They Gave The Good Match To Her And A Replacement To Me novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Second Edition

At the Leverett lunch Sylvie hugs Molly, Gilbert offers her a real match outside, and Ethan hears every word and says nothing.

The Leverett house in Greenwich had a gravel drive long enough to make a point.

Ethan parked beside a row of cars that cost more than my building.

"Rule two," he said, and offered me his arm. "In front of family only."

"Is the driveway family?"

"His study window faces it."

I took his arm.

He leaned on the cane more heavily than he had in the car park, and I noticed, and said nothing.

His father met us in the hall.

He was a broad man with silver hair, and he looked me over from my shoes to my hair.

"So this is the Ashcroft girl," he said. "The second edition."

"Usually the second edition fixes the typos," I said.

Ethan made a small noise in his throat that could have been a cough.

His father did not smile.

"Lunch is at one," he said, and turned his back on us.

The dining room had a table for twelve and four of us at it.

Gilbert was already there, in a blue jacket, with a glass of wine and an easy grin for everybody.

"Sister-in-law," he said. "Or nearly. I'd stand up, but I'm comfortable."

"Don't stand on my account."

"Ethan told me you were feisty. He left out that you'd be the spitting image of the one I picked."

"I'm not the one you picked."

"No." He winked at his father. "You're the one who came free with her."

Ethan's hand tightened on his fork.

It was the only part of him that moved.

The door opened, and Sylvie came in on the housekeeper's arm.

She was thinner than I had remembered from the gala.

She wore a pale green dress and no jewellery except a small gold chain, and she walked carefully, with one hand near the wall.

"Molly," she said.

Then she crossed the room and hugged me.

She was warm and light and she smelled like soap.

"I'm so sorry about last night," she whispered. "Mother told me nothing either. I'd have stopped her."

"I know."

I did know.

That was what made it so hard to hate any of them.

Gilbert took her hand and drew her into the chair beside his.

He did not look at her face once, and she did not look at his.

Lunch was poached salmon and a lot of talk about the wedding date.

Gilbert's father said the families should be wed in the same month, to save the press the trouble.

Sylvie said she would like to wait until she felt stronger.

"You'll feel stronger when it's done," Gilbert said, and patted her wrist.

I watched her flinch.

I put my fork down.

"Maybe she'd like to wait."

"Maybe," Gilbert said, still smiling. "Ethan, tell your fiancée that it's polite to let the grown-ups plan."

Ethan lifted his glass.

"She's twenty-four," he said. "Plan around her."

It was the first thing he had said in a quarter of an hour.

His father looked at him for a long moment.

After the coffee I went to find a bathroom.

The hall had so many doors that I opened the wrong one twice.

When I came out of the third, Gilbert was leaning against the wall opposite.

He had followed me.

"You know what they say about the second twin," he said, quietly, so the housekeeper could not hear.

"I don't."

"That she's the one who got a better deal. You got a house, a name and my brother, who can't even climb his own stairs." He smiled. "Come find me when you want a real match. I'm engaged, but I'm not a fool."

"You're engaged to my sister."

"And?"

I looked at him.

"I'd rather marry the stairs," I said.

He laughed, and it was a good laugh, which made it worse.

"Your choice, Molly."

He walked off down the hall, whistling.

I turned.

Ethan stood at the far end of the corridor, one hand on his cane, in the shadow of a doorway.

He was close enough to have heard every word.

He didn't say anything.

He didn't walk toward me or toward Gilbert.

He looked at me for a moment, and then he turned and went back into the dining room.

I added it to the list.

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