I scowled at my friend. “Not everyone is like you, you libertine! And my virtue is decidedlyunquestionable, thank you very much.”
He snorted. “Oh? Then why was a certain gentleman looking at you as if he wanted to devour you whole in the arbor…as if said virtue was hanging on by the skin of its teeth?”
I blushed, my cheeks heating. “You are truly a wretch! There was no devouring. Or skin or teeth. Or any of it!”
“Thou dost protest too much,” Zia said smirking.
I aimed the full force of my glare upon her. “Not a word.”
Ansel walked up behind me and propped his chin on my head. “Seems like you’ve cocked it good and proper, Cousin. You promised me you wouldn’t get caught and that no one would suspect a thing.”
I huffed a breath. “I suppose I bit off more than I could chew.”
The girls frowned in unison. “Wait, Ansel knew all along?” Ela asked, pouring three steaming cups of tea before handing me one.
“How do you think he was able to live his best life inEurope?” I replied, glancing at him. “Was it everything you hoped for?”
“And more,” my cousin said. “Life-changing.”
Much like Cambridge had been for me.
With a sigh, I blew on the hot tea as Blake grunted with disbelief. “So let me get this right. You pretended to be your cousin? As in agentleman?”
“Like it’s hard?” I scoffed as Zia and Ela dissolved into giggles. “You walk around swaggering and talk about yourselves ad nauseam. Pretending to be a boy is easy.”
“Not so easy if you got found out,” he shot back.
Oh, I wanted to stomp over there and punch him right in his infuriating nose. “Thanks toyou.”
He pressed an aggrieved palm to his chest. “Me?”
“You were the one who told them that Ansel was in Greece! Why couldn’t you have just stayed quiet? You’re always blathering, Blake, like your mouth is a bloody broken faucet. You’re worse than half the women in theton,I swear—” I broke off, registering the hurt on Blake’s face much too late.
“It’s not his fault, Roz,” Ansel said gently, lowering himself to the carpet beside my chair and propping his elbows on his knees. “He can’t be responsible for your actions.”
Disgusted with myself, I closed my eyes, pressing the bridge of my nose hard with my thumb and forefinger. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Blake. I didn’t mean it.”
“Forgiven,” he chirped, happy again now that one of the kitchen maids had delivered a freshly steamed basket of bao.
“Just like that?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Sometimes the hardest part of apologizing is the apology itself. You don’t have to overthink it, Roz. If you’re sorry, say you’re sorry and mean it. Sincerity always comes through, and if someone cares enough to receive your words, then it’ll work out. If they don’t, then that’s nothing you can control.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy with St. Clair,” I said, burying my face in my hands, knowing well that Blake was talking about Tarik and not the apology I’d just given him. “You saw him in the arbor. He was so angry that I’d deceived him. I don’t think there’s any coming back from this.”
“Wait.” Zia stood so quickly that her chair nearly toppled back, anchored at the last second by Ansel’s foot. “You mean to tell me that YOU, Rosalin Chen, masterminded nearly an entire term at Cambridge University pretending to be Ansel Chen, while actively doing reading, coursework, and having academic discussions about what I presume is a strenuous academic curriculum, to the point where you’d made actual friends who seem to genuinely like you, along with a tutor who was very impressed by your accomplishments this term, WANT TO GIVE UP NOW?” She practically bellowed the last part.
“Um, yes?” I muttered, slightly afraid after her unhinged rant.
“No.” She shook her head. “I won’t allow it. Honestly, how can someone so brilliant be so nonsensical? Not everyone can thrive at university, much less a woman, who isn’t allowed to attend in the first place. You’re a trailblazer!” Then she turned to Ansel. “No offense, but everyone knows you’re not the sharpest tool in the shed, even with your fake spectacles.”
“Oy!” Ansel protested, shoving said spectacles up his nose. “I’m sharp, and they’re very real.”
“Ela?” I asked, ignoring my cousin’s outburst.
She threw both hands into the air with a grimace. “Don’t look at me. I’m with her. Zia’s not wrong. Do you know howamazingwhat you’ve done is? You did something none of us has ever attempted, proving we’re just as smart as men.” She stopped, thinking for a moment. “But let’s pause briefly. What were you hoping to accomplish? What did you want?”
I shrugged. “I wanted to learn about mathematics and astronomy from the best. I wanted to do something for me before I lost all freedom,” I said dismally. “You all know what Papa said. He was going to pick a husband for me by the end of the season if I couldn’t find someone suitable myself.”
