Now he needed stronger wine. Or cold water. Or the castle moat.
“I hear you are a bosom friend of Lady Ashley?” he asked, hoping the word “bosom” would not trigger his entire body into betrayal.
She lifted a brow. “Indeed. We’ve known each other a long time.”
“So she tells you all her secrets?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Girls talk,” he said, feigning innocence. “I wonder if you know Lady Ashley’s secrets… or her plans for the du—”
Clink!
Thomas tapped a silver spoon against his goblet, and the room hushed. Footmen glided in with trays of champagne. The table held its breath.
Sebastian turned to Ashley, who sat composed and elegant, a sly smile just playing at her lips.
“My dear friends,” Thomas began, hisvoice ringing clear. “It brings me great joy to make an announcement this evening.”
He paused. “I am proud to say that Lady Ashley and I—” his voice softened as he turned to her, “—have set a date for the wedding. In seven days.”
Sebastian had known they’d be in a rush with a baby on the way, but it still hit him like a shove.
Young. In love. Everything ahead of them.
It was oddly beautiful. And it stung a bit.
The table burst into applause. All but one person.
Miss Madeleine was frozen. Her hands clapped, yes—but her face…
Her expression cracked right down the middle. Surprise, certainly. But also something softer. Sadder.
As if she’d suddenly realized she was still waiting for her turn.
Sebastian leaned closer, his voice low. “Are you feeling quite all right?”
What he really wanted was to brush a hand down her spine, to draw her into his side until she could breathe again.
To tell her, your turn is coming.
But she didn’t look at him.
She just smiled—a little too tightly—and nodded.
And it made him strangely ache.
Because she was the sort of woman who would always applaud for others, even when her own heart seemed to be breaking.
*
A wedding sosoon?
Charlene leaned in close, her breath warm against Maddie’s ear.
“It’s all so sudden, isn’t it? She didn’t even tell us,” she murmured, voice low with mischief. “But then, I suppose Ashley needs to be a bride before her belly begins to show.”
Maddie blinked.Belly. Show.
