Ophelia floundered as she took in her friends’ interrogative gazes, her mind failing to come up with a lie that would both ease her friends worried looks and keep them protected.
“I supposes I just had a change of heart,” Ophelia muttered.
Her friends all gaped at her. At one time Ophelia would have laughed at their expressions and revealed a trick. This time, though, there was no trick to play. Just a dire need to keep her new intended calm.
“So it is true?!” Seraphina whispered vehemently.
“Last we talked you despised him!” Rose spoke up.
“I do not…despisehim.” It took more effort than she expected to speak the lie. Her very soul railed against her words; demanded that she speak the truth.
Theo stared at her flatly.
“You are lying. Look at you. You are developing a rash as we speak! What has he said to you? What has he done?” She demanded.
Ophelia pursed her lips together and shook her head. Even so, she felt an itching heat spread over her neck where the necklace laid.
She had already put her friends in jeopardy by revealing her secret identity. She was not about to put them in more danger by confessing Abraham’s threats. The man was cruel enough to expose her in front of everyone if her friends tried to stick up for her- or worse.
“Abraham and I had a chance to speak some more,” she forced herself to say. “After learning more about him I discovered that he is quite…suitable, I suppose.”
They all continued to stare at her intensely.
“And your father?” Theo asked, “He approves of this union? For the last I remember, he was opposed to Abraham’s pursuit of you.”
Flashes of her argument with her father came back to Ophelia. He had been shocked, confused, and eventually angry when she told him she had changed her mind about Abraham’s proposal. She’d had to force herself to lie in ways that broke her heart in order to convince him to allow the engagement. It was one of the reasons she had not received her friends the day they called on her. She had taken to bed in a deep state of fear and depression. Had not been able to climb out of it for several days.
“He also changed his mind,” Ophelia answered softly.
Her friends all continued to stare at her with their quiet intensity; as if they were trying to look beyond her words and into the truth of her heart. Only she had no more heart. It was beyond shattered, and its fragments seemed to drift further apart from one another with each day that brought her closer to her marriage to Abraham.
Ophelia took a long sip of her wine, willing it to steady her nerves.
“Ophelia, this is not who you are,” Theo insisted. “Choosing someone because you ‘suppose’ they are suitable? You are the fiercest woman I know! We do not know this meek woman standing before us, what has happened to you?”
“You can tell us,” Rose urged gently, “You know you can.”
Ophelia fought the urge to break down and weep. She missed that woman Theo spoke of. But her strength was gone. Stolen away with the lock of a cursed gold necklace that she could notrip off. Perhaps if she could get it off somehow. Perhaps if she could just find a way to snap one of its heavy links…
“We are ruining Amelia’s party,” she stated, fiddling with her glass. “After all the effort she put into this celebration, we should be downstairs making sure it all goes well.”
“I do not care about this party, Ophelia, I care about you!” Amelia adamantly replied.
Ophelia managed a small smile as she looked up at her.
“I am fine,” she rasped with a small shrug.
“Now please, let us all go back downstairs. I want to see the bonfires you spoke so excitedly about,” she urged.
Her friends all looked back at her, as if lost on what to do.
“I actually am impressed with how the gardens came together,” Amelia sighed. “We had a dance floor constructed in white and black tile out there in the middle of spiral of bonfires. It is surrounded by lit torches. It is eerie and exciting all at the same time. I suppose you would appreciate the look of it, from an artist’s perspective.”
“I would indeed,” Ophelia agreed.
Though as much as she wanted to see her friend’s creative efforts, what she wanted more was to check on Abraham. He was older than her husband’s friends and not as muscular, but he was cunning, and she had no doubt her intended could bring harm to Dominic if he truly wanted to.
Though it was clear that her friends would have preferred to stay in Amelia’s quarters and batter the truth out of her, Amelia opened the door, and they made their way back to the festivities.
