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“Careful, Hector,” Damon called out to his brother. “If you are not vigilant, Mother will have you engaged to her.”
“Damon! Do not be ridiculous.” The marchioness frowned. “Unfortunately, he is far too young.”
“See, it had crossed her mind, if but once,” Damon teased as he ate his toast. “I foiled her grand plans.”
“What?” Hathor gasped, looking between Verity and Damon, then at her mother. “Mama, you could not have thought it. You wished to give up both Aphrodite and Damon to the Eaglemans?”
“I see you all wish to torment me this morning. Damon, are you still foxed from last night? Why would you say such a thing? Can you not see you are embarrassing Silva?”
The woman in question looked up, almost confused as to why she had been called. She quickly put her spoon down and said, “I am quite fine. Damon has shared a great many things—”
“Yes, well, a conversation between a husband and wife should remain between a husband and wife,” the marchioness interrupted.
“Rightly so, but this was a conversation between my brother and me,” Damon shot back, not at all ashamed. “Hector, be careful showing any interest in a young lady, or Mama will move the earth to see you married to her before sunset.”
“I would not—”
“If that is the case, Mama, may I marry Lord Darvish’s daughter?” Hector leaned over to ask, and it was as if the room was filled with pigs the way all the women squealed.
I could barely keep up as they pressed him on how someone as young as he knew whom it was he wished to marry. The whole atmosphere was so thoroughly different from the dinner I’d had with them days prior that I was amazed.
“Do you feel yourself disappearing?” Verity’s soft voice whispered beside me. I glanced over to see how she watched them. “They are like this every morning: rays of sunshine, bouncing off one another to further radiate light. Leaving little room for anyone else to come close or interject a thought. We are reduced to mere spectators.”
“Why not simply bask in that warmth?” I whispered back. “The world is full of so much bitterness. Is this not a welcome reprieve?”
“Is not realizing the familial happiness in another home while lacking it yourself cause for further bitterness?” She glanced up at me, frowning. “Do you not find it difficult to be around them like this?”
As someone who did not have even half as much—no, a quarter as much happiness as this in my own home, I understood what she meant. “Yes, I am greatly jealous of them, but at the same time, seeing such a bond exist is inspiring and gives hope.”
The sulk on her face did not leave. Instead, she faced the table. “And yet you sought to reject me last night.”
Without thinking I replied, “Because I do not think it is possible for us to have this.”
I had not meant to be so harsh, and though she did not speak, I felt as though I had harmed her with my words.
“This is not possible for me…but you…should you meet—”
“I have only just settled on wanting you. I do not believe I could withstand the thought of any other…could you?”
We looked at each other. And the loudness that came from the table before us seemed to vanish, as if she and I were the only ones there. It was far too early for these conversations.
“You push me and give me no room to walk,” I whispered.
“It was you who pushed first,” she replied softly and she was right. Had I never said anything…had I not tried so desperately to gain her attention for even the slightest moment, we would not have reached this point.
“Verity, are you all right?” the marchioness asked.
“Yes, of course,” she replied and neither of us said another word. To not draw any further attention to ourselves, I turned to Hathor and her brother, speaking to them as Verity spoke to Abena.
I felt it torturous to have her so close and not be able to speak and yet speaking was even more painful. When breakfast had finally come to an end, Lord Monthermer stood and called out to me.
“Dr. Darrington, please.”
Nodding, I rose from the table and followed him out into the foyer. The moment the door to the dining room closed, he turned to me, his demeanor stern, not at all the relaxed one he held with his family.
“Benjamin? How is he?”
“He is in a much better condition, sir, but I will need to speak to him more on his illness when he is conscious.”
As if the man could hear me himself, Mrs. Collins appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Doctor, Lord Hardinge is awake!”
* * *
—
The one thing everyone in the ton had was not wealth but pride.
“Benjamin, do not be foolish,” the marquess said to Lord Hardinge as he put on his gloves. “Stay and rest a bit longer.”
