But good Lord, she hated pretending.
“You look nice yourself,” she said instead, which was true. Hannah had gotten that glow that was apparently common with expecting women, and she was brimming with the kind of happy expectation that made it look as though it washerwedding day, not her sister’s. Even if Hannah was wearing a dress that wassignificantly too large. Apparently, things had escalated to the point where she needed to conceal the changes to her figure.
“Thank you,” Hannah said, flushing prettily. “Since a duke’s wedding is such a big event, Lyle will be able to attend without rousing suspicion. I haven’t seen him in almost a week, so I do want to look my best when I see him again. I simply cannot wait until we are wed, and then we will see one another every single day…”
Phoebe stopped listening. She wanted Hannah to be happy.
She did.
She just needed to let today, of all days, be about her.
So, she looked at the looking glass again and tried to find some version of herself beneath all the pomp and circumstance. She searched and searched for something that didn’t feel like pretending, that didn’t feel like a lie.
That didn’t feel like she was betraying her mother’s final wish.
“Try to smile,” Jacob hissed at Aaron out of the corner of his mouth as they stood and faced the gathered members of Society who had come out to see the fearsome Duke of Redcliff.
And yes, they came to see the wedding, but Aaron could hear people muttering. They weren’t even bothering to be quiet about it.
“… has anyone even seen him since…”
“… heard that he is mostterriblytortured by…”
“…scars, I’ve heard…”
Aaron tilted his head from side to side, hearing the muscles in his neck crack.
“No,” he said simply to Jacob.
“God help this poor woman marrying you,” Jacob muttered. The bishop scowled at Jacob’s blaspheming. “Sorry,” Jacob said, not actually sounding very sorry at all.
Aaron looked over at the crowded pew where all the Lightholders who had been in town had gathered.
There was his cousin Xander, the head of the family, looking as stern and solemn as he always did… though Aaron noticed that he softened noticeably when his wife handed him a small, squirming toddler with the same round cheeks as her mother.
Huh. Aaron wouldn’t have thought anything could take that steel from Xander’s spine.
Xander would have assembled the various branches of the family tree,invitingthem (in a way that was very clearly an order) to this event. He didn’t blame his cousin Hugh for looking cantankerous about this, as he was currently trying to untangle a clump of his hair from the fat fist of a chubby baby—and, really, did none of these children have nurses?
But the part that did not make sense was that his cousin Ariadne, Xander’s younger sister, was glaring at him like she wanted to set him on fire.
It was only Aaron’s long military career that gave him the courage to avoid looking behind him in the foolish hope that she was staring like that at someone else. He hadn’t spoken to Ariadne in years. Maybe she hated bishops. How was he supposed to know?
Well, there wasn’t much he could do about it now—or possibly ever. At least half the Lightholders were crazy after all. They let him stay in the family. And Ezra. God, his cousin Ezra was the worst of the lot.
Behind him, Jacob cleared his throat loudly, and Aaron jerked his attention away from his madcap family and turned to the doors in the back of the sanctuary.
No sooner had he done so than they cracked open.
And there was Phoebe.
She looked…
Well, she looked beautiful, but also distinctly uncomfortable. She was walking with mincing steps, like her shoes were pinching her toes. It wasn’t her usual pace—which he knew all too well because he’d had to chase her into a bloody snowstorm.
But then she caught his eye and twisted her mouth to the side as if to say,Can you believe this?
It was a secret look—a secret message just for him.
