She turned to the footman and took his arm.
And just like that—she was gone.
The silence she left in her wake was total.
He stared at the empty space she’d occupied, the place where his entire world had just stood. For a heartbeat, he could almost believe he had imagined her.
And then he turned, slowly, the way a man might walk away from a grave.
*
Once.
Twice.
The world tilted.
Two lives collided.
The moment the rain hit her face, Maisie thought she might collapse. Her skirts tangled around her ankles as she fled across the slick stones, heart hammering, the thundering rain swallowing her breath. The air was thick, syrupy, too dense to draw into her lungs.
I don’t know how not to be Lady Spencer in front of those people—and his Maisie at the same time.
Her hands shook as she clutched the footman’s arm—not with poise, but with the desperation of someone whose knees might give way at any moment. He guided her swiftly beneath the tilted umbrella, but every step dragged her further fromhim.
She didn’t look back.
She didn’t dare.
If she saw his face again, she would never leave.
The title echoed in her skull:Lady Spencer.
Tonight it felt like a curse.
The landau door yawned open. She nearly stumbled on the hem of her wet skirts as she climbed in, breath coming too fast. The door shut with a sharp clap that reverberated in the silence, sealing her away.
Alone, Maisie bent forward, pressing her hands to her mouth. A sob wrenched free before she could stop it. Hot tears streaked downher cheeks, burning against the cold.
It was him.
All the years she had told herself she had done the right thing, that Faivish had long since forgotten her, collapsed in a single instant. He had stood there, drenched and stricken, as if her absence had carved hollows into him too.
She had pretended not to know him—because if she had spoken, if she had acknowledged him in front of all those people, her world would have shattered. She would have fallen at his feet.
Maisie had built her life out of silence. Out of obedience. Out of the armor ofLady Spencer.
But her heart had never changed course.
The carriage jolted as the driver mounted the box. Rain lashed at the windows. Maisie wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand, like a child, though the tears kept coming.
She did not know how to live as Lady Spencer while still belonging to the man who had once kissed her into believing in forever. And she did not know—would never know—whether he could forgive her for vanishing into another name, another life.
Her fingers dug into the velvet seat, clutching at it as though it were the only thing keeping her upright.
*
Felix couldn’t movefast enough.
