He halted abruptly, squinting at the night-shrouded figure in front of him. “Do I know you?”
“No, but I have my eye on you.” In the muted orange glow of a carriage lantern, her face emerged. “I saw you follow my new friend, and I saw you depart in haste without her, so I am… eager to know what you have done. I am loyal to my friends, Your Grace, and I do not like to see them upset. Will Isoldebeupset? Should I prepare for that?”
Edmund recognized her, though he could not remember her name. She was the one who had danced with Isolde at the Thorne’s dinner party. The dance that had made him smile at Isolde in a manner that he had rarely done before.
“Beatrice,” she said, as if reading his mind. “I saw the way you looked at her at the dinner party. I sensed there was something between you, but Isolde insisted there was not. I think, perhaps, I was right. So, what have you done?”
Edmund straightened up, prickling with indignation at the woman’s presumptuous, arrogant attitude. Who did she think she was, talking tohimlike that? He was a Duke and she was… He did not even know what she was, but she certainly did not outrank him.
But, perhaps, she can protect Isolde in a way you cannot anymore.Beatrice definitely had the fire and the determinationto be a replacement guardian, whether he liked her attitude or not.
“I angered her, that is all,” he replied, still feeling Isolde’s phantom touch on his skin. “We quarreled, she stormed off, I pursued her, she did not want my company, and we parted ways. If she is upset, that is why, though we argue often enough.”
Beatrice tilted her head to one side. “Very well. I will not stand in your path anymore.”
She stepped to the side and waved a hand as if to say,Go on then, off you go.
He knew he should stand his ground and rebuke her for behaving so outlandishly for a lady, but he did not have the vigor anymore. He was weary to his bones and wanted nothing more than to return to his townhouse, put his city affairs in order, and venture off to Davenport Towers until all of this became a distant memory.
Is this why Lionel keeps to his country estate most of the time?Edmund’s friend had always been wise, and maybe Edmund could learn a thing or two.
He was about to proceed to his own carriage, when Beatrice’s voice called out again, snagging his attention. “Your Grace?”
“What?” he said, a note too harshly.
Beatrice smiled a wicked smile, pointing her chin at his chest. “Your collar is askew.”
“You cannot leave us!” Amelia pleaded, holding onto Isolde’s arm. “We have only just arrived!”
Valery nodded in agreement. “And you cannot waste a gown like that. Indeed, you must remainlongerthan anyone else, so that beautiful thing gets the glory it deserves.”
Isolde had hoped to leave the ball with minimum attention. After finally mustering enough calm to depart the library, she had planned to collect her mother, feign a sickness of some kind, and return home without delay. She hadnotexpected to run into her friends, who had arrived at the most inopportune moment.
“I am so very sorry,” Isolde said, head bowed. “I have not been well all day and thought I would be able to endure the evening, but it seems that my ailment has claimed me. I must leave before I become even more unwell.”
I must have quiet and solitude before I embarrass myself by bursting into tears.She had been fighting them back, but they kept trying to break through, her eyes stinging with the effort.
“Cease bothering her,” another voice joined in, Beatrice sauntering up to the group. “If she says she is unwell, then she is. It does no one’s health any good to feel guilt on top of sickness.Pay them no mind, Isolde—you go home and rest, and I shall wish you a swift recovery.”
Valery eyed her cousin. “Where have you been? Were you not right behind us?”
“I had to pause to button my shoe,” Beatrice replied, slipping an arm around Isolde’s shoulders. “Come on, let us wave you off.”
Isolde hesitated, not knowing if Edmund had departed already. The last thing she wanted was to bump into him, especially with her unimpressed mother at her side. Her mother would engage Edmund in conversation, delaying Isolde’s return home, which was precisely what she needed to get away from him and the thought of him.
“Ihappen to think that your other friends are right,” Isolde’s mother grumbled. “It issucha tragedy to retire early in a gown like that. Are you certain you cannot just bear it for another couple of hours?”
Beatrice jumped in before Isolde could find a suitable reply. “Ah, but if she were to suffer through tonight, she might become worse, and then she would have to miss even more society events. Besides, a young lady of Isolde’s merit and beauty shouldalwaysleave people wanting more. Even after she has gone, no one will talk of anything but her.”
That seemed to soothe Isolde’s mother, and Isolde flashed a grateful glance at Beatrice, who winked in reply. Almost as if sheknew there was something more to the situation than Isolde was letting on.
Surely not.Isolde suddenly felt a very real wave of nausea, her stomach churning with nerves and anger and hurt and confusion.
Letting Beatrice guide her, Isolde did not say another word as she was led out into the night, and ushered into the waiting carriage. Whether Beatrice suspected something or not, Isolde doubted that it mattered. Beatrice would not say anything and, after tonight, there would never be anything to speak about again with regards to Edmund. He had shirked his duties, he had made his position patently clear, and if he had changed his mind, he would have come back to the library.
The momentary fairytale was over before it had even begun.
The carriage clock on the mantelpiece sounded out three chimes, reminding Isolde of the lateness of the hour.
