“Yes,” he said, cutting in gently but firmly. “I am aware.” He inclined his head once more, a dismissal wrapped in courtesy. “Thank you for telling me.”
He turned away before she could say more, before she could remark upon Hazel’s habits or praise her sense of duty. Each word would only sharpen the unease already settling into his soul. Hazel had not merely stepped out. She hadchosento leave, to return to the place that had shaped her, rather than to the life she was meant to be building now. And she had done so without a word to him.
Greyson went in search of a drink. He found one at the edge of the ballroom, accepted a glass of brandy, and stood very still as the amber liquid settled. The act was familiar and grounding. It was something to occupy his hands while his thoughts refused to be ordered.
Hazel had left without a single word.
He took a measured sip, felt the burn, welcomed it.
“Where is your lovely duchess?”
The words reached him just as he lowered the glass. Greyson turned slowly. Jasper was now standing before him. His brows were lifted in that perpetually mischievous and curious lookuntil he took in Greyson’s expression. Whatever he saw there wiped the grin from his face with impressive speed.
“Good grief,” Jasper said at once. “Are you about to strike me, or should I merely step aside?”
Greyson’s jaw tightened. He said nothing.
Jasper straightened, and now, all levity was gone. “What’s happened? Is everything all right?”
Greyson looked away, back toward the crowd, toward the doors Hazel had passed through without him. “She’s gone,” he said shortly. “She left with her sister. Returned to her parents’ house.”
Jasper blinked. “Ah.” He considered this for a moment, then gave a small shrug. “Well, her sisters are fond of her, and likely missed her dreadfully. She’ll return tomorrow. No cause to look as though you’re preparing to challenge the entire ballroom to a duel.”
Greyson’s grip tightened around the glass. “Why did she not tell me herself?”
Jasper’s brows drew together. “She… left without a word?”
Greyson nodded once.
“Thatisunusual,” Jasper admitted. Then, after a pause, he added, more lightly. “Still, there may have been some urgency, old boy, something you are not yet aware of.”
Greyson exhaled slowly through his nose. He wanted to argue, to list the reasons Hazel would never leave without explanation and to insist that something about this felt wrong. But Jasper’s calm was contagious, if only slightly.
“Yes,” Greyson said at last. “Perhaps.”
Jasper clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Go home. Have another drink if you must. You will see her soon enough, and then you may ask her what troubled her.”
Greyson inclined his head, though the unease did not fully recede. “I will do precisely that.”
He drained the glass and set it aside. As he turned toward the exit, he told himself that Hazel had simply been needed elsewhere, that tomorrow would bring explanation and that there was no cause for this tightness in his chest.
Yet as he stepped into the night and summoned his carriage, one thought would not be dismissed: Hazel had always told him when she was needed… but tonight, she had not.
“I shall remain for a few days.”
The words settled into the drawing room with surprising weight as Hazel spoke to her mother and sisters the following morning. Sunlight filtered through the curtains, pale and forgiving, illuminating the familiar space where she had spent so much of her life steadying others.
Her mother looked up at once. “Remain?”
“Yes,” Hazel confirmed. “After last evening, I think it best. There has been… excitement enough. It would not do for matters to be left unresolved, particularly where Chastity is concerned.”
At the sound of her name, Chastity stiffened slightly on the sofa, while Patience looked up from her embroidery with open interest.
Their mother’s face brightened at once. “Oh, how sensible of you,” she said, and her relief bloomed into satisfaction. “I was saying only this morning that we must be careful. One never knows how such things may be interpreted.”
Hazel inclined her head. “Precisely. A young lady dancing so exclusively, it invites speculation. It will be as well if we present a united, composed front for the next few days.”
Her mother rose at once, already animated. “I am so glad you agree. I have been quite beside myself, wondering how best to proceed. Of course, with you here, everything will be set to rights. It always is.”
