“Yes, yes,” Millicent said. “Oh! I need to find Sandra…” She looked about the foyer. “I promised I would see her before we went inside.”
“Go on then,” Edward said to her. “I’ll find you shortly.”
Millicent hugged Edward in thanks, and then she took Celestine’s hands again. “Thank you, Celestine. Oh, it is so good to have someone other than Edward to speak to about these things.”
“Us ladies need to stick together,” Celestine said. “In fact, I insist that we do.”
Edward could see how much her words meant to Millicent. Although Millicent liked to act brave and in control, she was still a young girl, and she was nowhere near as confident as she pretended. But she had warmed to Celestine immediately, and he saw too that Celestine had done the same to her.
He watched Millicent rush into the crowd, a smile on his face. But that smile faded when he caught Lord Grundon eyeing his niece with a coy smile that told well enough what the man’s intentions were.
I will need to keep an eye on him tonight… and for a while after that.
“Shall we?” Celestine asked, this time not bothering to try and link his arm.
“Yes, I think we should.” Edward paused for a moment as he studied Celestine in a different way to how he had done all evening. “Thank you, by the way, for just now.”
She looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“What you said to Millicent. It might not have sounded like much, but I know it meant the world to her. I have tried to…” He looked away. “I do my best by her, but I am not her mother, and there is only so much I can help her with.”
“Oh.” She blinked. “I meant it, Edward. I know what it is like to be in her position, the weight of the world on her shoulders, worried about every wrong step taken as if it might be the end of me.” She laughed and shook her head. “Truly, if there is anything she or you need, do not hesitate.”
“I will remember that.”
They looked at one another for a moment, perhaps the first time all evening that their eyes had met fully. It felt similar to when they had spoken on the balcony, no lies, no falsity or games. Just honesty and understanding.
It was a little too comfortable, too real, and Edward felt that urge to take her arm as if to prove to her that he wasn’t nearly what she must have thought of him; that he trusted her, and that he was glad that she was doing this with him.
“Shall we…” He did not take her arm, however, refraining from such a gesture as it was dangerous to do.
“Yes, let us head inside,” she said as she turned and started ahead.
This was supposed to be easy. It was supposed to be little more than a cover story, almost a game really. A month of two of lies told, playing a role, and Edward would be able to move on.
Now, he worried that things were not nearly that simple.
Chapter Eight
“Why so glum, Celestine?” Celestine’s mother asked as she stepped into the bedroom. “You look as if you are getting ready for a funeral.”
Celestine was standing in front of the mirror as she checked her outfit for the day. Soon, Edward would be arriving to collect her for a promenade they planned on taking, and where once she might have loathed the idea of spending the entire day with him, she found that was no longer the case.
In fact, the reason for her sorrowful demeanor was the exact opposite of what it should have been.
Millicent had officially debuted last week, which meant that soon her and Edward’s false engagement would be coming to an end. Edward had promised that he would make it so that the ton blamed him for its ending, freeing her of any wrongdoing or unwanted attention. Not that she cared about such things.
The truth of the matter was that Celestine did not look nearly as forward to the ending of their engagement as she wanted to. Once it ended, things for her would return to the way they had been, and in time it would be like this last month never happened at all.
Isn’t that a good thing? Isn’t that what I wanted?
“Oh, I am just tired,” she lied to her mother as she turned from the mirror. “I did not sleep well last night.”
“Well, try not to show it, dear,” her mother said. “His Grace will be here shortly, and you do not want him to think that he is the cause. That will not do.”
Celestine winced at the accuracy of her mother’s words.
Why did she feel this way? Why did she care about Edward at all? She wanted to feel nothing for the man, just as she wanted to look forward to having to never see him again. And yet, the more she considered what would come when this was all over, the worse her sadness and sorrow became.
