Eliza laughed, but it sounded forced.
“I have! I say too much, I involve myself in things that everyone says I ought not to do, I’ve bubbled up—”
“Hollis!”
“But I never thought you’d fret about me, Eliza.”
Eliza’s face fell. “I didn’t say any of those things—you did. All I want is for you to be happy. Is that so wrong?”
“No, of course not. But being married for the sake of marriage would not make me happy. Donovan would not make me happy.”
“Then what would make you happy?” Eliza asked.
A very good question. She wanted a happy marriage. But she didn’t think she wanted this. She wanted something simpler. Unfortunately, when one was sister to a future queen,simplewasn’t a ready alternative, unless one was prepared to enter a convent. “Not Donovan,” Hollis said.
Eliza pursed her lips. “Then I’ll never say another word about it. But whatwouldmake you happy? You’ve been widowed more than four years now—you can’t live with Percy’s ghost forever.”
Hollis laughed at that. “But I do live with it. He’s everywhere in my house.”
Eliza turned back to the mirror. “Then perhaps you ought to remove him or yourself from your house. I loved Percy like a brother, but I don’t think even he would want you to spin like a top.”
Hollis wasn’t spinning like a top...or maybe she was. Lately she’d felt as if she’d been spinning around and looking for anything to give her meaning.
But there was more to it. For the first time since his death, therewassomeone other than Percy to think about. Someone who was in many ways just as ill-suited to her as Donovan, and just as unattainable. But when she thought of his amber eyes, or the way he spoke English so perfectly with a deep accent, or how she tingled when he intently watched her lips when she spoke, or how she imagined his broad hands on her body... Well, maybe she was spinning a little.
When they’d finished dressing, Eliza studied Hollis. “I have just the thing.” She went into an adjoining dressing room and returned with a necklace. An enormous ruby was attached to a larger, circular gold chain. Below the ruby, three smaller rubies, separated by diamonds, dangled.
“It’s beautiful,” Hollis said as Eliza put it on her.
“The biggest stone was a brooch originally,” Eliza said. “King Tomsin presented it to Queen Verity two hundred years ago as an anniversary gift. He pinned it on her himself. The very next day she was found dead in her bed. Some say it was poisoned.”
“Eliza!”
“Pay that no heed,” Eliza said breezily “What else could they say about it? It’s not poisoned now, I assure you—I wore it myself to a state supper.”
Hollis admired the ruby in the mirror. “I’ve never in my life seen anything so beautiful.”
“You must have it,” Eliza said. “A gift from me. It suits you with your black hair and that dress. You look voluptuous.”
“Ladies?”
The duke had entered, all smiles. Cecelia began to gurgle at the sight of him, and he scooped her up, holding her high overhead, and cooed to her.
“Look, darling, I gave this necklace to Hollis. Doesn’t it suit her?”
“Gave it? I can’t keep this,” Hollis insisted.
“Je,it suits her very well. And, of course, you must keep it, Hollis. My wife has made it so.” He winked at her. “You are both ravishing, if I may say,” he added, although he was looking at Eliza, his gaze raking over her. “It’s time we departed. Darling, you and Hollis will follow me in another coach so that I might escort the Weslorian princesses.” He kissed his daughter and handed her to Eliza with a warning that she not be late.
They said their goodbyes to Cecelia, and after Eliza reviewed a very long list of instructions for the baby’s nursemaid, the sisters made their way to the grand home on Upper Brook Street.
ALIGHTSNOWhad begun to fall when Hollis and Eliza arrived at Beck’s. Because of the crush of carriages, they were made to wait a full quarter of an hour before they could enter. Light blazed through the windows facing the street, and they could make out the flickering flames of dozens of candles on what looked like an enormous tree.
Beck’s home was palatial, but Hollis guessed there had to be at least one hundred and fifty people present when they finally squeezed inside. There were far more souls than the two or three dozen people she’d suggested. The tree Beck had brought from the country was so large that it covered half the salon and was so tall that the tinsel star someone had set atop it scraped the ceiling.
“Where on earth did you get that tree?” Hollis asked as Beck came forward to greet them.
“How would I know?” Beck said with a shrug as he leaned down and kissed Hollis’s cheek. “I put Garrett on the task.”
