Wiping her eyes, she glanced back up and searched the midwife’s lined face. “And then what?” Daphne took a deep breath, as if bracing herself for sad news. “It has been so long, she cannot possibly still be alive … could she?”
Looking puzzled, she shifted her gaze to Kate, then Skye. Suddenly, there was wonder and hope in her eyes along with wariness. “You have knowledge of my mother, don’t you, Lady Katharine? Why else would you have brought Mrs. Nibbs to see me?”
Without replying, both Kate and Mrs. Nibbs glanced at Skye, since they’d agreed the choice to proceed would be hers.
“Yes, Miss Farnwell,” Skye said gently, coming to a decision. “We have knowledge of your mother—and she is very much alive.”
Daphne made a strangled sound that was half gasp, half sob, and brought her hand up to cover her trembling mouth. Briefly she shut her eyes, then opened them and threw Skye a pleading look. “I am not dreaming, am I?”
“No, you are definitely not dreaming,” Skye said tenderly.
“Dear God,” Daphne repeated in a hoarse whisper. “Please … tell me, where is she?”
“She is here in England now.”
Daphne shook herself. “This is unbelievable. May I see her? Does she want to see me? How is she?”
Looking dazed, Daphne rose to her feet and took two steps toward Skye, then stopped. “Forgive me, I am behaving like a madwoman.”
Skye smiled briefly. “Not at all. It is only natural that your thoughts are scattered after such an enormous revelation caught you off guard.”
Inhaling again, Daphne forced herself to resume her seat. “I have innumerable questions, but perhaps I should allow you to speak, Lady Skye.”
“To begin with, your mother is well, and she longs to meet you. The story of how she came to leave you is dreadfully painful for her, and she wishes to explain her reasoning herself in more detail and beg your forgiveness.”
Daphne nodded, her expression becoming more subdued. “How did you and Lady Katharine come to be involved with my mother?”
“I happened across some of her correspondence to my Uncle Cornelius before her marriage and realized she had once been a friend of his. When Mrs. Nibbs confided the circumstances of her escape, I went to Ireland to find her. She has been living there under an assumed name. This is her likeness when she was much younger.”
Skye withdrew the miniature from her reticule and passed it to Miss Farnwell, who sat there staring avidly.
“I look a good deal like her at that age.”
“Yes, but we have been at pains to disguise her appearance in order to maintain the fiction of her death.”
Daphne’s brow furrowed, then cleared. “Because of my brother? Edgar doesn’t know, does he?”
“No. The consequences could be dire for Lord Farnwell. The succession would be in question if it were proven that his own mother’s marriage to your father was invalid.”
Evidently Daphne had no desire to dwell on her brother, for she returned to the former subject. “When may I see my mother?”
“Very shortly, if you wish,” Skye said. “For now she is staying with a friend of my family’s in East Sussex. Katharine and I thought we should devise a natural pretext for you to accompany me to the country. Perhaps I could commission you to paint some watercolors of a lovely old rose garden.”
“That seems ideal,” Daphne mused aloud, her thoughts racing ahead. “I could easily leave tonight. Lady Gowing will not mind making do without me for a time. I only need to cancel some engagements first.…”
Kate interjected her own opinion. “There is no need for such haste, Miss Farnwell. Tomorrow will be soon enough, or even the day after. We don’t want to raise any undue suspicions with your unexplained actions.”
Daphne frowned at her choice of words. “No, of course not. Even if Edgar were completely unaffected by my mother’s return, I don’t want him to know of it. He is spiteful enough to thwart my happiness on general principle. We have long been at loggerheads.”
“So you can understand why we must maintain secrecy for now.”
“Indeed I do.”
The discussion turned to formulating plans then, and they agreed to wait another day and a half before Skye escorted Daphne to Hawkhurst Castle. Kate planned to remain in London rather than accompany them. Her carriage would return Mrs. Nibbs to Brackstone the next day and then be at Skye’s disposal.
That night Skye slept in her own bed for the first time in weeks. It was good to be home, she decided, even if the magnificent town house belonging to the Earl of Traherne seemed strangely empty.
Quinn was still away at points unknown, having become obsessed with his own version of changing fate. Their parents had died at sea off the coast of France—a tragedy that might have been prevented in a vessel that could outrun a storm. Thus, Quinn was set on funding the design of an enormous steam engine that could power sailing ships.