Céleste didn’t think he actuallydespisedit. She would wager at least half of his objections were a matter of teasing, something very common among the Gents. But there was also very real frustration in his voice and something in his expression that spoke of loneliness.
“Your lack of cooperation, Lucas, is significantly dampening my enjoyment of the evening,” Céleste said in response. “I fear I was brought here under false pretenses, having been told we would all be spending the evening together. Instead, only Aldric has even noticed that I’m here.”
Aldric allowed the slightest of smiles, which she returned with enthusiasm. It was an odd thing for her. She’d learned over the past two years to be very careful about expressing her feelings; they were so often used against her. But, though he had never returned her now-dwindled regard, she trusted Aldric, and she enjoyed his company.
Lucas and Julia emerged from the room, both laughing. Lucas even held his hands up in a show of surrender. “We have been rude. It is difficult to resist suggesting this game when it makes Aldric look at us like that.” He pointed at Aldric and then grinned even broader.
“We can think of a different game to continue on with,” Julia said.
“Assuming you can convince Henri and Nicolette to quit the game,” Aldric said. “I haven’t had luck yet.”
In the end it didn’t take a great deal of convincing. In fact, the way the two couples looked at each other with barely concealed laughter told Céleste they had, in actuality, undertaken the game and then refused to come out of hiding specifically because it would lead Aldric to grumble. He did so, but with amusement.
They were such a wonderfully odd group. Did Nicolette realize how fortunate she was? Did any of them know what it felt like to be the one left behind?
They all assembled in the drawing room once more, cozily situated and ready to decide upon a new diversion for the evening. Julia sat with her hand resting on her middle, the same way Marguerite had begun doing in the last couple of months. Did all expectant mothers adopt that tendency?
They’d been in the drawing room for only a few minutes when a missive arrived for Nicolette. She opened it immediately and read quickly. Hers was not the expression of someone who’d received pleasant correspondence from a friend or acquaintance. Something in this was urgent.
She looked up from the letter and directly at Lucas. “Are your plans tomorrow flexible enough that I might have use of the carriage?”
“Of course,” he said.
She nodded, looking at the letter once more. “Henri and I need to go to Versailles.”
While Lucas and Julia looked intrigued at the declaration, Aldric was intensely interested. Why?
“Kes and I visited Versailles during our Grand Tour,” Lucas said. “I would enjoy returning and showing Julia.”
Henri asked Nicolette, “Could Julia and Lucas join us, do you think?”
Nicolette nodded, but a little absentmindedly. “The request has come from the Marquis de Lafayette. Anyone he wishes to see will not be turned away.”
Julia looked excited but also undeniably nervous. “Do you suppose we will actually be in company with Their Majesties? I did not bring any clothing appropriate for court.”
Nicolette waved that off. She wasn’t usually one for dismissing concerns surrounding expectations. She was clearly meeting with the marquis about something significant.
Aldric’s concentration had grown more intense. “I have also not been to Versailles in years,” he said. “We should all go.”
Henri turned to Céleste. “If you stay here tonight, you can make the journey with us in the morning.”
“If Jean-François will agree,” Céleste said. He had gone to Versailles a few months earlier, something he had crowed about to anyone who would listen, but she had not been permitted to join him there. She’d managed to hide her disappointment—Versailles was a favorite of hers, and she’d notvisited in some time—but Jean-François had likely known he’d dealt her a blow.
“He is very concerned with his standing and perception in Paris Society,” Julia said. “Telling him that you were invited by the Marquis de Lafayette should help sway him. We can unabashedly celebrate what a triumph that is and how impressed everyone will be that the daughter of the Fortier family should have such exalted connections.”
Jean-François would like that, but it wouldn’t be enough. “He did not say I could stay here tonight.”
“He more tightly controls your activities than you have previously let on, it seems,” Julia said.
Céleste’s determination not to pull them into the precarious situation was being undermined by how at-home she felt with this remarkable group of people. She was allowing herself to say more than she ought. What, then, was she to do when asked so direct a question? She didn’t want to lie outright.
“He is sometimes . . . difficult.”
Aldric’s posture, one of leisure and authority, didn’t change, but something in his expression softened a little. “My brother, Crofton, regularly blackened my eyes for no real reason, but he also stole money from our father and then went out of his way to tell our father thatIhad stolen it. I once described him as ‘difficult’ when I knew he was far more than that because I was hiding how miserable life with him really was.”
Everyone was watching her now. She didn’t say anything; she couldn’t have without either lying or revealing more than she truly wanted to.
Aldric, with an unmistakable air of authority, said, “We’ll send a note to Jean-François saying the very weariness and fatigue Dr. Mercier warned of has left you so exhausted that you’ve fallen asleep. We will say that none of us have the heart to wake you and so are choosing to do the civil thing and allow you to rest.”
