He canted his head to one side, his blue eyes probing deeply into hers.“Are you ever going to forgive me?”
Eyeing him just as intently, she tilted her head in an allusion of a shrug.“It doesn’t matter, really.I’ll be gone from London before too long, and it will be a moot point.”
“Gone from London?”he repeated.“With this man you say you love?Are you going to marry him then?Who’s the lucky man?”
“Donovan Ramsay.”Fiona’s dark side found no little pleasure in the ability to provide a name.To let him know how thoroughly she had moved on.“Do you know him?”
Aylesbury raised a brow.“Donovan Ramsay?Good God, Fiona, the man’s a knock away from Death’s door!”He whistled under his breath then.“Damned, but you’ll be a rich widow before the honeymoon’s over.My hat’s off to you, my dear.”
“You’re such a bastard, Harry,” Fiona muttered under her breath.Though the words carried all the derision she hoped for, Aylesbury’s jest, without a hint of upset, scored at her heart.It shouldn’t, she knew.Aylesbury had made his feelings for her quite clear long ago.“I am not referring to the Earl of Carron himself but his nephew.Quite likely, you knew that and are only poking fun, as you tend to and...”
But he wasn’t listening.Instead, his attention was wholly focused on something else.Following his gaze, she could see nothing but pedestrians on foot and a carriage or two.
“What...?”
“I must go,” he said abruptly, already turning away.“My apologies.”
Running back to his horse, Aylesbury mounted hastily and spurred the horse into a gallop before he had even fully gained his seat.Wandering back towards Eve, Fiona watched him go, only to realize he was chasing after a pair of ladies in one of the carriages.Even from a distance, she could hear him call to them.
* * *
“What was that all about?”Eve asked curiously as Aylesbury pulled up next to the carriage and tipped his hat to greet the ladies.
“Are you surprised?”Fiona grumbled, rejoining her sister-in-law on the blanket and drawing Lela into her lap.Ilona had also returned, leaving the two boys under the supervision of their nanny.Fiona shrugged as if it were nothing to have a care over, even though she was stung by sudden Aylesbury’s abandonment.Who were the ladies in the carriage?Was one of them his mysteriousshe?“He’s a practiced flirt who simply cannot help spreading himself around.”
Taking the toddler’s hands in hers, she clapped them together in a gentle Pat-a-Cake.
“I don’t think he’s as capricious as you think,” Eve disagreed.“In fact, I do believe he fancies you.”
Fiona snorted dismissively, denying herself the stab of pleasure Eve’s words brought.“There are many things Aylesbury fancies, not the least being Vin’s wife or Richard’s for that matter.But not me.Aylesbury was quite clear on that point.Why, I’d have a foot in the grave before that changed!”
A frown furrowed between Ilona’s brows.“He said as much?”
Two years ago.But, “Yes.”
“Did he?”Eve tapped a finger against her lips thoughtfully.“Perhaps he changed his mind.”
“Perhaps he has.”Fiona looked from Eve to Ilona, seeing the understanding there.“That doesn’t necessarily mean I have changed mine.I’ve moved on.”
“Have you?”Eve asked, sharing a look of concern with Ilona.“You don’t carry a torch for him somewhere deep down inside, just as my heart lingered with Francis in all the years between our first meeting and our second?”
Eve was far too perceptive to be having a conversation such as this with her.But Fiona wasn’t about to admit a thing to Eve that she refused to admit to herself.Not that there was anything to admit, of course.
“No, I don’t because I, for one, believe that it is preferable to be Elinor Dashwood rather than Marianne, facing the future for what it is rather than pining for the past,” Fiona said, referring to the characters in Jane Austen’sSense and Sensibility.“I have a plan for my future, Eve, and Harrison Brudenall is not in it.”
“But did Elinor truly move on, Fiona?”Ilona asked skeptically.“Did she find happiness where she could?Or did she still long for Mr.Ferrars in her heart and remain a single lady as a result?”
“She was content,” Fiona argued.After all, every tale was open to interpretation by the reader and that was how she chose to take it.“Content with her choices, as I am with mine.”
Eve raised a doubtful brow.“Was she?Are you?Elinor was burdened by an overabundance of good sense, I think.”
“Yes,” Ilona agreed.“She was exceedingly cautious and practical.”
“And I’m not.”Fiona didn’t even dare to inflect a question into it.Such a query would have lifted that brow even higher; besides, Fiona wasn’t so blind to her attributes and failings that she might even pretend to think she possessed those qualities.No, she wasn’t cautious or even practical, but Fiona was a realist, and she told her sisters-in-law as much.
“No, Fiona dear, you are not,” Ilona agreed softly.“You’re impulsive; I said as much the other day.But while grasping imprudently for one thing, you’re also running.Running from what troubles you and replacing it with a whole new set of troubles won’t solve anything.”
“You don’t understand,” she whispered, the words bitter at the back of her throat.“Neither of you do.You can’t imagine what it is like to stand back and watch it all!”
