A Lady Betrayed by Nicole Byrd

she ask an older and more experienced friend for advice? She drew a deep breath and gathered her resolve.
    â€œYou know my mother died when I was very young?”
    â€œYes.” Felicity nodded.
    â€œAnd I never planned to marry.”
    Her friend looked startled. “Why on earth not, my dear?”
    Madeline looked away, thinking of the terrible time when her mother had fallen ill, and all the certainty in her world had crumbled. “My mother—my mother asked me to look after my father. And I promised her I would—that was the last coherent thing she said to me as she was burning with fever. I held her hand until she grew too weak to talk at all, but she gazed at us with eyes that grew too fever-mad to know anyone—anyone except my father. He was the only one in the last hours who could rouse her to a knowing, loving glance. She loved him so much.”
    Madeline found her own gaze blurring, and she had to blink hard.
    Felicity put one comforting hand on her shoulder. “That had to be very hard on you, I know. Were you very young?”
    Maddie nodded. “Hardly eight years old. But I promised, you see. And then as the rest of my sisters grew up, as we all grew up, I tried to mother them, guide them, comfort them—because I was the eldest. And there was so much I didn’t know, and there was no one to ask.”
    â€œOh, my dear, what a task you set for yourself.” Felicity’s voice was soft with sympathy. “You have not had the easiest life, either, and you forfeited your childhood very young, I think.”
    â€œNot that our father was not the best father in the world, you understand, but he was a father, and he could not be a mother, too, even as much as he tried. And then he suffered his own injury, and that made it all even more difficult.” Maddie sighed and drew out her handkerchief so she could wipe her eyes.
    â€œI never thought, without dowries, that we would be lucky enough that even half of us would find husbands, and it seemed clear that I must stay home and look out for my father and whichever of my sisters remained at home. That Lauryn should fall in love with the squire’s son and he with her was wonder enough, and then Juliana going to London, and the twins running off—which could have been, really should have been, a total disaster—well sometimes miracles happen.” Maddie shook her head, remembering how angry she had been at her feckless younger sisters. Honestly, if they had not been so amazingly fortunate—
    She drew a deep breath and picked up the gown that lay across her bed to distract herself.
    Felicity seemed to follow her thoughts. “Happily, that has all ended well. I was so pleased to see the twins married; they both looked so happy. I’m sure they have matured beyond their wild times.”
    â€œI hope so!” the twins’ older sister said, grinning reluctantly. “If not, it’s their husbands’ problem now, not mine. The tales I have heard about their London escapades—”
    â€œUm, yes, but I’m sure that much of that is exaggerated,” Felicity said quickly, as if to change the subject.
    â€œI do hope so,” Maddie agreed, remembering what she had meant to ask her friend, and it had nothing to do with her younger sisters’ dreadful exploits. If she didn’t speak now, she would lose her nerve completely. “Felicity?”
    â€œYes?”
    The change in Madeline’s tone seem to alert the widow to a change in topic. The older woman turned to gaze at her. Almost wishing she had not spoken, Maddie ran her finger along a row of lace and tried to frame her question.
    â€œWhen you were first married, did you know—I mean, how cognizant were you—that is, did your mother explain to you about—about…” Again her voice faltered, and she could not think how to word the question, as pressing as it was.
    â€œAbout what to expect from the