“You are both looking lovely, my dears.” Lady Chapman said, then, beaming at Helena, she continued. “Helena, your betrothal took us all quite by surprise!”
“Yes, well, it was quite sudden to be sure, my lady,” Helena said demurely.
“And you have been very sly, the pair of you, have you not, Your Grace?” Lady Chapman addressed Matteo, chuckling. “I can only imagine that you have had your eye on Helena for a while now?”
Helena fought a blush.
Matteo bowed.
“She has been constantly on my mind as of late, my lady. I can only be relieved that she accepted my proposal.”
“I shall take the liberty to say that many young ladies and their mamas now suffer from disappointed hopes, since seeing you in attendance at my last ball had they realized that you were prospecting for a wife.” Lady Chapman waved her hand as if to dismiss them. “But theirs was a short-lived hope, for not too long after that, word of your betrothal spread through London like wildfire.”
Helena watched Matteo for his reaction. He smiled, nodded, and took her hand.
“It was not my intention to disappoint anyone, my lady, but I must act with my own wishes in mind.”
“Yes, of course, Your Grace. And may I congratulate you on a fine choice?—”
She was briefly interrupted by a friend who was calling her over.
“Ah, I apologize, but my attentions are needed elsewhere. I shall leave you, young people, for now.” Then to Helena, she added with a wink, “Well, perhaps this was why you refused to dance with Mr. Addison, you did have your reasons after all!”
Chastity looked at Helena, confused.
“But I thought you still disliked His Grace during Lady Chapman’s ball? You were very rude to him when he asked me to dance.”
“Chastity.” Helena ground out her name.
“Oh!” Chastity’s cheeks turned pink. “I apologize, Your Grace.”
“Do not worry yourself about it, Lady Chastity.” Matteo smiled. “Your sister did, indeed, still dislike me then. It was after that when she realized that Idohave some pardonable traits too.”
“And what did you like about Helena, Your Grace?” Chastity asked.
Helena felt Matteo squeeze her hand. She had almost forgotten that he still held it in his. Hoping and praying that he didnot launch into his silliness, she squeezed his hand back as a warning.
“Her seriousness.” He said with a simple smile.
“Indeed?” Chastity looked unconvinced, but she nodded all the same.
Matteo smiled again, a small, earnest smile that he rarely employed and therefore had a greater impact on its recipient.
“Helena takes life by the hand and leads it to where she wants it to go. She has an intensity that makes you see that everything must have a purpose, a meaning behind every happening.”
When he looked at Helena and held her gaze, she felt her knees weaken. Perhaps it was his green eyes, made more arresting by the sincerity on his handsome face. Or perhaps it was the words that he had just spoken, words that she had never expected to be used in describing her. Well, she had, indeed, been called serious before, but never to this effect. He somehow madeserioussound beautiful, meaningful.
She felt her heart burrow in her chest.
“Oh,” Chastity said softly. “That is quite beautiful.”
She inclined her head and smiled at her older sister.
Gossip, as all gossip went, spread fast during Lady Trueman’s garden party. Much like Matteo and Helena’s arrival at the Wakefield Musicale, the fact that they arrived together was noted by all. But the difference between the musicale and this event was that the garden party had significantly more attendees. Where the Wakefield Musical only had the family’s members and their friends, Lady Trueman had more than a hundred guests.
And so, as Matteo and Helena had anticipated, news of their engagement was now widely known.
“So, it is true!” As the first of many gentlemen intercepted them when they made their way to their host. “You really have decided to be shackled.”
