Lady Henrietta jumped a little, her gaze darting between the two of them yet again, a smile growing on her face. “Oh! Oh, of course, I am sorry! As you were.” She clasped her hands together as her smile reached the size of a full grin.Lady Henrietta, thankfully, slipped from the room without another moment’s delay.
“Well, that was unexpected,” Amelia said, watching the closed door with brow furrowed.
“Yes. The timing could have been better.” Edward slipped his other arm around Amelia, pulling her to face him. Her cheeks colored adorably as she looked up at him. His heart thudded in his chest—a combination of residual fear over his relationship with Amelia and an overwhelming desire to show her just how much he cared.
“The scandal will not go away still, I am sure,” she said.
“Luckily,” Edward said with half a smile, “I have plenty of experience in that regard. We shall simply do what disgraced members of thetondo best.”
“And that is?” Her lips tilted into a smile, and he could not help but place a soft kiss on each lifted corner before answering.
“Leave for the country until the gossip settles, of course.” His hands splayed across her back. “But, Amelia, I have to warn you, if I have you by my side, I do not believe I will ever wish to come back to this wretched town.”
“Do not tempt me,” Amelia replied, fingering one edge of his cravat. The slight movement drove Edward mad, and he pulled her closer still.
“That is precisely my intent.”
Her hands came to the sides of his face, but then she sighed.
“What is it?”
“As much as I would happily run anywhere with you, it is time I confronted my family. I may not be able to do anything about the scandal, but I will not allow Miss Brooks or Edith to believe me cowed. And my father. My father has to know the truth.”
“He wished to come with me, you know.”
Her brows lifted. “I may have even more explaining to do than I’d originally thought, then. Either way, I need to speak with them. All of them.”
“That is very brave of you,” he murmured.
She took a shaky breath. “I do not feel particularly brave.”
He tightened his hold on her waist as if to send some strength through her. But she did not need it. Amelia had endured a lifetime of set downs and dismissive actions from her family, but she had in no way become debilitated by them. She was simply discovering the fire he’d known she possessed from their first meeting.
“But you are,” he assured her.
She smiled up at him, letting her hands drop from his face as she drew herself up and nodded. “Let us go, then.”
“Now?”
She glanced out the darkened windows. “Oh. Perhaps not. In the morning then?”
He laughed. “We can go now, if you wish.”
“Actually,” her eyes narrowed in thought, “I think we ought to. I would like to have this over with as soon as possible.”
“Now it is, then.” He offered his arm, and escorted her to the door, pausing with his hand on the handle. “But you are certain we cannot simply leave for the country?”
Briefly, she leaned her head on his upper arm. “Tomorrow,my heart, tomorrow we shall.”
Chapter Forty
The ball continued as ifAmelia had never left.
And, she supposed, she was nothing more than a name or a bit of gossip to many of the attendees, so why should they halt their evening for her?
“I take it back,” she muttered as the carriage pulled to a stop in front of the grand mansion. “We can go to the country.”
From his spot beside her, Edward squeezed her hand. Then, with his soft guidance, he turned her head toward his and pressed a light kiss to her lips.
