Page 13 of The Bookworm and the Pegasus Tamer

“I’m sorry, my dear.” Her mother pressed her hand. “I just hope you can relax now that we’re here and have a good time. You belong here just as much as any of those other girls.”

Aurelia managed a small smile and a nod, hoping her mother couldn’t see the sadness behind it. It was her mother who needed to believe her own words, not Aurelia. Aurelia didn’t worry that she didn’t belong—she just preferred reading to interacting with people she didn’t know and who had little real interest in her besides. She might not like crowds of people staring at her, but to her mind, it was a perfectly sensible position and had nothing to do with her self-worth.

But her mother had been raised to carry her family’s hopes, just as Aurelia’s father had. Except in her mother’s case, she had succeeded—only to come under the disappointed, critical eye of her mother-in-law. Her mother hadn’t been born into the same position Aurelia had been, and she knew what it was to be out of place.

So if the house party was important to her mother, then Aurelia would endure it with as much grace as she could manage. She wouldn’t sulk and ruin her mother’s enjoyment of the visit.

Six

Despite her resolution, by the time the housekeeper had seen them comfortably ensconced in their rooms and Aurelia had refreshed herself from the journey, she thought she might explode from keeping so many emotions bottled inside. There was one person she could be open with, at least, and she meant to find her immediately.

She marched out of the room, accosting the first maid who walked past.

“Where can I find Miss Phoebe?” she asked before remembering the afternoon’s revelation. “Or I suppose it’s actually Lady Phoebe.”

The maid gave her an odd look even as she bobbed a perfunctory curtsy. “Miss Phoebe is in the library.”

Aurelia couldn’t help a small smile. Of course Phoebe was in the library.

“Could you direct me there?” she asked, taking careful note of the instructions that followed.

But as she attempted to trace the route the maid had outlined, her brow creased. The Earl had definitely claimed Phoebe as a sister. But as the daughter of the previous earl, she should possess the courtesy title of Lady Phoebe. And yet the maid had called her Miss Phoebe as Aurelia had always done. And Phoebe had claimed her parents weren’t respectable. None of it made any sense.

When Aurelia reached the door the maid had described, she found it closed. Opening it carefully, she peeked inside, ready to whisk herself away if she had gotten the instructions confused and was in the wrong place. But to her relief, the first thing she saw was row upon row of books.

Slipping inside, she closed the door behind her, taking a moment to admire the room. It was the largest private library she had ever seen, shelves lining every wall and large windows letting in plenty of natural light. The wood of the shelves shone, and she couldn’t see a speck of dust anywhere.

“Aurelia! You’ve arrived!” Phoebe’s voice pulled her out of her contemplation, and her eyes immediately narrowed.

Phoebe’s face fell, and she faltered, stopping several steps away from Aurelia.

“Sorry I wasn’t at the entrance to greet you,” she said hesitantly. “I was going to listen for a carriage, but I got distracted.” She nodded toward the book she had abandoned on the armchair behind her—an ordinary book from the library and not Fable in his inanimate form.

“Never mind that.” Aurelia hurried over to a window seat and collapsed onto it. “You’re the Earl’s sister. The Earl of Windward. The Pegasus Tamer. That Earl.”

Phoebe laughed reluctantly. “I know who my brother is.”

“So why didn’t I!?” Aurelia fixed her with a piercing look, not breaking eye contact until Phoebe cracked.

“I’m sorry!” she wailed, sitting beside Aurelia on the long window seat. “I liked that you didn’t know our connection. Everyone else only endures me because of my brother, and it was nice to know you actually liked me for myself.”

Aurelia took her hand. “Of course I do! And I’m sure plenty of other people do too.”

Phoebe sighed. “Oh, the people here at Windward—the ones who truly know me—seem to like me well enough. But high society only accepts me because of my brother. I didn’t want to leave home and go to the capital at all, but Danton insisted I accompany him this year.”

“But you’re the daughter of an earl,” Aurelia protested. “I understand why I’m barely included in society, but you should be at the center of it.”

Phoebe sighed. “Except I’m not the daughter of an earl.”

Aurelia frowned. “I don’t understand. Your brother is the eighth Earl of Windward. How can you not be the daughter of an earl yourself?”

“He’s only my half-brother.” Phoebe stroked Fable’s back, seeming to draw strength from her furred companion. “We share a mother, but I’m not the daughter of the old earl.”

Aurelia’s brow furrowed as she tried to work out how such a situation had come to be.

“Our mother isn’t…she isn’t a good mother!” The words burst out of Phoebe, and Aurelia’s eyes widened.

“She’s still alive? I just assumed…”