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Though she spoke the words to her friend, she came to realise that she was also reminding herself of such things. Though she had not admitted so to Chelsea, she was feeling much the same way about Gabriel Tatford. Alarm bells rang, and she found herself quickly adding, "What do you really know aboutJonathanTatford?"
Chelsea threw herself back down against the pillows with a deep huff of exasperation and shook her head as she exclaimed, "Not nearly enough as I wish I did!"
Julia could only feel relief that her friend had not corrected her and insisted that it was the older brother she had fallen in love with. In order to seal the information in stone in her mind, Julia reminded herself of how Jonathan and Chelsea had barely been able to take their eyes off each other all afternoon.
She also struggled to fight the thought that Gabriel had looked at her several times, looking away whenever she met his gaze too directly. She told herself she had been imagining it, not allowing herself to be too hopeful after all that had happened in the past.
"Oh, Julia, do you think that this might finally be it?" Chelsea asked, throwing her arms up above her head in a gesture of excitement. "Do you think that I might finally have come to learn of the things you always tried to tell me were real and worth waiting for?"
Julia wished she had not spouted so much nonsense about how true love conquered all and how it was the only thing she would ever be willing to marry for. She truly hoped that she had not corrupted her friend's mind into weakening just to allow her to be heartbroken at the very last hurdle when all went wrong.
When Julia failed to answer her, Chelsea pushed herself up into a sitting position and readjusted herself so that she was directly facing her. Gripping hold of both of Julia’s hands, she asked, "What is the matter? I thought that you would be elated?"
Julia forced a smile because she knew that was what the old her would have done a year ago. Back before she had felt the heartbreak of being used for her dowry, she would have jumped for joy if her best friend had come to her in such a manner and told her that she finally believed in the holy union of love between two soulmates.
But in this very moment, all she felt was dread and a little relief that Chelsea had been too distracted by her own life to ask as to why she had downplayed her aristocracy in front of the brothers.
"I am pleased for you, Chelsea, and I truly hope you will get all that you wish for," Julia insisted. She removed a hand from her friend's hand and reached up to cup Chelsea's face, "I only hope you will have a much smoother ride of it than I have had so far."
"Oh, Jules, do not tell me that you still worry so over that awful Bickerfield?" Chelsea persisted, squeezing the hand she still held in hers. Julia could not stop the falling of her expression nor the clenching she felt in her heart to hear the man's name said aloud. The lingering image of his charming face flashed into her mind and a bubbling of anger began in her gut.
"I hope to have forgotten about him entirely by the end of the Season," she assured her best friend and she had to hide her alarm the moment another face flashed into her mind. The face of Gabriel Taford banished all thoughts of Bickerfield in the wake of her strongly toned words, and she feared more than ever that she might well be on track to break her own heart once more.
"Do not worry," Chelsea assured her, her smile growing with excitement, "I promise that I will not be so distracted by Jonathan that I will forget to help you find your perfect match this Season too. We shall both be wed before the year is out. I am certain of it!"
Julia did not quite dare to hope, though her best friend's words did make her insides flutter all over again. And Gabriel Tatford's face once more entered into her mind. She barely managed to bite her tongue to stop herself from suggesting to Chelsea that she, too, might have found her own Tatford brother.
To speak the words would make it all too real and until she was certain that there was any hope between the two of them, she could not allow it to become so, especially now that her dearest friend seemed so intent to believe in love when she had been the level-headed one in their friendship for so many years upon counting.
"Let us take one day at a time, shall we?" she suggested with a gentle smile and a squeeze of her hands.
"And one musicale at a time!" Chelsea exclaimed and Julia remembered,I shall see him again this very evening!
Chapter 6
The musicale was just as awkward as the Tatford brothers had anticipated. From the look on his brother’s face, Gabriel could tell they were both left wondering why they had ever believed it could have been different. Though it started out in a fairly pleasant manner, the longer the night drew on and the more other guests came to realise who they in fact were, the more unbearable it became.
It did not take long for the glances and the whispering to begin. By the time the musicale was halfway over and the guests were offered refreshments and a chance to stretch their legs, Gabriel was more than ready to leave. There was just one thing that prevented him from doing so.
Though he had seen her from a distance several times already during the evening, Gabriel had yet to find himself face-to-face with the beautiful Miss Julia. Just the hope of doing so was enough to keep him there. Jonathan did not appear in any kind of rush to leave either, though Gabriel noticed the tension building within his brother just as he felt his own.
Neither of them was able to fully concentrate on the music or the performance going on. At every opportunity, Gabriel found his gaze travelling back to the front row on the opposite side of the aisle where Miss Julia and Miss Chelsea were sitting, along with the latter’s mother.
Even at a distance, Gabriel could see the radiance of the former with her glossy brown hair pinned up in the latest London fashion, decorated with blue sapphire hair pins that contrasted beautifully against the pale blue gown she was wearing.
During the break at intermission, Gabriel, wishing to avoid the harshest gazes of those around them, all too happily followed his younger brother through to the nearest gallery where a multitude of different paintings from landscapes to family portraits had been hung.
The high vaulted ceiling that carried through from the ballroom where the musicale was being held made the area quite chilly, though Gabriel preferred it to sharing the body heat of those in the next room.
“I don’t believe it!” Jonathan exclaimed when they were little more than halfway down the gallery room. “Look! Can you believe it?”
Only half-intrigued and still glancing back in the direction of the door in the hopes they might be joined by the two young women, Gabriel joined his brother before a painting that was all too familiar. The Italian landscape stretched out in the depiction of a lake with an even more familiar olive tree and a wood and rope swing hanging from its branches.
A sudden homesickness threatened to overwhelm him and he gulped past a lump in his throat as he said, “This was one of the first, wasn’t it?”
Jonathan was just beginning to nod when the sound of someone clearing their throat behind them caused both men to look around with curiosity.
“Forgive us, sirs, but might we join you?” Miss Chelsea asked them both, though her eyes were fixed entirely upon Jonathan as she entered the room. Even as she spoke, she stepped out of the doorway and behind her arrived Miss Julia, looking even more radiant in the well-lit gallery. The lantern light caught off the sapphire necklace at her throat, and the lump in Gabriel’s throat only grew.
