Tea For Two Read Online Free Page A

thrilled either,”
Brendan said.
    “Of course not. You know how they’ve always
been, about their plans for both of us and how we need to marry
well and secure a future for our posterity and the precious family
name.”
    Brendan raised an eyebrow at the venom in his
brother’s tone, but didn’t comment on it. “What did you do
then?”
    “I wanted to fight for her, but Garnette
wouldn’t hear of me tearing away from my family.” Chris gave a
small smile. “Family was always so important to her. So I agreed to
wait, as she suggested. Garnette was certain if Mother and Father
saw how serious we were, how committed, they’d come around.”
    “Naïve, certainly,” Brendan observed.
    “The next thing I knew they’d shipped me to
Dansby and school,” Chris told him. “Father sent a stipend directly
to his solicitor in Dansby for my needs, but I never had enough
money to come back for her.”
    Brendan frowned. “They separated you? Just
like that?”
    His brother nodded. “I’d saved a bit of my
pocket money, and was all set to return for the holiday when Father
wrote about the fever. He told me not to come. I had no idea it
would be the last thing I ever received from him.”
    “And Garnette?”
    “She died the same time Father did. I didn’t
even know she was ill.” Christopher let his head fall to rest in
his hand. “I wrote to her almost every day, but never heard a
reply. I was frantic to get back here and reaffirm my devotion to
her. You can’t imagine the guilt, Bren. If only I’d saved more of
my money, skipped a meal once or twice so I could pocket the gold,
not bought that new necktie—the list goes on. If I could have
returned before she fell ill, I could have saved her.”
    Brendan watched his brother, usually so
carefree, wrap himself in the misery that hung in the air. “You
truly loved her.”
    “With everything that I am.”
    “Then after her death, Shannah came to work
here,” Brendan said.
    “It wasn’t just Garnette. Their parents both
died of the fever as well.”
    “Millie mentioned that earlier today,”
Brendan told him. “Did you know the family well?”
    Chris lifted a shoulder. “He never said
anything outright to me, but I got the distinct impression that her
father didn’t approve of our love. I don’t think he thought my
intentions were entirely honorable.”
    “A father’s right,” Brendan agreed. “But you
would have married her if you’d had the chance.”
    Chris opened his mouth as if to say
something, but clamped his jaw shut almost immediately. Instead he
nodded.
    “So you never met the rest of the family?” A
picture—an answer—had formed in Brendan’s mind. He needed
Christopher’s words to confirm his suspicions.
    Chris smiled then, and leaned back in his
chair. “Well, Garnette’s mother was nice enough, and always sent
Shannah and Matt with us whenever we’d go on walks or picnics. They
were our chaperones. Little Kora was a cute thing, always clinging
to her mother. She was shy around me.”
    Brendan tried to keep his tone as even as
possible. “And Mrs. Marshall wasn’t pregnant that you recall?”
    Chris let out a short burst of laughter.
“Definitely not! If you’d heard her fret over her three daughters,
and how in the world she’d get them safely married off, you
wouldn’t even ask. Garnette’s mother was quite vocal about not
wanting to risk a fourth daughter.”
    The pieces fell into place. Brendan
straightened in the chair, his eyes growing wide. He felt like he’d
swallowed a stone and it dropped straight to the bottom of his
stomach.
    Christopher leaned in, concerned. “Bren, are
you all right?”
    “I have to go.” Brendan barely uttered the
words before he flew from his chair and tore up to his room,
without aid of the forgotten candle he’d left in the kitchen.
    Christopher stood in the foyer holding the
candle when Brendan raced down the stairs moments later, fully
dressed and struggling to force his arm into his