He wants to be so angry with James. But after seeing him at the luncheon, as broken and hurting as Bobby himself feels, he can’t be. Because the world is a terrible place. All the things James is afraid of are valid. Bobby sees now that what they had at the manor was just a fairy tale.
Maybe that’s what hurts more than anything else. Bobby was willing to believe until the world came for them, and James wasn’t. Maybe he’s better off, running before he could get burned.
He can’t be mad at James, but the hurt is still there, burrowed behind his breastbone.
“What if it could be?”
Bobby blinks and looks across at Beth. “What?”
“What if the world could be a better place? What if we couldmakeit a better place, for all of us?”
“I don’t follow,” he says, watching as Beth glances toward the hall and huffs.
“Gwen and I had planned to corner you together, but there hasn’t been time and I think if I wait for her...”
“What?” Bobby prompts.
Beth sighs. “Look, we—we had this idea, back at the beginning of the season, and we kind of gave up on it when it seemed like you and James couldn’t stand the sight of one another. We were planning to tell you both in the carriage ride home, but then James left. But I think—if you really want this, then—”
“Beth!” Bobby exclaims. “Please, what are you talking about?”
“We thought maybe you and James would fall in love, and then James would marry Gwen, and you would marry me, and we’d all go live up in the country and be... happy...” Shetrails off, eyes wide at what must be the slack-jawed expression on his face.
“Youknew?” he blurts. Frederic startles in his arms, blinking up at him in reproach. “Sorry, sorry,” he mumbles to the baby, rocking side to side as he brings his eyes back up to Beth. “Youknew?” he asks, quieter but with no less consternation.
Beth blushes. “We suspected. But we’d never have pushed if it seemed like either of you didn’t want—and we stopped, I swear we stopped after that horrible night at the opera.”
“You were trying to trap us into marriage?” Bobby asks, dumbfounded.
“Into false marriage!” Beth insists. “You’d live with James, and I’d live with Gwen, and we’d all have the perfect cover, all the time, and it would be like it was—”
“At the manor,” he finishes, the whole convoluted mess of it landing solidly in his mind while he bounces the baby.
Beth and Gwen inviting them on outings. Beth and Gwen forcing them to team up at tea-time sports. Beth and Gwen pestering Uncle Dashiell into inviting James to events. All the times he and James were at each other’s throats, his cousin and Beth were waiting on the sidelines, hoping they’d fall in love sotheycould be happily in love and—
“Fuck, that’s brilliant,” he mutters.
“It is, isn’t it?” Beth asks, leaning back in her rocking chair, a self-satisfied smile spreading over her cheeks.
Bobby glances down at baby Frederic. “But... God, Beth, I love you, and if I have to marry someone, you’d be my only choice, but I don’t know that I could—”
“No, no, oh, Lord, no,” Beth says, sitting up straight so quickly she nearly topples out of the rocking chair. “No, I... It’s almost a perfect plan, heirs and babies notwithstanding.”
“Right,” he says, looking back at the baby. “Right.”
“And you don’t have to. I just—I thought I’d tell you, because if you do want to—if you think it could work, maybe it would be right for James too.”
Bobby worries at his lip, looking down at baby Frederic, who snuffles an adorable baby snort.
Wouldn’t it be perfect? The perfect disguise, the perfect charade. And the four of them, in the country, together, forever. In love, and friendship, and family. If they’d just avoided Lady Harrington finding them debauched in the hedges, maybe they could have learned about this together, saved everyone so much pain.
“Why didn’t you justsaysomething?” he asks, looking back up at Beth.
She smiles sadly. “It wasn’t until we saw you together at the Mason manor that we even thought it might really work and then—I guess we were scared. We didn’t know how you really felt about him, whether you would want himforever. And we wouldn’t want you to be miserable just so we’d be happy. I think we both worried you would do it just to see us smile.”
Bobby feels his heart break and mend and ache all at once. “You really are the best, you know? Both of you.”
“The feeling’s mutual,” Beth says, smiling, her eyes a little watery. “And it’s totally up to you. We can all just stay friends. That’s lovely too.”
