Georgina frowned at her. “What? Why should that matter?”
“Well, I suppose it shouldn’t…” Emery bit her lip. She didn’t know if it was the sherry she was imbibing, or perhaps the urgency that the night before her wedding had created, but something in her felt as if it were stirring: as if an idea were being unlocked from deep within the recesses of her mind, where she had hidden it away a long time ago.
“...unless I wanted to try and convince him to call off the wedding with me.”
It took several seconds for Georgina to react. She stared at Emery, her mouth open, her eyes wide, incomprehension on her face.
“W-what are you t-talking about?” she stammered at last, and Emery smiled. A calm, strange energy seemed to have come over her. Even though she felt slightly mad, she also knew that what she was about to say was the truest thing she had ever said.
“I can’t marry Henry,” she said simply.
“But… you have to!” Georgina touched her neck nervously. “The wedding is tomorrow!”
“I know that, but I can’t do it. I have to stop it.”
“You can’t,” Georgina said again. “It would cause the greatest scandal thetonhas ever seen!”
“I don’t care about the scandal it creates,” Emery said, resolution building in her every second. “Anyway, why should I care what thetonthinks? I’ve never even met most of its members! I’ve spent all my eligible years locked away in my parents’ London townhouse because they couldn’t be bothered to chaperone me to dances or buy me any new gowns or even introduce me at court. Thetonowes me nothing, and I owe it nothing as well!”
She declared this last part rather loudly, and Georgina made a shushing gesture.
“Be reasonable,” she said weakly, a truly sick look beginning to appear on her face, “this is just cold feet. Everyone gets it! You can’t call off the engagement now, it would harm your reputation forever.”
“I’d rather have a harmed reputation than be married to a man I don’t love for the rest of my life.”
Georgina paused, and Emery could tell that this had made an impression on her. For all her friend’s protestations that she would never find love, Emery knew that she still held out hope for a love match. There were many men she could have settled for over the last few years--older gentlemen in need of an heir before they dropped dead--but Georgina had never pursued these more practical paths. So, on some level, she must haveknown why Emery so desperately didn’t want this marriage to happen.
“I need to talk to Henry,” Emery declared. “I know he doesn’t want this wedding, either. I could see it on his face at the engagement party, not to mention at church when they read the banns. He’s just too much of a gentleman to say so, and far too much of a gentleman to call anything off and leave me in ruin.”
Georgina’s eyes were wide again. “But you think he might agree to call it off if you speak to him?”
“I can tell him we will say it was my decision,” Emery declared. “It will cause less of a scandal that way. People will think I’m flighty, but I don’t care. We can remain friends, and no one needs to come across as ruined.”
“But…” Georgina still didn’t look entirely convinced. “Your parents will be furious.”
“They will be,” Emery agreed, “but I no longer care.”
“How much sherry have you had?” Georgina asked, picking up the bottle to check. She then started and gasped. “Oh Lord! No wonder you’re acting mad! This isn’t sherry--it’s brandy!”
Emery began to laugh, shaking her head at the same time. “It’s not the liquor,” she said between giggled, “even though it is much stronger than I realized.”
She was thinking of the feeling she’d had just a minute ago, of the door unlocking inside her head, of the hidden away feelings that were finally finding space to breathe and roam.
“I think I just can’t bear to let others decide my fate anymore.” She looked deep into Georgina’s eyes and blinked slowly. “All my life, my parents have made my choices for me: what to wear, what to say, with whom to be acquainted, who to marry, whether or not I will get a London Season or stay cooped up at home. No choice has ever been mine to make. But the choice of who to marry might be the most important decision a woman ever makes, and it ought to be mine, not my parents’.”
“I agree,” Georgina said faintly, “I just think it’s a little late to be realizing this.”
Emery flashed her friend a grin. “No, tomorrow afternoon would be too late. Right now, I would say it is just in the nick of time. Come!” She jumped down from the bed, set her empty glass of sherry on the nightstand, and grabbed her dressing gown from the back of the chair at her vanity. “We are going to wake Henry up and tell him the good news!”
And with that, she flung the door to her room open and stepped out into the hallway.
“Emery--wait!” Georgina hissed behind her. Emery turned to see Georgina grabbing her own dressing gown from the end of the bed and slipping it over her night rail. “I’m coming with you!”
“Just don’t try to stop me,” Emery whispered as they stepped out into the cold, dark corridor. Once the door was closed behind them, it was almost too dark to see anything, and they both paused for a moment as their eyes adjusted to the dark.
“I don’t know if I could stop you even if I tried,” Georgina whispered, “but I’m coming with you anyway. At least that way it will look less scandalous if you are caught in Henry’s room.”
“You’re my chaperone now?” Emery snorted. Without waiting for a response, she set off down the corridor, Georgina following her wake. Her eyes hadn’t fully adjusted, but Emery didn’t care. She knew these hallways well, and she could find her way to Henry’s room even with her eyes closed.
