“Did you know?” she demanded.
He made a pinched face of confusion. “Know what?”
“About Sebastian, God damnit!”
She was practically screeching, the pent-up energy that had been building in the carriage now finally seeing its release. Reginald jumped, his face falling into panic at her accusation. It was all the answer she needed.
“Tell me you didn’t,” she said, forcing the wobble in her chin to stabilize. She needed him to assure her that it was a lie. Just a terrible, awful dream that she was going to wake up from.
Instead, he stood slowly, shuffling off the duvet, his eyes never leaving her face. It was the look he used to give her during a spell, when he thought she was not looking. Wary.
“Auggie, I…What did he tell you?”
Even now, with her right in front of him, he was concerned about not outing his friend. In all of this, Augusta had felt certain that she was only ever at the forefront of her brother’s mind. Now, she realized that his friends would always take priority for him. She was an afterthought compared to Sebastian’s wants and wishes.
“Why don’t you just try telling me the truth for once?” she said through gritted teeth.
Reginald seemed to think this over. Every second that he contemplated, Augusta hated him more and more. Hadn’t she once had great affection for him? She could not recall it now.
“He came to me at the end of the Season. He needed a dowry to change his family’s fortunes - his father had gambled everything away. I told him to stay away from you at first, but…you have to understand, I really thought that he would be good for you.”
“Good enough to lie to me?” Augusta shot back, disbelieving. How great of a fool had they taken her for?
How great of a fool had shebeen?
Reginald choked on his words, his eyes bugging out for a moment before he collected himself. “No! No, I never wanted to lie to you.”
With a caustic laugh, Augusta threw her hands out at her sides, gesturing about the room. “And yet, here we bloody are!”
Reginald did not appear to know what to say to that. Eventually, he sighed. “Neither of us ever intended for you to find out. I promise, I only wanted what was best for you.”
She stood still as a statue as the truth washed over her.
“You thought a sham marriage was the best I could do?” Because, in the end, no one believed that someone could love her truly. Not without incentive. Even her own brother.
“That’s not what I said, Auggie. I just mean-”
“Why don’t you tell your friends how little you’re wanted, then?”
She felt ugly, pulling out such a cruel blow. But God, did it feel good to watch Reginald suck in a breath, shame creeping into his features bit by bit until it had taken him over completely.
“Auggie, come on. Do not do this.”
“No,” she said, drawing herself up, her spine fortified by vitriol. “Why don’t I go home right now and tell Sebastian all about your secret little wife, and how you treated her so abominably that she had to flee the country? Then your friends can have a little laugh atyou, for once.”
“No one was laughing at you-”
Hang him. Hang the whole lot of them. With a disgusted scoff,Augusta turned on her heel and strode from the room, thinking that she would be happy if she never, ever saw her brother again. Let the whole trio remain in their group, saving one another and cursing all others, until they asphyxiated on their own self-importance.
*****
The townhouse was quiet when Augusta arrived. The footman cast her an apologetic look as she stepped down from the carriage, likely due to the redness of her tear-stained face. She wished she could pull herself together before going back inside, but her pale skin tended to show her crying fits for hours afterward. She could only hold her head high and try to push through, hoping that she might successfully avoid him.
She slogged up the stairs, every step feeling like a mountain to climb. Her whole body ached. Hopefully Sebastian had felt the same and gone off to bed. After all, his life had not changed much. He’d had a wife he did not want and all of her money, and he still had those things.
She, however, had lost everything. Foremost, her dignity.
Surely, despite what Reginald had told her, they all must have laughed at her, at some point. Maybe together. They must have brayed at her wide-eyed stupidity, how easily she’d walked into unrequited love and believed it to be true. Moreover, in their more chastened moments of regret for what they’d done, they must have pitied her.
