CHAPTER 24
ONE WEEK LATER
Picking up that day’s mail from the tray in the front room, Alice carried the stack into her aunt’s drawing room and rested it on the table to sort. There was a very thick one addressed to Eliza from Baron Portman, the very same Baron Benedict had arranged for her.
“She is corresponding with him?” Alice asked herself. “I thought she was done with him.”
There was an invitation from the Valhaven estate; one Alice hesitantly opened as it was addressed to her.
“The Duke of Valhaven and the Marquess Brampton jointly invite Misses Alice and Penelope Winslow, and the Thorpe family to a ball at the ducal estate…” She read the date, a week from then, and the time, six in the evening. She dropped the card, unsure of what to make of it.
Why would Edward invite her to his home knowing how spectacularly their last conversation had imploded?
Bold of me to assume it was him inviting me. It is more for Penelope than for me, and they had to include all of us.
“Is that the mail?” Eliza stepped into the morning room without any greeting whatsoever. She snatched the letter from her fingers, then glared at Alice. “Were you trying to read my private correspondence?”
Lifting the card in her hand, Alice flatly asked, “How can I read two things at the same time, one of which is still sealed?”
“Knowing you, you would find a way,” Eliza sniffed before marching away.
“I’ll become the Queen of England before that girl marries,” Alice muttered while wrapping her shawl tighter about her shoulders. “I shouldn’t say that. At least she will marry, while the man I love has forgotten me….”
The conversation with Diana came back to her mind.
“Love is not a feeling that stays stagnant, Alice dear. Saying you love him is one thing, but love requires effort—and you must show it too.”
“But—but he is a Duke… What in heavens can I do that every other lady in his vicinity has not already tried?”
“Together, we earned the highest marks in our school,” Diana chirped with a grin. “And men are far simpler than French literature. Now, thinking caps on! Let’s think like a woman. Perhaps there is some man he envies or dislikes being around?”
“You mean being courted by someone else? It did not faze him when I was with his brother, I doubt it would happen with anyone else.”
“Hmm…” Diana looked contemplative. “The only thing that comes to mind is Scheherazade—amusing and entrapping him with a riveting tale that lasts a thousand and one nights.”
This time, Alicedideke out a smile. “As much as I appreciate the sentiment, how about something a lot less… fantastical? Besides, as I said, I need to know how to move on, not try and seduce him. He made it abundantly clear that marriage and love are not what he is willing to give, and I will not settle for any less.
“He’s…” Alice let out a breath, “…not a man that changes his mind when it is made up.”
“He is a stubborn one, then.”
“He is at that, and I do not subscribe to the belief that you can out-stubborn a mulish man,” Alice said, resigned. “I think I have to let him go.”
Gazing at the card in her hand, she whispered, “This shall be the final farewell.”
Studying the note just delivered from Benedict’s footmen, she went to Penelope’s room and knocked. “Elly? Are you awake?”
“Yes,” her sister sounded languid. “You can come in.”
Stepping into the room, Alice found her sister still in bed, looking worse for wear, and a thick stream of compassion wound its way through Alice’s heart. “Are you not feeling well this morning?”
“I am fine,” Penelope exhaled while she made to sit up. “I did not sleep much last night, that’s why I must look a fright.”
Perching on the edge of her bed, Alice asked, “Why were you up?”
Absently plucking the sheets on her lap, Penelope admitted, “I worry, Alice, and stitching does not help. I am fearful Aunt will find out, I am afraid of being shunned, I am terrified of being shipped off to a convent to have the child and be imprisoned. I am afraid, Alice. There is this tight ball of fear resting just beneath my breastbone, and it doesn’t ever go away.”
“I know you are afraid,” Alice soothed. “But I need you to trust me for a little while longer. We need to get dressed. Here, let me help you.” She stretched out her hand.
