Minerva was having a rough few days. It had all started when a bout of fever had run through the orphanage and she had caught it too. She had spent days lounging in bed, too sick to move and wishing that her husband was around to pamper her. Then she had received words for Sister Agatha's brother that her dearest old friend was not faring well. He had heavily implied that her health was now deteriorating.
She would need to go to Boston, fearing that she might miss meeting her friend for one last time. And it made her absolutely miserable that Ben wouldn't be able to come with her, with his discomfort around water. She'd been anxious, sad, and worried all week.
And now, she was being dealt a humiliating blow courtesy one of her few friends in England.
'What do you mean that you have made a reservation for me?' Minerva asked her sister-in-law in disbelief. She stiffened in the seat of the formal receiving room at Ophelia's townhouse in Bath, where they were seated. Minerva tried not to be insulted at the fact that she would normally join Ophelia in her library where the two of them would simply talk for hours on end, and now she was being situated in the formal receiving room. 'At a hotel?'
The staff had also politely refused to unload her luggage.
Ophelia refused to meet her eyes, a guilty flush on her cheeks and neck. 'The guest wing is under repair. You sent such short notice, I just haven't had time to prepare.'
Yes, it was true, she had decided at the last minute to make a stop in Bath to see her sister-in-law on her way to Richmond for the fundraising event at the Sanctuary. She had been increasingly feeling dreadful about the spat between herself and her sister as Ophelia had been giving her rather a cruel cold shoulder. Her heart broke knowing that she had caused a rift in her most valued friendship. If only she could take her foolish words back, take back the offense she had caused. It was at her husband's suggestion that she had made her detour.
Her husband who she had not seen in a month. And had missed miserably.
Minerva did not point out that she had always resided in the family wing on her prior visits. Nor did she point out that she saw nary a painter, carpenter nor worker of any kind. Not a sound coming from upstairs.
'I see.' She responded coolly, trying her best to keep the hurt from her voice. Still, her next words came out like an accusation. 'It has been over two and a half months, I have written you seven letters. You have not responded to even one of them. You did not even write to tell me that you were expecting. I heard from Benedict.'
'Oh, you know how it is.' Ophelia offered her a weak smile, placing a slender hand on her stomach, where she had not yet started showing.
Just like everyone else, she is distancing herself from me.
'No, Ophelia, I do not.' Minerva insisted. 'We were friends, very close ones at that. Was my concern truly so h-hurtful that you would scorn me? Was it so h-horrible that I was concerned for your wellbeing and I promised to help you if Needham was harm-'
'Please keep your voice down!' Ophelia hissed, her eyes wild and panicked. 'Needham is home and I do wish for him to overhear anything on this topic.'
And once again came the foreboding feeling that Ophelia was not telling the whole truth.
'Ophelia-,' she began before she was interrupted.
'Truthfully I wanted to keep it a secret for a while. Until I was sure,' Ophelia confessed. 'I lost a child before and Needham was so disappointed. Things have not been right between us since then and I just wanted to keep the news to myself for a while.'
'Oh, Ophelia, I never knew.' Minerva sighed with remorse.
'I never wished to tell anyone of my shame.'
YOU ARE READING
A Marriage Most Inconvenient (Inconvenient Matches Book #1)
Romance[The Inconvenient Matches series is comprised entirely of stand alone novels that can be read in any order] Forced into marriage by duty and obligation, The Duke and Duchess of Rothbury parted ways a week after saying their vows under the explicit u...
