fulfilling a craving for closeness she was only just realizing she possessed.
After several moments Lady Darnell loosened her grip and moved Helena to arm’s length, gazing with loving intensity at her face. “You do have the look of Diana about you,” she said softly.
“Do I? I always thought I looked nothing like her. I am so dark and she was fair, like you.”
“’Tis not so much coloring as in the way you carry yourself, your profile, the tilt of your chin.”
Still not quite sure she dared believe it, Helena said, “You do want me to live with you, Lady Darnell?”
“More than anything! But ‘Lady Darnell’ makes me sound like some sort of forbiddingly strict chaperone, which I assure you I do not intend to be. Adam and Charis call me Bellemere, after…something French, I believe.”
“‘Belle-mère’—stepmother,” Helena supplied. “Or ‘beautiful mother,’ which is even more appropriate.”
Lady Darnell dimpled with pleasure. “How sweet of you, child! I’m glad to see Diana taught you something of languages before she…” Coloring a little, Lady Darnell rushed on. “Well, I do not doubt it, for she was very clever! When we were girls, I always looked on your mama like a sister. I would be very pleased if you would call me ‘Aunt Lillian.’”
“You must call me Charis and I hope you will let me call you Helena,” Lord Darnell’s sister said as she came to join them. “We are so thrilled to have you here.”
Amazingly, it seemed they really did want her—despite her ungainly form and unattractive face, her mangled hand and tangled hair.
Mama had been right after all.
Swallowing the lump that clogged her throat, Helena at last managed to reply, “I should be honored to call you Aunt Lillian and Charis.”
“Good, that’s settled!” Charis said. “My brother shall be Adam, but I don’t expect we’ll see much of him. Once Bellemere announced her intention to summon an army of linen drapers, bonnet makers, cobblers, dressmakers, hairdressers, glove makers and such, he told us he expected to be frightfully busy for at least a month!” She grinned at Helena. “Sit down and let us start planning.”
“Yes, please do,” Aunt Lillian said as she led Helena to the sofa and took the seat beside her. “I had Cook hold dinner, not knowing when you would wake. While it is prepared, you must tell us what you wish to do.”
It had been so long since anyone had asked Helena what she wanted that for a moment she was too surprised to reply. A rush of gratitude filling her, she said, “Since I know virtually nothing of how to conduct myself in Society, I shall need you to teach me. I should like tutors, too, for the pianoforte and history and literature and all those subjects I have not been able to study since Mama left. Of course, I wish to have gowns and shoes and all such necessities made up as soon as possible.
“But first, I waited so very long to be reunited with my mother, only to discover I will never see her again. Please, Aunt Lillian, would you tell me about Mama? Everything you remember, from the very beginning!”
Lady Darnell gave her a tremulous smile. “Of course, my dear. We first met when Diana just five years old…”
AFTER HIS STEPMOTHER’S disastrous reaction to Helena Lambarth, Adam had borne the afflicted woman to her bedchamber. Leaving her maid to minister to her, he’d hurried back downstairs to be told by the butler that both Charis and Miss Lambarth had retired to rest until dinner. Realizing there was nothing further he could do for the moment, Adam headed for the library.
Although Helena appeared to better account in the blue gown than she had in the rag she had been wearing when he’d first cast eyes on her, the impression she made was still startling. Lady Darnell’s fainting fit was his own damn fault, he acknowledged with a gusty sigh as he sat behind his desk. He should have anticipated such a strong reaction from his sensitive relation and, while waiting at the lawyer’s office for Helena to have her dress fitted, sent his stepmother a warning.
Too late for that now. Still, he knew Lady Darnell’s desire to take in the girl was heartfelt and genuine. Hopefully once over the cataclysmic shock of meeting Helena, she would deal better with her.
He certainly hoped so, for otherwise he had no idea what he would do with her. Though he’d promised her a warm welcome, he could hardly insist that his stepmother care for someone she held in abhorrence. Nor could he, in good conscience, send the girl away to live alone in London.
Pushing that worry aside, he opened his account books to tackle the more immediate problem of finding somewhere the money to make the repairs his agent had written were essential for the tenants at Claygate Manor.
His humor soured further as he played that financial shell game. Several hours later, after resolving the matter as best he could for the moment—and promising himself he would look into the courting of Miss Standish with all speed—he closed the ledgers and headed to the parlor to see if his stepmother had recovered enough to present herself for dinner.
Pausing on the threshold, he spied the three ladies on the sofa, Miss Lambarth and Charis sitting to either side of his stepmother and leaning toward her as she spoke.
“Lord Lambarth pursued your mama from the moment she appeared at her first ball,” Lady