Now that the time had come, Georgiana wasn’t certain how much she wanted to say. She’d spent the last six years keeping her secret; speaking about it was more difficult than she’d expected.
Lucinda seemed to realize that. “Just tell me what you want,” she said quietly. “You know nothing will pass outside these walls.”
Georgiana took a deep breath. “Tristan proposed to me.”
“What? He what?”
“He asked me to marry him.”
Standing, Lucinda poured herself a cup of tea. “It is times like this, I wish women drank brandy. What did you tell him?”
“I told him I couldn’t marry him. Not under these circumstances.”
“And what circumstances might those be?”
“Oh, dear. I…gave Tristan some items,” she began, fidgeting, “and someone else took them. Now if he refuses to marry this person who took the items, this person will use them to ruin me.”
“I see.” Lucinda took a sip of her tea and added a lump of sugar. “I’m not trying to pry, but it might be easier for me to help you if you used more nouns and fewer pronouns.”
Taking a short breath, Georgiana nodded. “The items are a pair of stockings and a letter. The person who took them is Amelia Johns.”
“I thought Dare intended on marrying her, anyway.”
“He thought about it, at one time.”
“But now he wants to marry you.”
When Lucinda said it, the statement seemed to carry even more significance. He did want to marry her. He’d truly wanted her. “Yes. That’s what he said, anyway.”
“And when did this happen?”
“Twenty minutes ago.” Georgiana could sympathize with her friend’s confusion. “Do try to keep up, Luce,” she said, with a small smile.
“I’m attempting to. But other than Amelia Johns trying to blackmail Dare with your things, which doesn’t quite make sense at this point, you would marry him?”
“My heart wants to,” Georgiana whispered, her eyes filling again. “My mind isn’t certain yet.”
“So marry him, and then whatever Amelia does won’t really matter.”
“It’s not that simple. Several years ago, Tristan participated in a wager that…hurt me. Somehow we managed to keep anyone from gossiping about it, but I’m afraid to tr—”
“To trust him,” Luce finished. “Do you think he would use your things against you?”
“No. He would never do that. But until this is resolved, I can’t trust that any decision either of us makes would be the right one.”
“So get your stockings back, Georgie.”
“Amelia won’t return them. Not until she and Tristan are safely married.”
“And I repeat—get them back.”
Georgiana sat back, looking at her friend. The idea of sneaking into someone’s home and stealing them…Of course, they were hers in the first place. And if she had them back, and misplaced guilt truly wasn’t the reason Tristan had proposed to her, perhaps he would propose again. And then she could say yes—though that would take even more courage on her part than sneaking about strange houses. At any rate, she wanted her stockings back.
“Do you want help?” Lucinda asked.
“No. Any problem that arises is going to be mine alone, Luce. And so will the decision to do it—or not do it.”
They finished their tea, chatting about other, more normal things. Lucinda was trying to calm her down, and she was grateful for the effort, but the entire time, she was mulling over what she would do about Amelia Johns.
