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Anne didn’t answer.
Eliza laughed. “You needn’t look so surprised, sister. You always get that soft wistful look about your eyes when you think of Edmund.”
“It is only a shame he could not join us tonight. The group feels wrong without him. Things are…unbalanced.”
Eliza leaned forward to tap Anne on the nose with her fan. “You, my dear sister, are the one who is unbalanced. You have been out of sorts ever since Emily married Alexander. Now tell me true. What is really wrong?”
Anne was thoughtful. “I suppose, I do not know where I fit in things anymore. I feel as though I have lost my dearest friend.”
“Are you jealous of Emily and the duke?” Eliza suggested with a sideways glance.
“Never!” Anne’s cheeks burned. “I never had any interest in Alexander. Not in that way. We have been friends forever, and now…I suppose our little group must change, and I do not wish it to do so.”
Eliza nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe you had no interest in the duke,” Eliza said with a pointed look. “But that doesn’t mean you are not jealous.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Anne declared.
“Very well then,” Eliza said snapping open her fan and looking across the room at the new duchess. “Emily truly is the belle of the ball. It is not often theTonsees a duchess so young and beautiful, or a duke for that matter. Their marriage has removed one of society’s most eligible young men, and a duke besides,” Eliza said. “It is easy to see why Emily is so popular of late. Why, did you notice that half the ladies of thetonwere wearing yellow, after Emily wore the same shade last week?”
“I did,” Anne said with a giggle. “It looks ghastly on Lady Marley.” They both watched the dancers for several minutes, commenting on their dresses.
Anne ducked her head, shamed by her uncharitable thoughts. “I love Emily,” she said finally. “She is my dearest friend. But yes, I am perhaps a touch jealous, although I know I should not be. Emily deserves the very best and I wish her every happiness.”
“Only you wish a measure of her happiness as well,” Eliza said biting her lip. “Perhaps, if Edmund…”
“No Eliza,” Anne interrupted. “Ed is…Ed. Yes. I miss him, but not in the way you are suggesting. He has only ever been my friend. Besides, he has been preoccupied of late. Why we have barely crossed paths. You know as well as I that he is in London, but since Emily’s Ball I have not so much as laid eyes upon him. I fear he is avoiding me.”
“Surely not.”
Anne swallowed hard and let herself voice what she feared. “Perhaps he has an interest in someone else…” Anne left the sentence hanging. She lifted her shoulder in a half shrug.
“You base your supposition that he has interest in someone else on mere avoidance?” Eliza asked one eyebrow rising almost comically. “He has only ever had eyes for you, Anne.”
Anne shook her head. “As a child, perhaps. Lately, he has made no effort to see me. If he wanted to, he knows full well where to find me. Either, I am truly invisible, or he has no interest.”
“You are not invisible!” Eliza exclaimed, raising her hands in an impatient gesture. “He might be too shy…”
Anne let out a laugh that was far too loud for a ballroom and earned several disapproving sniffs from the ladies seated a short distance away. Flushing uncomfortably, Anne lowered her voice. “Edmund is many things, but shy was never one of them.”
“Maybe he just doesn’t know how to tell you how he really feels.”
Anne shook her head. “You are too much the romantic, Eliza. I envy you that sometimes.”
Eliza seemed at a loss. “I see Emily’s mother,” she said finally. “We should probably work our way back to her.”
Anne sighed and agreed. No doubt Lady Kentleworth would have something about which to complain. She seemed to constantly find fault in everyone, and most especially with her children. She fussed at Edmund as if he were a child. Maybe that was why the young man was making himself scarce. Perhaps he wished to avoid his exacting mother rather than Anne. In spite of her better judgment, the thought gave Anne a surge of hope.
Eliza bit her lip. “I received a letter from Adam today,” she said softly as if afraid the news would upset Anne further.
Anne glanced toward her sister, seeing the excitement in the girl’s eyes. Oh, but she was hardly being fair, wrapped up as she was in her own melancholy thoughts.
“Are you keeping secrets now?” Anne teasingly admonished and drew Eliza toward one of the waiting chairs. “Do tell.”
It was Eliza’s turn to blush. She looked around them and then leaned in to whisper in Anne’s ear. “I think he will propose when he next comes home.”
“Oh Eliza, how wonderful for you!”
Anne’s excited exclamation again caused several old ladies to stare, one or two accompanying their stern look with a shushing sound. Anne ignored them to throw her arms around her sister. “Why did you not tell me?”
