“He won’t—”
Louisa clucked her tongue again. “I do hope—” A long sigh. “I have seen the closest friendships destroyed over a man. I do hope… you two have always been like sisters. You certainly were closer to Lina thanIever was.”
“Of course we will remain friends! What sort of nonsense are you speaking.”
Louisa patted Elizabeth’s shoulder.
With an angry huff Elizabeth turned away.
It was hot.
So, so, so hot.
She couldn’t stand so much heat.
Why did so many people have to make everything so hot? Why did there even have to be so many people?
Everyone in the neighborhood talked about how there were so many families who dined with each other, and how this was such an excellent neighborhood and how the assembly hall was one of the best in the nation.
Lord!
Why did there have to be so many people?
Elizabeth felt as though a pressure emanated from everyone around her, as though they were aware of her, judged her, and thought about her.
She needed to get out.
Out.
With quick steps Elizabeth went to the door to one of the balconies.
The first two she glanced at were occupied, but the third balcony she found was empty. She grabbed a blanket that had been put there by the servants due to the cold of the night and wrapped it around herself as a shawl and stepped out into the chilled night air.
Her breath gusted around her in clouds of steam.
Elizabeth pressed her cold hands against the grainy granite of the balcony railing. She panted and glared at the garden beneath her. She was all awhirl.
It took several minutes before she properly calmed down, and the swirling in her thoughts stopped.
The moon slowly moved.
Calm. Peace.
The night was beautiful. That moon was big, nearly full. The stars peppered the sky, like diamonds on black velvet. The cold air had that barely perceptible smell of decaying leaves and dying autumn. Elizabeth spread her arms wide, and the shivery wind blew through her.
The air whistled.
From the hall there was the faint sound of the music starting again. Elizabeth glanced into the room. The quartet stood on the dais, led by the brilliant harelipped violinist, and Louisa performed on the piano.
The music, the candles, the scene of so many dozens of people going about happily, the murmur of their conversation with each other.
Elizabeth was stabbed with a sense of the beauty of the world, and her isolation from everything at this moment.
The sublime.
Elizabeth glanced upwards.
A candle burned in the window of Caroline’s room.
