In fact it was a scoff.
In public. To an earl.
His eyes snapped to focus on her properly, narrowing a little as though he were at last paying attention to her.
"I can imagine, my lord, that you have had plenty of reason to believe that every lady you meet must be charmed by you, however I must assure you that I am not one of those ladies."
He raised an eyebrow in response. "Indeed? The redness of your cheeks speaks otherwise, my lady."
"If my cheeks are red, it is through embarrassment that you have so thoroughly misunderstood me, sir," Louisa said, keeping her smile as polite as she could in the circumstances. "Not because of secret girlish passions."
"Well I do know quite a deal about girlish passions, I must say," Lord St Vincent said, his voice low and amused. "Perhaps you are simply unaware of what you are truly feeling."
This was getting out of hand and fast! Louisa swallowed her pride hard and took a breath. "My lord," Louisa said as calmly as she could, though her knees were trembling and her heart pounding hard in her chest. "I am not trying to compliment you, I have a piece of news that it would do you well to hear -"
A swell of music filled the chapel and people started moving past them towards the seats. Murmurs of admiration filled the air and Theodore and Gabriel clapped Cedric on the shoulders.
"You'll be wanted, old man," Theodore said and Cedric shook both their hands hastily and bowed to the ladies.
"Excuse me, my bride is coming."
Then he was gone. Louisa had not told him. She had not stopped this thing from happening. It was going ahead anyway. She had failed.
"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God…"
Would this ceremony never end? Cedric had attended a few in the last year and they were always the same, the same words, the same droning on by the priest in front of a congregation that were only there so that they could get to the wedding breakfast and toast the couple. If he had been able to he would have demanded that all that was said were the important vows, but Father Samson had assured him that there was nothing in the text that could be missed.
Oh that it would be over soon and they could be done with this fuss and head back to his home. "...duly considering the causes for which Matrimony was ordained…"
How long could the old man draw out his words for, it felt that he must surely be doing it on purpose at this point. He flexed his hands in his gloves and focused on the priest. Once this was overthere would be peace back in his life. All the stress and concern would melt away, he would be able to -
"Into which holy estate these two persons present come now to be joined…"
Get back to the work of managing his estate and -
"..let him speak now or hereafter forever hold his peace."
Cedric was thinking about the peace of his study and the mountain of paperwork that he had waiting for him as he glanced lazily out over the crowd. There was no one here who had reason to stop the wedding so the priest would wait a moment or two and then this affair would be closer to being over and leaving him finally married.
"I object!" a woman cried out, a young lady shooting to her feet and then going red in the face as every eye in the church turned to stare at her. "Um - I object," she repeated quietly.
It was the sister of Theodore's and Gabriel's wives, the one who had stammered something to him before the wedding. Cedric found himself staring at her in shock that quickly bled into rage as the congregation started to their feet in shock, voices raising in shouts for an explanation. What reason on the planet could she have for this display? They would have to re-read the banns and rearrange the whole wedding! Did she think this was a joke?
"Why do you object, Miss?" the priest asked gently. "What is your reason for stopping this holy union?"
She stumbled a little for a moment and Cedric felt his fury build. If this was some girlish idea of a prank, he would be having strong words with her father. Then she seemed to draw on her strength and she spoke, every word sending Cedric into a deeper sense of sheer enraged confusion.
"I love the Earl," she said in a clear voice. "And he has told me that he loves me, he swore it on his soul. I object. He told me he loves me first. He is breaking my heart. I shall die if he marries her."
As voices rose further in surprise and confusion, as Betty stepped backwards from him, an expression of fury blooming across her face, Cedric found himself staring into the green eyes of Louisa Balfour and wondering what she was trying to do.
Has she completely lost her mind?
As guests and family filed out of the chapel, staring at her, Louisa sat pinned to her seat, clinging to Alexandra's arm and staring at the ground. She could feel the rage and judgment rolling off the congregation and all she could think about was how she hadn'tmeantto sayanything of the sort.
It had been her last chance to save a man from a false union with a woman who was using him to save herself. She had stood there, the priest's eyes on her and her own eyes on Lady Bettie and for a moment she had seen some sort of horror in the woman's face, a fear so intense that it had destroyed every intention she had of revealing a secret she should not have been in possession of.
But she couldn't leave Lord St Vincent to suffer. So she had blurted it out like it was a line from a romance book and now everything was ruined and horrible.
