Hazel shook her head. “You are all terrible.”
“But we love you,” Cordelia corrected cheerfully.
“And we care for you,” Evelyn added warmly.
“And we see through you completely,” Matilda said, with a fond, knowing look.
Hazel blinked. “See through me?”
Cordelia was the first to narrow her eyes. That was a dangerous sign. She leaned back in her chair, arms folding with all the exaggerated elegance of a stage actress preparing to deliver a scandalous line.
“Well,” she drawled, “I, for one, think it isadorablethat Hazel cares so deeply about her husband.”
Hazel nearly spilled her tea. “I do not.”
Three pairs of eyebrows rose in unison.
Evelyn smiled sweetly. It was the kind of sweetness that meant Hazel had been caught. “Hazel, dear, you marched across London to confront a mistress who did not exist. One might interpret that as…investment.”
Hazel sputtered. “I was concerned for myreputation.”
Matilda tilted her head. “You were rehearsing a speech to give a woman you had never met, whom you immediately disliked on principle.”
“I… well, I?—”
Cordelia clapped her hands. “Oh, she cares. This is delightful.”
Hazel pressed her fingers to her temples. “If the three of you do not stop, I shall force you to leave immediately and never invite you here again.”
Evelyn giggled into her napkin. Cordelia looked wholly unthreatened. Matilda, the traitor, sipped her tea with serene satisfaction.
“Hazel,” Evelyn said gently, “we are only teasing because we love you. And because it is rather obvious you have… feelings.”
Hazel felt her heartbeat stutter.
She looked down at her lap, smoothing an imaginary crease in her gown. “I do not,” she murmured. “Not truly.”
Cordelia leaned forward. “But youcould.”
That landed too close.
Hazel swallowed heavily. “Perhaps. But what would it matter? This was meant to be a marriage of convenience. He did not want affection.” Her voice softened. “And neither did I.”
Matilda’s expression turned tender. “But things have changed.”
Hazel hesitated. Memories rose unbidden: Greyson catching her as she fell from the ladder; Greyson removing the splinter; Greyson’s lips brushing her skin; Greyson telling her the story of his brother… In all of her memories, there was alwaysGreyson.
Her heart squeezed painfully.
“I am afraid,” Hazel whispered.
Her friends fell silent.
She stared at the tea tray, unable to meet their eyes. “What if he does not want… the same things I find myself wanting? What if I… fall and he does not?”
Evelyn moved from her chair to Hazel’s side, taking her hand with quiet warmth. “Hazel, love is always a risk. But I have never seen a man look the way your husband looked at you during your wedding dance.”
Hazel flushed. “You imagined it.”
