Read An Unnatural Daughter: A Dark Regency Mystery for Free Online

don’t want him to be alone when I’ve gone, just because I was too selfish to let him go.’
    A cold feeling gripped my stomach.
    ‘He was to marry, once, you know?’
    I nodded.
    ‘Yes, he mentioned it.’
    ‘Did he now?’ Edwina looked impressed. ‘He doesn’t talk of it much. Not to me, but I suppose I know all about it so there’s nothing to talk about. And we don’t get many visitors, so who would he tell? I wonder- but it’s none of my business. Poor boy, it hit him so hard, especially when she passed away.’
    ‘She died?’
    ‘He didn’t tell you?’ Edwina looked pained. ‘Oh dear, I hope I’m not overstepping the mark. It’s just that everyone round here knows already. It’s so rare to have a stranger in our midst. Still, I suppose there’s no harm in you knowing.’
    She glanced again at the ceiling, as Tristan dragged something across the floor above us.
    ‘They were inseparable, you know. The three of them – she had a brother Tristan was close to as well. I remember, when he was ten he came in one day and said he was going to marry her. It was the sweetest thing, but then he’s always been a sensitive boy. Then they were engaged officially once she turned sixteen. Such a pretty girl. Red hair, you know.
    ‘We told them they should wait – her parents as well as me. We thought they should have some time as adults first, just to make sure they knew what they really wanted. Only two years, but I know that seems like ever such a long time when you’re young. Cassandra – that was her name – she was so disappointed, but you know how young girls are, so impetuous, and they think they know everything! But Tristan always wanted to travel, and he was raring to join the army. Just like most young men are at that age.’
    Edwina stopped and looked down at her hands.
    ‘I wonder how it would have been different if we’d have let them marry. If they’d be as happy now as they thought they would be then. But while he was away, she married someone else.’
    ‘But why? If she loved him, why didn’t she wait?’
    Edwina looked pained, and I immediately regretted my question.
    ‘I don’t think it’s my place to say. One doesn’t like to speak ill of the dead. But she did marry, and Tristan only found out when he was back, and the war was all over. I couldn’t bring myself to write to him and tell him while he was out there. You hear stories of jilted young men offering themselves up to enemy fire – and he’s so sensitive, I couldn’t take that risk. In the end it was Damien – her brother – who told him.
    ‘I think he saw her once after, and he said she’d changed completely. I never saw her again. Then we heard she’d died, and it was such a terrible shame. I thought he’d never get over it. He blamed himself for leaving her, just as we blamed ourselves for not letting them marry. But what’s to do? We can’t spend our lives blaming ourselves for the past, but still, I often wish we’d acted differently.’
    She fell silent, and I couldn’t think of anything to say. I felt strongly, with every fibre of my being, that if I had been lucky enough to be the object of Tristan’s affections, I would never have committed myself to another man. And yet, if I did, as in my wildest dreams, capture his affections, I would have to be the one who left him. I was confused, and hated almost everything and everyone in the world. Especially myself.
    ‘But we needn’t be so maudlin – look at me, coming in here to cheer you up and almost setting myself to sobbing! He’s fine now. I worried for so long, but he’s moved on. How are you feeling anyway, Alice? Your head looks much better today.’
    I told her I was feeling almost back to normal, just tired still, and she seemed pleased. I wondered that she never asked me what I would do once I was better. I felt as though there was an unspoken invitation that I would stay with her indefinitely, but she surely wouldn’t want that.
    ‘And