Vivi couldn’t contain her own chuckle at the notion of the dowager reprimanding imaginary debutantes in her sleep. “And no doubt frightening kittens and puppies as well.”
They stopped before the fountain, Venus high on her pedestal above.
“Good heavens, are those little men…urinating?” Clementine asked, sounding horrified at the prospect, but also amused.
The fountain’s designer had indeed cleverly equipped the four Cupids ringing the lower tier of the fountain with miniature members from which a spout of water poured endlessly forth.
“They are.” Vivi chuckled again, relieved for the distraction of their earlier conversation. “Quite clever, is it not?”
Clementine was frowning at the nearest Cupid’s stream. “Please tell me not all gentlemen are so poorly equipped.”
Vivi nearly choked. “Clementine!”
“What?” Her friend sent her an unrepentant look. “You can hardly fault a lady for being curious, can you? I was merely taking note that the fellow’s manhood seemed dreadfully small in proportion to the rest of his anatomy.”
She groaned. “Promise me that you won’t say anything so untoward within hearing range of Lady Featherstone. Lady Edith will never be permitted to join the Lady’s Suffrage Society.”
“I promise not to talk about Cupid’s tiny manhood in front of the dragon marchioness,” Clementine said with mock severity.
Vivi sighed. “Somehow, that scarcely sounds reassuring.”
Clementine sent her a bright smile. “Never fear, Vivi. I’ll not ruin your house party or our chances of persuading Lady Edith to join our cause. Now, you must tell me about everything that has happened between you and Bradford. I’ve been hoping you would volunteer the information, but my curiosity cannot bear waiting another second longer.”
Vivi didn’t even know where to begin. The past fortnight had been a dream. And yet, she found herself perpetually waiting for something to change, for her happiness to be wrestled away from her. For Court to leave again.
She looked away from Clementine’s probing blue stare, glancing pensively up at Venus. “Everything has happened, it seems.”
Everything except for a declaration of love.
Vivi couldn’t tamp down her disappointment at the reminder.
“The reason for your estrangement,” Clementine began delicately. “I assume it has been resolved?”
She sighed, turning back to her friend. “Not entirely. Apparently, my brother demanded a promise from him to keep his distance from me, which he did. But after Percy died, we were both overwrought. He broke his promise, of course, and although it necessitated our marriage, his guilt was eating him alive.”
Clementine gave her arm a gentle, comforting squeeze. “Oh, Vivi. I am so very sorry. I know how much you loved your brother. And he and Bradford were like brothers as well. How terrible it must have been for Bradford to be torn between two people he so dearly loved.”
Her friend’s words sent a surge of yearning through Vivi that she couldn’t contain. “He loved Percy dearly, of course. As for me…”
“As for you?” Clementine prompted, her brow rising.
“Well.” She paused, sighing again before summoning a smile. “I think that Bradford cares for me very much. But I doubt that he loves me. He’s certainly never said so.”
“He loves you,” Clementine said firmly. “He may not have confessed it to you yet, but trust my matchmaker’s instincts. A man does not look at a woman the way the duke looks at you without being hopelessly, helplessly in love. It certainly explains how conflicted he was. Imagine losing your best friend and then feeling powerless to tell the woman you love how you feel because of a promise you made him.”
“He vowed to keep his promise for a full year of mourning,” Vivi agreed. “His sense of honor wouldn’t allow for anything less. But that doesn’t mean he’s in love with me. It has always been my fondest wish that one day he would be. Over time, however, I’ve had to accept that he may never return my tender feelings. Such is the way of life.”
“Have you told him how you feel?” Clementine asked shrewdly. “You love him, do you not?”
She did. She had always loved Court, and nothing and no one—not time, not a year of heartache, not a promise to her brother—could change that. She was inextricably bound to him.
“He is the only man I have ever wanted,” she admitted quietly. “Being his wife was the future I hoped for. But then when we married as we did, out of necessity to avoid scandal, and he left me, everything was ruined. All my hopes were dashed to bits. And my heart…”
“You’re afraid to trust in him again, aren’t you?” her friend asked sagely.
She nodded. “I’m afraid he’ll break my heart a second time, and that it will be incapable of healing. The power he has over me terrifies me, Clementine.”
“I understand.” Clementine took Vivi’s hands in hers. “In your shoes, I would also be wary. But he has come back to you, and he seems to be a man on a mission. And that mission is winning your heart.”
