Oh but it is… when it is not stamped out of her.Hugo felt strangely unsteady, a great ache throbbing behind his eyes and pulsing in his temples.
Was that why she had come to his room to give the necklace back? Had she already known of her fate? He racked his brain, trying to remember every detail of their encounter.
“It is not appropriate when I am expected to marry another gentleman.”The snippet of her words returned to him, his heart sinking like a stone. Shemusthave known already that her fate had been decided for her. But why had she not said anything, explicitly? Why had she not told him of the proposal?
“They are to be wed in a month,” Selina continued, shaking her head. “I shall attend, of course, but I shall not be happy about it. I may even offer to steal her away beforehand, though I doubt her father will allow me to see her. He does not like me much. Then again, if I can choose a day when just her brothers are at home, perhaps I might have a chance.”
Hugo barely listened as he stared down into his dwindling cup of weak coffee, overcome with a sweeping sense of… dismay. A sentiment he struggled to understand as he swilled the brown liquid around in the cup.
What right did he have to feel like this? What reason? It was not as ifhehad made any such offer to her or hadactuallystaked any claim to her. Most of the time, it seemed she did not like him at all, so why did it sting that she had accepted another man?
“Excuse me,” he said, rising sharply.
Without another word, he walked out of the breakfast room and headed up the stairs to pack his belongings. Evelyn might have accepted her fate, but Hugo would not be able to rest until he had asked her himself if she was truly choosing Lord Hemstich.
Instead of what?He would not know how to answer that question until he had spoken to her, until he had seen her again and looked into to her eyes, to witness whatever truth existed there.
The journey back to London was not at all as peaceful as the journey to Ashcroft. Evelyn sat on the squabs, tucked into one corner, her wistful gaze watching the countryside go by while her father and Matthew snored in unison.
Luke, seated on her side of the carriage, was the only one awake. And though she was not looking at him, she could feel him observing her, studying her.
“I am sorry we did not get to say a proper farewell to everyone,” he said quietly, surprising her.
She had assumed that the entire journey would be made in silence, at least where she was concerned. Indeed, her father had already warned her that he did not want to hear any complaint about the wedding or the engagement, though she had not even mentioned it.
“They must think us very rude,” Evelyn muttered in reply.
“I shall write and apologize.”
Evelyn turned to stare at him. “It will be you next, you know. You are the heir. You cannot remain a bachelor for much longer.”
“And… I will do my duty when the time comes,” Luke replied hesitantly, his brow and eyes creased as if he were gazing into bright sunlight. “Do you like him?”
“Who?”
Luke paused, glancing at his brother and father to make sure they were still asleep, before continuing, “The baron.”
“Does it matter?” she replied curtly, tired of trying to maintain a façade of docile obedience.
“I… think it does,” he said.
Evelyn shrugged. “I do not know him. What I do know of him has not been particularly encouraging. Any conversation we have had has been stilted and tedious. He has no obvious interest in me aside from my dowry. He intends to be away from home a great deal, so I shall be mostly alone.” She flashed a bitter smile. “It shall be no different to my life now, except perhaps a little bit lonelier, for my friends will not be close.”
A sadness seemed to weigh down upon Luke’s shoulders, his eyes pained as he looked at her. “I am sorry, Evelyn.”
“You are?” Her lip curled, her eyes stinging with tears she refused to spill in front of him. “Then, let me ask you this: why did you not say anything? Why did you not protest this match?”
“It is… not my place,” Luke replied, his frown deepening.
“Then your apology means nothing.” She turned back around to watch the passing landscape, hating the prickle of new guilt that caught her under the ribs.
He was trying to be nice, trying to be brotherly, and she had just thrown it back in his face. Had it been any other day, maybe she would have received it with more grace, but onthisday, she could not muster the strength to pretend to be anything other than upset, wounded by the manipulations of her family.
But what else could I have hoped for?She rubbed her blurred eyes as a sparrow vanished into a dense hedgerow, heavy with berries.Spinsterhood?She would not have minded that, but it was as impossible a fate as the one where she somehow ended up with Hugo, safe in his arms, with a lively future of quarreling and making up ahead of them.
Her mind drifted back to Hugo’s bedchamber and the brush of his touch against the nape of her neck. She could still feel it, like a burn upon her skin… just as she could feel the warmed metal of the necklace that she wore beneath a high collar, hidden from questioning eyes.
I will just wear it this once,she had told herself that morning when she had woken to find it still around her neck.When Ireturn to London, I will take it off, put it in a box, and never look at it or think about it again.
