Again, embarrassment flared inside Mina, and something else, too. The weight of her place in Society, or lack thereof, pressed down on her, and she wondered for the first time if she could bear it. It wasn’t only her exterior that marked her as different to theton, it was her interior, too. Lord Avendon sensed it, she could tell by the way he watched her, speculative gleam in his eye. Indeed, he was a young man very much of his class. Someone who actively strove to be uncurious and idle, someone who not only didn’t understand her, but who was someone she couldn’t understand.
“Meisje.”
All three sets of eyes swung toward the voice, and the room startled into complete stillness. Relief swept through Mina at the sight of her father, but something kept her from going to him. In a way that felt new and strange, she sensed this odd tension between her and Lord Avendon was theirs alone to sort out.
“We’re needed in the ballroom,” Father said. Concern radiated about him, and a look might have passed between him and Lady Olivia. Something lay within the look that might have piqued Mina’s curiosity another time. Right now, the exterior French doors called to her. Beyond them lay a quiet garden and an open night sky.
“I need a breath of fresh air first,” Mina said, her feet already moving toward freedom. “If you’ll excuse me.”
~ ~ ~
With that, Mina slipped out the door and faded into the gray night. Olivia returned her attention to the two men still occupying the room with her, neither of whom she’d expected to encounter when she’d entered it not five minutes ago. Unable to look the one man in the eye, she started with the other. “Hugh, have you anything you would like to say?”
“I believe the Duke would like you join everyone in the ballroom, too.”
Olivia suppressed a groan. “Please inform the Duke that I’ll see him later.” She didn’t have it in her to face that ballroom of nobility again tonight. The Duke would understand. He always did. “Before you go, Hugh, what occurred between you and Miss Radclyffe?”
Before Hugh could answer, Jake cut in, a glower darkening his expression. “What do you meanwhat occurredbetween him and Mina?”
Had Hugh noticed that Jake’s hands had clenched into fists at his sides? Likely not as Hugh released a disinterested sigh. “Nothingoccurred,” he drawled. “I came to find Lulu for the Duke, and Miss Radclyffe called me a simpleton. That’s the basic long and short of it.”
Jake’s hands released, and a gruff laugh escaped him. “I believe I’ll see to my daughter now.”
Without thinking, Olivia held up a staying finger, stopping Jake in his tracks. “Let me.”
His eyes met hers and held a moment. It was a moment that could last until the end of time. It was a moment that couldn’t end soon enough.
He nodded his assent, and Olivia pivoted, her skirts a silky swish about her slippers as she stepped into the Duke’s garden for the second time tonight, filled with both relief and despair for having left Jake behind . . . for the second time tonight. But she wouldn’t think about that now. She needed to see to Mina. It didn’t take her long to find the girl perched atop a gleaming marble bench in the informal section of the garden, a small, brass telescope held to her eye.
“A brilliant night for stargazing,” Olivia said.
Mina startled and instantly lowered her telescope as if chastened.
“Do you mind if I rest a moment beside you?”
Mina shifted over and made room. Olivia gestured toward the telescope now resting on her lap. “What a lovely little telescope.”
The girl flushed. “Thank you.”
Olivia’s brow lifted in silent question, eliciting a shy smile from Mina. “I constructed it.”
“Indeed?” Olivia asked and held out her hand. “May I?”
A companionable silence fell around them as Olivia gazed through the eyepiece, the wondrous universe a little bit closer.
“This telescope isn’t powerful enough to see all that far into the cosmos,” Mina said, her voice equal parts pleasure and pride. “But the brighter constellations and odd shooting stars aren’t out of its reach.”
“From up there, we must all seem the same,” Olivia said, her voice faraway, even to her own ears.
“It’s only down here that the differences matter.”
Olivia lowered the telescope and glanced at Mina. “Would you like to be the same as everyone else?”
The girl’s fingers worried the silk of her skirts, a gesture that spoke of unease. “It might be a nice experiment.”
“Perhaps,” Olivia began and stopped, hoping the right words would come to her. “Perhaps you might try viewing the matter from above, away from your place down here. Might it be possible that being different in one obvious way affords you the freedom to be truly yourself? Sometimes when a person looks like everyone else, society forms certain expectations about who that person should be, rather than who that person really is. You, Miss Radclyffe, are young, beautiful, wildly intelligent, and talented with a magnificent future stretched before you. You can be exactly who you are, don’t let anyone tell you any differently. I know that’s the future your father wants for you.”
Beside her, Mina held still, clearly considering Olivia’s words, before she nodded once, and the breath Olivia hadn’t realized she’d been holding, released.
