“I didn’t realize you were so against the engagement,” Tremberley laughed from the door. He whistled. “If only Percy knew.”
“Enough,” Augustus bit off, “Thank you for informing me. Now leave.”
Olivia heard the door shut. She was paralyzed, mentally, between their conversation of moments before and the exchange she had just heard. She wondered if Augustus was really upset about the engagement. Fear clutched her gut at the prospect.
“Will you forbid them from marrying?”
“Who?” he said brusquely, reaching to the ground and picking up her gown.
“Natasha and Percy, of course.”
He scoffed. “My brother is free to marry whoever he chooses.”
“You don’t seem overjoyed at the prospect.”
“Olivia,” Augustus said, holding out her gown to her, “We must dress and go downstairs. Our absence will have already been conspicuous and will only grow more so as the congratulations pour in for my brother and Miss Mapperton. We must leave. But if you think I can expend much thought on their situation after what you have just told me, or that I can rejoice in being torn from this room, then you gravely mistake me.”
She took the gown from him and stood.
“I don’t understand,” she said, as he helped her dress. “How could you not remember writing the letter?”
“I never wrote such a letter, Olivia,” he repeated, doing up her dress as gently as he had undone it, his fingers moving swiftly over the ties. “I don’t know how such a letter appeared in your tinderbox, but I certainly didn’t put it there. But we cannot resolve it now.”
He turned her to face him. She looked into the blue of his eyes, darkened by his earnest expression. He handed over her mask.
“I have endangered you enough with this mad scheme. We need to reach downstairs. I will call on you tomorrow and we will discuss it fully.”
Then, he bent down, and kissed her softly, on the corner of her mouth. She didn’t know what to think. The letter had been in his hand—she had never questioned its authenticity. Would he lie to her now? To make her think better of him?
He took her hand and led her from the room. When they reached the bottom of the servants’ stairwell, he kissed her again and urged her to go out first.
“Find Percy and the Mappertons and I will be with you in minutes.”
She nodded and stumbled out into the candlelit space. She made her way to the ballroom and, luckily, discovered that her quarries were not difficult to find. There, in one corner, Natasha and Percy beamed, flanked by Nathanial and Eloisa, who looked wary but happy. In her evident elation, Natasha appeared even more radiant than usual. The well-wishers were deep upon them and it took some perseverance to reach them.
When Natasha saw Olivia in the crowd, she exclaimed her name and pulled her towards them.
“Olivia!”
“I heard from Lord Tremberley,” Olivia whispered, “I wish you so much joy.”
Natasha squeezed her hand and Percy, having now spotted her, intoned his thanks. “Have you seen my brother?” he whispered.
Olivia fought the blush from her cheeks and sensed she was failing.
“Not since our waltz,” she managed to say.
“But I’m right here, Miss Watson,” said a deep voice behind her. She turned and there he was. She was almost disappointed to see how composed he looked. The heat of their tryst was all over her. He looked nowhere near as mussed as she felt.
“I hear congratulations are in order,” he said to his brother, and Olivia watched Percy smile under the approval of his brother. Augustus took Natasha’s hand. “I am sure, Miss Mapperton, that my brother is about to be the luckiest of men.”
Natasha curtsied at the compliment and Percy began telling the story of their engagement. They had been on the balcony, taking in the fresh air, and he had been unable to wait. He was sure she would say no, he explained, but somehow she had accepted. How Percy thought that Natasha would refuse him, Olivia could not understand. The girl’s eyes shined when she looked at him.
Had she made such a mistake with Augustus, she thought, as she looked at the pleased embarrassment on both Natasha and Percy’s faces. Why, when she had received the letter, hadn’t she confronted him about it? She could have waited for him to return to the house so that they could speak. Why had she believed it so readily? Was it anything that he had ever done or said, or was it merely her sense of her place in the world as compared to his? Back then, she hadn’t let herself think of the future. It had not entered into her mind that they could have one. They had never spoken of it.
Eloisa appeared at Olivia’s shoulder. She had been deep in conversation with a woman she hadn’t recognized and Mr. Tombey, her old friend. From the moment she looked at her friend up close, Olivia could see the depth of her happiness.
“Congratulations,” Olivia whispered to her, squeezing her hand.
