A Love Worthy

Chapter Thirty-Five

She felt as though the beautifully meticulous room swiveled uncontrollably as she stared in disbelief at the tiny, blond woman regarding her through a set of dark, soft eyes, eyes that amazingly mirrored her own.

"How can this be?" Ginelle breathed inaudibly, her mind struggling with incredulity and awe.

The woman addressed the two men in the room, "Gentlemen, if you would give us a moment alone?" her voice was sweet like a melody without a single strand of white-blond askew, and her layers of skirts secure of any wrinkles. She was perfectly intact; magnificently impeccable.

The men nodded and quietly left the room. The woman motioned to a white sofa with a small, gloved hand. "Please, sit down." She suggested, offering a warm smile.

Ginelle did so, not once taking her eyes off the woman as she crossed the room, her skirts swaying mildly against the heavy carpet. "Mother?" the word escaped on its own accord.

There was a quick glimmer of pain in the woman's eyes and a slight quivering of her lower lip as she said, "If only it were so."

Ginelle frowned, suddenly puzzled. "You are not Anne?"

The woman shook her head.

Ginelle's frown deepened. "You are not my mother? How is that so when you resemble her perfectly...when you resemble me?"

The woman lifted her head and smiled faintly, "I resemble her so because I am her sister, her twin Amelia."

Ginelle exhaled sharply, stunned. "That cannot be. I was never told of you, of any relatives for that matter." She shook her head as she gathered abruptly to her feet, pacing aimlessly back and forth. "This just cannot be. If you are who you say you are, then that means you are my Aunt?"

Amelia nodded.

"Why was I never told of you? Why didn't you come for me?" she demanded, suddenly hurt that she spent nearly her entire childhood as an orphan.

Amelia stood than, clasping her gloved hands in front of her as she said painfully. "Your mother made me promise not to intervene."

"I do not understand."

"My sister was forced into a marriage she deemed incompatible. Lord Sterling was a relentless man with plans and my sister was a free spirit, incapable of being subservient. Your mother confided only in me and when I learned of her pregnancy, I begged my sister to flee, for her safety and your own."

"Why?" Ginelle urged despite having met Sterling herself.

Amelia's dark eyes met hers from across the room. "Lord Sterling was incapable of producing an heir and once your mother could no longer conceal her pregnancy, he would know that the babe she carried was not his, therefore revealing her infidelity."

"Would he have harmed her?" Ginelle asked.

"He was not a violent man." Amelia said, "But he was a man accustomed to getting his way, his reputation was essential and your mother was uncertain of how he would react once he learned of her pregnancy."

"And so she fled, with my father?"

Amelia nodded, smiling gently. "Your mother told me, it just made sense to run away with him, because she loved him."