“His reputation was only half of it,” Clara muttered.“The other half is how he looks at me as if he knows the ending already.”
“You like it.”
“You could not possibly,” Alice said, stirring a lump of sugar into her tea.
“I like...parts of it.Not him.The tension.”Clara sighed.“I would not wish to burden you?—”
“I am still here after Brighton and the duel,” Eden said with a fond smile, her eyes gleaming.“And I distinctly recall pulling you out of that fountain in Bath, so I think I have earned the right to hear your tangled feelings and promise I shall not judge.”
“And I have been at your side since we were girls.”Alice met Clara’s gaze.“You know you can trust us.”
Clara looked into her tea, the steam curling softly between them.“Do you remember when I lost my Almack’s voucher?That moment taught me how swiftly reputations could unravel, how fragile approval truly was.Ever since, I have kept people at a distance, especially men like him.”
“That was dreadful, and all—” Alice pressed her lips together, cutting off her words, but Clara knew how the sentence ended.All because of Oakford.Her chest squeezed.Eden was oblivious of the whole dreadful affair.She and Eden had not been friends at the time, but Alice knew the tale all too well.
“Go on.”Eden nodded encouragement.
“It was Lord Oakford,” Clara said quietly.“He joked about seeing me in the hedge maze.Said I remained innocent, but by morning, the ton assumed I did not.”
The words settled between them like fog.Clara stared into her teacup, watching the steam curl and vanish, as if hoping her shame might evaporate just as easily.She had not spoken of it aloud in years.Not to her mother, not to her friends, not even to herself.But the hurt had never left, only buried itself deeper each season.Now, speaking it aloud made the weight shift—heavier in one way, and lighter in another.
“He ruined you,” Eden said as Alice shook her head in the affirmative.
Clara set her teacup aside.“And he never noticed, or cared.Oakford went on with his life while Lord Beresford stopped calling on me.Mother scrambled to repair the damage, but for a while the invitations slowed to a near stop.”
Eden squeezed her hand.“And now he is courting you.Pretending he will marry you and setting you up to be ruined all over again.”
“I am not so certain he is.He listens.He makes me laugh.And sometimes...I think he likes me.”
“And you?”
“Most of the time, I want to find a way to beg off without ruining my reputation.”She paused.Took a sip of her tea.“Sometimes, I like him back.And it terrifies me.I do not know what it means to like someone who once hurt me so deeply, what it says about him, or about me.”
“You are not that girl anymore,” Alice said.
Clara blinked, her throat tightening around the truth of it.She wanted to believe it, needed to, but the weight of the past still clung like damp silk.And yet, in Alice’s eyes, she saw no doubt.Only belief.And that belief was something she had not realized she craved.
“Still, I do not trust him.Or myself.It feels like I am being swept away in a storm of my own making.”Clara sighed.“It was I who made that foolish announcement, and now I am trapped.”
“What would you have him do?Apologize?”Eden asked.
“Would you even believe it?”Alice set her teacup down and leaned in.
Clara shook her head.“I do not know.But regardless, I would remain caught in my web of deceit.”
Eden held her gaze, teacup in hand.“Do you want him to be the villain?Or the man you have glimpsed beneath the mask?”
“I have built my walls so high, I do not know how to let them down.I have despised him for years.”
“And rightly so,” Alice said.“But people do change.You have.”
Eden reached for Clara’s hand.“Do not tear them down.Just lower the drawbridge.Allow him a chance.You might find yourself pleasantly surprised.”
Clara laughed.“You sound like a pamphlet.”
“I sound like your friend.”Eden’s lips curved in a gentle smile.
“We are both here for you, Clara.Whatever you need.Whatever happens.”Alice reached out and squeezed Clara’s hand.“You can count on us.”
