“Chastity, I have some things that I must tell you.” Helena hesitated, but forged on. “It is, I fear, not pleasant news.”
“If it is about Lord Clifton, you must not bother,” Chastity said without looking at her sister. “I know that he shall not be coming for me.”
“How- how do you know?” Helena asked, taken by surprise.
Chastity lifted her hand to show Helena a crumpled piece of parchment.
“News travels fast in theton.” A single tear rolled down Chastity’s cheeks, but she quickly swiped it away. “Here, you can read it if you want to.”
Hesitantly, Helena reached for the letter.
It was from one of Chastity’s friends telling her that news of Lord Clifton’s swift departure was spreading through London.
Helena sighed, not knowing if she must feel thankful that knowledge of his being married and that he had sold his estate were not yet publicly known. Either way, she knew that it was her duty to still tell Chastity. This she could do more easily than the other news that she carried heavily in her heart.
She looked at the letter again and could only imagine how Chastity felt upon reading it. After everything that happened, she was still her little sister. She longed to take her in her arms and comfort her, as she did when she broke her new doll, as she did when a thunderstorm woke her in the middle of the night, frightened.
Instead, Helena moved to her and reached for her hand and grasped it in hers. When Chastity did not pull her hand back, Helena sighed with relief.
“Dearest, I’m afraid I have more news that you will not wish to hear. But?—”
“Please tell me,” Chastity said, her gaze out the window. “And do it quickly.”
Helena fortified herself.
“Lord Clifton has left England for good. He has sold his country estate—the real reason for his returning to the country—and he is to return to the West Indies, where he is to rejoin his wife.”
Chastity closed her eyes and leaned her forehead on the window. She stayed completely still; the rising and falling of her chest was her only movement.
When she looked up at Helena, her eyes were dry but filled with misery.
“How am I to endure this pain, Helena? What must I do to leave it all behind? It is too much. I am a fool, you see, for I love him still—yet do I also despise him. What must I do?”
Chastity rose from the chair and knelt before Helena, arms clutching at her sister’s waist.
“Tell me what to do, Helena. Tell me, and I shall follow every word. I shall do everything you tell me to do. Please.”
Chastity said the words so quietly that Helena felt all the more her suffering. While her parents worried over a ruined reputation, here was Chastity, heartbroken, disillusioned, and in pain.
“Dearest.”
Helena pulled Chastity up and sat her again on the chair. She lifted her chin until she met her gaze. And as hastily as she could, before she could stop the words from flowing, told her of the decision made in the gardens just moments ago. The decision that would save her sister, while it broke her heart.
“You shall be married to Matteo.”
Chastity looked at Helena as if she were not making sense.
“We were never really engaged, you see. It was all to help you, really. Matt—His Grace came up with the idea that you being married to him would be the best. He shall speak to Papa when he returns.”
Chastity still remained silent, though she watched Helena’s face. Unnerved, Helena looked down for a moment.
“It-it is for the best, dearest,” she said in a small voice.
Chastity did not reply, she went to her bed, lay quietly on top of it, and closed her eyes.
She watched her sister and never felt so helpless in all her life as she did now. For herself and for Chastity. For most of her adult life, she had always planned for everything, controlled all the aspects that were in her power to control, but now, now she found herself powerless.
Helena felt the tears build behind her eyes. She followed Helena to the bed and lay beside her. She put her arm around her sister. She could no longer stop her emotions from escaping; she wept silently, hiding her face on the pillow.
