She just hoped she found Mr. Jonathan Vane tolerable.
And as kissable as Lord Redver had been.
Would she and Vane share a similar camaraderie? She hoped so. She’d enjoyed that part of her meeting with the marquess, too.
Exhausted, and yet pleased with her efforts, she slipped out of her shoes.
“Where,” came a furious whisper, “have you been?”
“I’m sorry to have worried you, Cassie.”
Cassie moved silently in the faint light of dawn, helping Eliza out of her dress. She climbed between the sheets in her shift. She could sense Cassie’s anger in her silence. And waited the inevitable interruption.
“How dare you leave without a word to me where you were going or what you had planned! Hadn’t I been through enough last night?”
“Had I known Godmama would force you to rouse yourself from devastation—”
“Hold on, there! Mocking my tears ismean.”
Eliza hesitated. “I know, Cass.” She sighed. “I’m sorry. You know I must make a jest of everything.”
Cassie sniffed. “I had good reason to be devastated. I had such plans! I was going to save us all by making a brilliant match.”
“You can still make a brilliant match,” Eliza responded consolingly. “Who needs Almack’s to find a husband anyway?”
“Wednesday night assemblies at Almack’s arethe placea young lady is most likely to be introduced a proper gentleman. Everyone goes to Almack’s.”
Eliza snorted, stifling a giggle. “We don’t. Not anymore.”
“You’re beastly, Eliza,” Cassandra retorted. But she still chuckled, albeit half-heartedly. “How could you laugh at our misfortunes?”
“Oh!” Eliza clapped her hand against her forehead. “I’ve gone a little mad, I think.”
Madness was the only thing that could make sense out of the night.
Oh, she was perfectly content with her decision to seek out Mrs. Dove-Lyon…but now that she had climbed into bed and was resting against the pillows, she was starting to understand her other decision’s unanticipated consequences.
Consequences like knowing what it was to have a man’s full, undivided attention. Consequences like seeing Redver’s face every time she closed her eyes.
“I had everything worked out perfectly,” Cassie mourned. “You, Millicent, Lenora, and Annette could have all come to live with me. Now, it is all ruined!”
Eliza side-eyed her sister with a smile. “Would your fictitious husband have had anything to say in your plan to house all four of your sisters?”
Cassie huffed and turned away. “I wouldn’t have chosen a man who would begrudge me such a small request. You’re being deliberately contrary…as usual.”
Eliza couldn’t argue. She was always contrary. Especially when she thought she might be in the wrong. And, no matter how overly dramatic Cassie sounded, truth was, they were allstill in a terrible fix. She’d a plan, yes. But the plan’s fulfillment was far from certain.
Tentatively, she rubbed Cassie’s lower back. “Again, I’m sorry, love.”
Cassie grunted. “It doesn’t matter, now. I no longer have a choice—it’ll be Harbury or no one. If Harbury will even come up to scratch. I can’t imagine how I am going to smile and curtsey and pretend I’m not appalled by his stupid face—possibly for the rest of my life.”
“Perhaps you won’t have to. We don’t yet know what passed between Asquith and Harbury.”
“Godmama told me—when I was pretending to be you—that she has it all arranged.”
“I heard from Millicent that you lied for me—but that Godmama wouldn’t tell you everything. Was Millie wrong? Did he agree to marry you? Or just to court you?”
“I don’t know yet. But what could ‘all arranged’ mean but courtship and a possible marriage?”
