Page 81 of To Know Miss May

“It be despicable,” Ophelia said, seething. “What would Miss Pengelly think? Ye already be upsettin’ Mother and Father with your confuddlin’ behavior. Fallin’ for your longtime friend, then droppin’ ’er and pursuin’ the oddest woman ye could e’er know. What can ye mean by this behavior?”

Livvy winced. There was that word again. Odd. August must not have heard it, otherwise he would have said something to defend her.

“Ye girls seem to be forgettin’ after all these years away from me that ye both be me little sisters, not me mother.”

“Well, sometimes little sisters need to speak up for the good of the family,” Portia countered.

“She’s right,” Ophelia agreed. “’Specially when it be affecting all o’ we as ye continue bein’ seen near that odd woman.”

There it was again. Her stomach clenched. Why did August not stop them from speaking that way about her?

“What do it matter if I be seen with her?” he asked. “We just be friends. Ye both be seen with men ye be friends with.”

Livvy rubbed her hand against her pinching chest. He’d only said he was merely friends with Livvy to keep up his façade with Miss Pengelly. Did he not?

“If ye can’t see why that be detrimental to your relationship with Miss Pengelly,” Portia began, “or why ye be hurtin’ us in doin’ so—”

“Our reputation, August, think of our reputation,” Ophelia jumped in.

“—then we must ’ave this discussion.”

“Surely ye must see ’ow odd she be,” Ophelia continued.

“So very odd,” Portia agreed.

August’s sigh was audible. “What do it matter if she be odd?”

His words pierced Livvy’s heart. He…he thought her odd?

“’Cause it be ruinin’ us, August…”

The girls continued, but their words faded from Livvy’s mind as one word circled round and round in her thoughts.

Odd. Odd. Odd.

She shouldn’t have been so surprised to discover August thought the same as everyone else did on the Mount—the same as Father did.

So why did it hurt so very much to have August agree?

Backing away from the hedges slowly to avoid being seen or heard, she left the graveyard and made for home, the rain having soaked through her cloak and dress, now sliding coolly against her skin.

After all this time believing that she’d been able to reach August before anyone else had time to sully his opinion of her, she’d been wrong. He thought of her the same as everyone else did—the same as Father did.

She’d kept her love of August to herself over all these years because she knew Father would claim she had set her sights too high, that she would be better off marrying a mainlander.

But in her foolish musings the night before, she’d mistakenly hoped that she could finally open up to Father about her feelings.

How wrong she had been.

Her hope tried to counteract her negative thoughts, but there was no use. No matter all the fine words August had said to her, all the encouragement and kindness he’d shared with her. His private, truthful thoughts had now been revealed.

And that was what hurt most of all. That she had been so stupid to believe that the Charmer of the Mount could have possibly fallen for someone like her.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

“Of the many things hidden from the knowledge of man, nothing is more unintelligible than the human heart.”

The Odyssey, Homer