He looked at George, waiting for the man to offer his own services, but to Jack’s shock, he only sat back in his chair with an odd smile. “Yes, that should do the trick.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” said Caroline.
“I’m happy to offer my services,” said Captain Sedgewick, beginning to stand. Caroline stopped him with a hand on his arm.
“No, brother. See, Lord Orton is already there, ready and willing. Isn’t that so?” she asked him with a smile.
They were all smiling oddly now—Caroline, George, his mother, Nell. Only Ashburton seemed oblivious. The captain looked annoyed. Lucy looked faint.
Could heartbreak drive a man mad this quickly? Or was everyone really acting as strangely as it seemed?
“Of course,” he answered Caroline. With a somewhat stiff smile, he offered his arm to Lucy and escorted her from the room.
“I’m sorry,” he started to say as they walked through the house together. “I mean to have a word with my mother and explain—”
“Oh, shush, Jack! Don’t!”
He glanced at her in surprise. Her arm was tense and trembling in his, and her voice was tight with the threat of tears.
“Why, Lucy? What is the matter?”
“I need to tell you… I need to tell you… Oh, I cannot do it here!” She looked around wildly, then spying a half open door, dragged him through it and shut the door behind them.
It was the library, a room seldom used by Nell or her husband. The air was heavy with the scent of books and polished leather. Lucy stood against the closed door, chest rising and falling with the agitation of her breath.
“Lucy,” he said in concern, taking a step towards her. “What is it?”
“Jack… George and I…” She broke off, shaking her head, and took several hasty steps into the room before turning quickly to face him, a large desk between them. “George and I…” she said again.
“Yes?”
“It’s not…not real.”
He stared at her, his chest giving a thump. “Not…real?” Understanding dawned. “You…you do not feel you love him as you ought, perhaps? Or he you?”
“No, I—”
“It can be worked on,” Jack forced himself to say. “It might come in time.”
“No, Jack. I mean I have never loved him.”
He was less surprised than he should have been. He pressed a thumbnail hard into the leather of a book left upon the desk, unable to look at her. “Do you…do you think you might cry off?” No, no, that was not what he should be asking, not as George’s friend. He summoned all his strength in a better effort at loyalty. “I mean, it is one option, Lucy, but there might be a way to save things if—”
“Jack! Listen to me!”
His head snapped up.
“It was never real. None of it. There never has been an engagement. It’s a story, Jack. Something we made up. I’ve never once wanted to marry George.”
Silence. The rapid beating of his heart. The unravelling of the remnant of his wits.
“Lucy…” he said, almost pleading. “I don’t…I don’t understand.”
“It was a prank.” Her voice was small, miserable. “It was…it was petty revenge for all the things you said in the park. Or that’s why I did it. And I am so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
“A prank?”
“I’m sorry!”
