The door opened slowly, and Lizzy poked her head into the room. Perhaps she had expected to find something she did not want to see, being the Duke’s sister and all.
Would I have invited you into the room if your brother and I were?—
She swallowed thickly. She wasn’t completely sure what came after that, but her imagination had some ideas. That was the problem—getting her imagination to stop conjuring up the possibilities.
There would be kissing, probably. She knew that much from the secret, prohibited novels that she and her book club friends had pored over, devouring every tidbit of information about what it meant to ‘lie’ with a man.
Everything else was rather… metaphorical. Tricky to decipher without the anatomical context.
“I wanted to make sure you were all right,” Lizzy said. “Why did you run off like that?”
“The beef did not agree with me,” Selina replied too quickly.
Lizzy sank down on the edge of Selina’s bed, absently trailing her hand over the freshly laundered coverlets.
“I wondered if perhaps my brother had done something to upset you.” She paused. “He has been away from society for a long time. He isn’t exactly versed in the rules.”
“Are you supporting him now? You, who never had a nice thing to say about him?”
It was because of Lizzy that Selina had been terrified the entire ride to Ashbrook Manor. Terrified of the monstrous, cold, unfeeling, humorless Duke that she had crafted in her mind with all the pieces that Lizzy had fed to her over the course of their friendship. Terrified that he might kill her father, her brother, and her without flinching.
“He isn’t nice,” Lizzy replied flatly. “And I am not championing him. I was worried aboutyou. Worried he had offended you in some way.”
If almost kissing her was an offense, then Selina was offended. If touching her waist and face was upsetting, then she was upset. If shrinking away from her with that hard, cold look in his flinty eyes was an insult, then she was insulted.
But she couldn’t tell Lizzy any of that.
“It is this entire ordeal,” she said instead. “The walk in the gardens made it seem too real that this is to be my life now.”
“You are not happy to be here with me?”
Selina couldn’t look her friend in the eye. “If I were just visiting, I would be ecstatic. But this ismy life, Lizzy, and two men have decided how it will go.” She shook her head. “All because of a stupid letter.”
“Oh…” Lizzy dropped her gaze, uncharacteristically chagrined. “You make an excellent point.”
Selina tossed the cloth she still held in her hand. “What were you trying to show me in the gardens? Something you thought Melody would like?”
The third member of their trio seemed like a safe distraction.
“It was a darling little mushroom,” Lizzy replied, brightening. “A purple one! I can’t say I have much interest in mushrooms, but it was the most perfect one I have ever seen.”
“Did you pick it?”
Lizzy shook her head. “I thought I should leave it in the ground.”
“Very wise.” Selina tried to force a smile. “Once plucked, it will wither. Or become rotten and unpleasant. I’m not sure which.”
She had never thought she would relate so much to a mushroom. Now that her fate had been decided for her, would she wither or rot?
It is not as if I will flourish when Philip recoiled from me like that.
It would have been better if shehad been left in the metaphorical ground.
“What was your father like?” she asked abruptly.
If Philip would not tell her, Lizzy surely would. Maybe that would be the key to unlocking Philip’s true character… or perhaps his reason for doing what he did by accepting the engagement.
She remained convinced that she could have explained the letter away if she had just been allowed to speak and if her father had just listened for once in his life. But it was too late for that sort of thinking now.
It took her a second to notice that Lizzy had gone quiet. Not just in voice but demeanor. Withdrawing from the question like a tortoise tucking its head back into its shell.
“I should let you rest,” Lizzy said, getting up in haste. “You have had a trying day, and I am just making it worse.”
She was gone before Selina could call her back and demand an explanation as to why neither sibling seemed capable of saying anything about their father.
Was he really worthy of my father’s unrelenting hatred?
If so, was it possible that such devilry existed in their bloodline?
The male one, to be exact.
