“They were brilliant,” Céleste said.
“Of course they were.” He gave a quick dip of his head and returned to the room beyond the doorway. Why his swift departure rankled her, she wasn’t entirely sure.
“We’ve decided to play a game,” Lucas said.
Henri kept one arm around Céleste and set his other around Nicolette. They walked alongside Lucas and Julia.
“I suspect I know which game has been chosen,” Julia said with a laugh as they stepped into the drawing room.
Only Aldric didn’t smile along with her. Even wearing a somewhat gruff expression, he was shockingly handsome. And Céleste found herself determined to pull him into the conversation, if only to see if she could wrangle a hint of a smile from him.
“What game will we be undertaking?”
In tones of annoyance, he said, “Hide-and-seek. It is a Gents’ favorite.”
“But not yours?” She posed it as a question but suspected she already knew the answer.
“It was a lot more fun when fewer of us were married.”
“I propose Aldric be the first to seek,” Lucas said, wiggling his eyebrows a little, which seemed to indicate he knew Aldric wasn’t entirely pleased with their choice of activity and he meant to torture him a little over it. “Céleste can hide every round, regardless. Then she won’t need to walk about all night expending her energy.”
“Count more slowly than usual,” Nicolette instructed Aldric. “That will give Céleste more time to choose and reach a hiding place.”
Céleste’s ruse was necessary, but she disliked having to maintain it then. Being dishonest with such dear people rankled. But she also disliked not being able to fully participate in the first activity she’d truly felt excited about in years. She had no choice though. Escaping Jean-François and Marguerite was paramount.
And quick as that, the evening’s entertainment was underway. Aldric tucked himself into a corner with a show of annoyance and began counting. Céleste wandered a little from the room and into an adjoining corridor. The second room she came to included a tall wingback chair with its back to the door. That seemed as good a place as any to hide herself. She sat with her feet tucked up on the seat in front of her, grateful that wide panniers had gone out of style. She wouldn’t be spotted there unless Aldric stepped around the chair to look.
The game was a bit childish, but she was thoroughly enjoying it already. She didn’t have to worry about this group of people scolding her, chastising her, locking her in a room, or punishing her for insufficient fealty.
Ever since Henri had suggested she come live in England with them, she’d not been able to entirely convince her heart to let go of the possibility, though she knew it to be entirely impossible. After all she had endured and was still enduring to prevent Jean-François from destroying what Henri and Nicolette had, it wouldn’t do to indulge in dreams that would put everything in jeopardy.
She didn’t know how long she had been sitting there when Aldric discovered her.
“Generally, once a participant is found,” he said, “that person joins in the seeking, but if you do not feel equal to it—”
“I would like to look,” she said. “If I find I have overtaxed myself, I will tell you.”
He watched her for a moment, apparently not entirely satisfied with her answer. His quick mind and sharp intellect had been part of what had claimed her heart so quickly seven years earlier. It made her nervous now. There were a great many things she didn’t wish him to see: how ill she wasn’t, how miserable she was, and how much her heart had once been his.
“I should tell you that I’ve already found Henri. He and Nicolette are refusing to emerge from their hiding place.” Aldric motioned her from the room. “This is not an unusual thing in the Gents’ rounds of hide-and-seek now.”
“Now that they are married, you mean?” she guessed.
Aldric nodded. “What began as an actual game many years ago has become a thin excuse for a bit of sparking.”
Ah. “And you are the odd man out.”
“At our last Gents’ gathering, Digby and I were the only ones still unattached. When we took up this game then, we were the only two who cooperated at all.”
“Likely also the two who enjoyed yourselves the least.” She smiled, and she swore he almost did too. She very much liked the idea of having made him almost smile.
Don’t be foolish, Céleste.
He walked slowly around the public rooms of their rented residence, his pace likely set in deference to her weariness. She was doubly grateful for the care he was taking now that the rooms were going dark with approaching night. Ample candles were lit, but she always struggled to see at night. Every bit of light, be it the flicker of a candle or the flames of a fire, burst into dozens of rays of light expanding in all directions from the source.
Not until she’d begun going about in Society and spent countless nighttime hours at the various diversions had she realized that not everyone experienced the dark the way she did. Disapproving comments about her tendency to squint had brought it to her attention, and she’d made efforts ever since to hide her struggle. Now and then, the blinding effect of dozens of candles in an otherwise dark room caused her missteps, like bumping into the chair the night before.
Aldric’s deep voice and handsome demeanor had been distracting her ... just as they were doing now.
