Chapter 1

Once everyone had left after trying on the wedding gowns, Mother thrust the roughly stitched wedding gown into my arms.

"Stop looking so miserable. If anyone sees you, they'll think we've mistreated you."

The rough yellow threads scratched against my fingertips as I held the dress. In a quiet voice, I asked, "Mother, do you still remember the twin lotuses you sketched for me?"

Three years ago, my sister chose a phoenix among peonies, while I chose a pair of twin lotuses. Mother had once said their quiet elegance suited my gentle nature best. She'd even promised to embroider the two flowers side by side to bless me with a harmonious marriage.

Mother paused at the reminder of her promise, then furrowed her brows.

"Your sister's bridal veil is still missing its cloud-patterned border. Don't bother me with old matters."

With that, she turned and disappeared into the embroidery room.

Through the half-open door, I caught sight of two twin lotuses embroidered beside the clouds on my sister's bridal veil. The design matched the one Mother had drawn for me years ago, down to the tiny golden bead at the center of each flower.

She hadn't forgotten. She'd simply given my sister what was meant for me.

…

When I returned to my room, I found my trunks and dressing cases gone.

I went to ask my older brother, Arthur Ellwood, what had happened to them, but he answered impatiently, "Clara has so many bridal gifts from the family, and we don't have enough trunks to hold them all, so we used yours."

"You're marrying Julian Caldwell, a nobody. Just take a bundle of clothes to his place. His family won't mind."

My twin sister, Clara Ellwood, stood nearby, holding the keys to the trunks. In a gentle voice, she said, "Evelyn, once I'm settled at Sinclair Manor, I'll have someone send them back to you."

Arthur immediately cut her off. "Send gifts back after they've already been brought into the groom's home? That would only bring you bad luck!"

Mother scolded me for being unreasonable. She even said that if our maternal grandmother were still alive, she'd want Clara to have a grand, respectable wedding, too.

When Father saw that I remained silent, he pointed toward the storeroom.

"It's not as if you have no bridal gifts from the family at all. There are still two quilts in there."

I recognized those quilts immediately. One was the quilt my sister had wet when she was little. Even after being washed several times, the yellow stains remained.

The other had a corner chewed through by rats. Just last year, Mother had said she would remove the cotton stuffing and use it to make shoe insoles.

I then asked what had happened to the wedding gifts from the Caldwell family.

Mother answered without the slightest hesitation. "The ten silver coins went toward Clara's wedding feast. The silver bracelet was added to her bridal gift chest, and the two bolts of brocade were made into new clothes for her to wear when she visits us after the wedding."

I clenched the roughly stitched wedding gown in my hands.

"So the wedding gifts the Caldwell family gave me have become part of the gifts you're giving my sister, too?"

Clara's eyes reddened. "If you're upset about it, Evelyn, I'll return everything to you. But the Sinclair family gave us so many betrothal gifts. If I don't have anything decent to give them in return, won't everyone laugh at me?"

Mother immediately stepped in to defend her. "Evelyn has always been sensible. She'd never force you to suffer over a few things like these."

Everyone waited for me to say I'd let it go, just as I always had.

Instead, I walked over to the camphorwood trunk and peeled off the decorative paper bearing my sister's name.

Arthur grabbed my wrist, scolding me for making a scene and disturbing the whole family's peace.

I endured the pain and met his gaze. "If we're all family and nothing belongs to just one person, then shouldn't half of the gifts you give Clara belong to me, too?"

A deathly silence fell over the courtyard.

Clara hurried to shield her gifts, while Mother shouted at me, "How can that possibly apply to you? Your sister is marrying into the Sinclair family!"

I wrenched my wrist free from Arthur's grasp, returned to my room, and opened the sewing box my maternal grandmother had left me.

At the bottom of the box, beneath everything else, lay a yellowed piece of paper.

It read, "If your birth family won't give you the confidence to stand on your own, then you must learn to earn it for yourself."

I stared at those words for a long time before finally picking up my pen and writing a letter to Julian.

"You said the embroidery workshop in the county seat was hiring embroiderers. Is that offer still open?"