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Her parents always gave their presents to each other before breakfast.
Her mother blinked dramatically, as if she was shaking off a deep sleep. ‘Sorry, sweetheart?’
‘Your present – from Daddy. What did you get?’ Esme asked again, busily cutting her toast into soldiers.
‘Oh, my present. It’s a lovely brooch, darling.’
‘What’s it like?’
Her mother absently spooned up another grapefruit segment.
‘Mummy?’
‘Yes, darling.’
‘What’s the brooch like? Is it pretty?’
‘Well, yes, of course it is.’
‘May I see it?’
Her mother looked at her as if she was noticing her for the first time.
‘Darling, why have you got that silly tinsel on your head?’
Esme reached up and tugged at the halo in her hair. ‘Oh, nothing. I thought you’d like it.’
‘Esme, that’s enough talking,’ her father cut in. ‘Finish up your breakfast and run upstairs to collect your smart coat. We need to leave in a few minutes.’
Sophia rolled her eyes. ‘Who cares if we’re a few minutes late, Daddy? It’s only a bloody church service. Just because you want to get there before the Earl and Contessa.’
Her father never usually cared about being late. It was only when the Culcairn family were involved that he got grumpy about timekeeping. Esme thought it was strange because he didn’t seem to like the Earl, though her mother always came alive in his company. She often smiled at Lexi’s father, even if it wasn’t a good day.
‘Don’t swear about church, Sophia. If we are late, we won’t get our pew. Now get going, Esme. You will have to leave the rest of your breakfast.’
Her mother’s eyes didn’t flicker. She was the one who was going to make them late. She hadn’t even got her lipstick on and she never went anywhere without her lipstick and powder, even on bad days.
But at least she might liven up when she saw the Earl.
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