“Oh, good, Kate,” came the cheerful reply. Really, this was intolerable. “I can keep calling you Kate and still be part of polite society. I’m family, you know. Hugh Roberts of Hallow Hill is a relative of mine. His grandfather and my mother were cousins. Their fathers were brothers.”
“Really?” exclaimed Emily excitedly. “I didn’t know we had any more relatives.” Neither did Kate. She felt her mortification could not go further. Perhaps this man had been on his way to visit his cousin. He must have known all about the two new wards. And now everyone would know how absurdly she had acted. But why had he been so rude? Why the hood, the wordless meeting? Really, it was his fault she had made such a colossal blunder. She was upset to the point of tears.
“I’m afraid if you’re Mr. Roberts’s relative, you’re no relative of mine,” she snapped before she realized what she was saying. Oh, no! After keeping quiet all this time!
“What?” demanded Emily, and, “Really?” exclaimed her tormentor. He reined in the horse and turned to face her. “What do you mean, you’re not a Roberts? I thought you were living with your great-aunts.”
“Oh, Em, I’m sorry,” faltered Kate, looking up through the darkness at the pale smudge that was all she could distinguish of her sister’s face. “It’s old news, really; no one minds. Our great-grandmother was adopted into the family, that’s all.”
There was a pause. Then Marak urged the horse back into a walk.
“I can’t say I’m sorry,” he said thoughtfully. “New blood is very good for the Hill. But which great-grandmother are you talking about?” Thoroughly cowed, Kate told the story of Elizabeth’sadoption, Adele’s death, and their own consequent arrival, but she was rather scandalized when Marak laughed at all the wrong places.