Phoebe studied them both carefully. Even if Aurelia had decided she was no longer with child, it didn’t mean the captain wasn’t originally involved. And yet her instincts told her he was no more involved than she.
‘Now that is a disappointment,’ he returned gallantly, ‘but perhaps one of the Misses Fairfax will oblige me with a waltz instead? For one can hardly attend a Damerel dinner dressed as a Romeo, and not hope for a dance with a Juliet after all.’
‘Indeed!’ Phoebe smiled, while Sophie positively beamed in his direction.
‘I’m sure there are many young ladies here who would like to claim that namesake. But alas, you seemed to have foiled our efforts this evening! Aren’t you at least supposed topretendyou don’t know us? Or are our masks entirely wasted?’
‘Not at all!’ He winked, before leaning forward conspiratorially. ‘Your aunt pointed you out, mostly out of sympathy for my nerves! Mama’s friends are forever trying to matchmake me with their prodigiously boring daughters…’
He pretended to shudder, his eyes alight with humour, and not for the first time Phoebe wondered at the twist of fate that had dealt two brothers such different personalities.
‘Well, I think Sophie would be most happy to help you in your hour of need,’ Phoebe smiled. ‘While I have promised Aurelia a swift turn about the gardens.’
With a sudden burst of purpose, she ignored her sister’s blushes, and propelled Aurelia out into the gardens.
‘Really, Phoebe! Iampromised for the next few dances as I said?—’
‘And I won’t keep you from them,’ Phoebe interrupted, the moment they were out of earshot. ‘But I will say my piece and then we will be done.’
She turned to face Aurelia, never more serious in her life.
‘We made a deal and I expect you to honour it! I thought we could be friends,’ she continued, ‘even had moments when I thought I could understand you – feel empathy for you. But real friends don’t try to expose or undermine one another, especially those who have little enough control as it is.’
Aurelia waited, a gleam creeping into her eyes.
‘You said once that we weren’t that different, and I disagreed. Well, I take that back because you were right.’ Phoebe scowled. ‘We’re both pawns in a gentlemen’s game. Yet, unlike you, I don’t trade my friends for a fallible king! So, I say again, we made a deal and Iexpectyou to keep to it. Stay away from me and stay away from my sisters. I hope you understand that, if nothing else.’
There was a brief pause while Aurelia paled with anger.
‘I never lied!’ she retorted, her lips white. I thought I was with child, and now I find I am not. And we were never the same – you think that because you grew up fighting with brothers and falling out of trees, you have some greater claim to the notion of equality? This fight has been raging a lot longer than you or I, and at least I don’t have double standards. I know all about the earl and trust me, I can’t wait for that little event to unfold!’
Phoebe stared, wondering why she ever tried to help.
‘Whyare you like this?’ she challenged after a beat. ‘And who told you about the earl?’
Aurelia laughed again, but this time there was a definite edge.
‘You country bumpkins aresoignorant! You wear such a ridiculous,hunted expression, anyone would guess at it. And besides, Viscount Damerel tells meeverything. How we laughed when he relayed your duel with the highwayman, and your reluctance to return home to your brother…
‘Tut-tut, Phoebe, I’d keep yourexpectationsto yourself if I were you, unless you wish the whole of Bath to know how particularly you tried to escape your ownsituation!’
Then she turned and swept back inside, leaving Phoebe alone with the curious peacocks, and the distant strain of the violins, warming up to the waltz.
‘What are you looking at?’ Phoebe threw at the nearest bird, before picking up her skirts and heading out into the garden.
It wasn’t long before the sweet-scented roses and climbing wisteria began to reach inside Phoebe’s unsettled thoughts. Damerel Place was tiny compared to Knightswood, or even the viscount’s country estate, but it had a soothing magic of its own, and soon she was far enough away from the house to think more clearly.
She already knew Aurelia didn’t care for her, but to believe she’d taken against her because of her notions on equality? That the viscount had told her about the duel and Thomas’s dressing down? What else may he have told her?
A strange and uncomfortable prickle reached up the back of her neck.
And why had Aurelia sought so hard to expose her when they both felt exactly the same frustrations, and were so blatantly fighting for the same thing?
Shereached the southern-most garden wall, beyond the miniature maze and twinkling lanterns, before she allowed herself to pause. The spring night was scented with thyme and fresh honeysuckle, and she inhaled deeply, missing Knightswood more than ever. Which was when she noticed the swing, concealed inside an old magnolia tree, and far enough away for the sound of music to be almost drowned out by the churr of a dusk nightjar.
‘Perfect,’ she muttered, ducking beneath the low branches to reach the wide wooden seat.
Moments later, she was being lulled by its gentle rhythm and if it seemed unusual for a bachelor of the ton to possess such a distraction, her curiosity was swiftly replaced with a brief escape into memories of Knightswood and rides with Misty.
