She looked up as I rushed toward her.
“Sophia has the letter! She had it all this time!” I lowered my voice. “Thomas never read it. He still doesn't know how you feel.”
The color drained from her face, and I started to worry she would faint.
“Sophia is bringing the letter back to me. You can tell him how you feel, or you can give him the letter. He needs to know the truth. Tonight.”
She exhaled, slow and shaky. “But—there are so many people. Rejection with an audience is far worse.”
“He won't reject you!”
I followed her gaze across the room to where Lord Trowbridge stood beside James. I was distracted for a few seconds, but returned my attention to Clara again just in time to see her eyes fly open wide. “No,” she breathed.
“What?”
Her hand clutched my arm. “No. No. No.”
“What is it?” My gaze shot across the room again, and I gasped. Sophia had already returned, and she stood beside her father. In her hand was a folded sheet of paper.
I moved a step forward but knew it was too late. Lord Trowbridge looked down at her with confusion, taking the letter tentatively. Her lips moved, and then she raised a tiny finger and pointed in our direction.
My eyes flickered to James. He was watching me, one eyebrow raised in question. I froze, and so did Clara. My arm was numb from her grip by the time Lord Trowbridge unfolded the letter and his eyes scanned the words Clara had written.
The moment he looked up, Clara released my arm and rushed out the door behind us. I considered following her, but realized Lord Trowbridge already intended to, pushing past groups of guests, carried by long strides toward the same exit she had taken.
I pushed back a squeal of triumph, and found my gaze drifting across the room to James. Instinctively, I looked away, but checked the clock. It had been one hour. There was no way to avoid him now.
When I looked at him again, he was already walking toward me, a baffled expression on his face. I met him in the middle of the room, near the same place we had met earlier. I cursed my heart for beating so loudly.
“As your accomplice, I feel as though I should've been informed of that tactic,” James said, smiling, a look of awe on his face. “Care to enlighten me?”
I relayed the details of my conversation with Sophia, and he chuckled.
“A stroke of genius on her part. Perhaps you should've always consulted her before me.”
I shrugged. “A young child has bested us. She understood what we did not, I suppose.”
“Love must be much simpler than either of us suspect.” He was smiling, but there was something hidden in his eyes.
“I wish it was.” The words came without my permission.
James looked down at me, and I didn’t look away this time. I wished it wasalleasier. I wished a future in the South living in a grand home and making my mother proud wasn't such a contradiction to this man. It stung, deep inside, and I begged my mind to forget him. I wished that was easier too.
It was only a few seconds later when Lucy appeared beside me. I tore my eyes away from James with effort and tried my hardest to smile.
“All the ladies are to meet in the drawing room immediately. We are picking names,” Lucy said.
I nodded, allowing her to pull me with her by the arm. I glanced at James one more time, but he was looking down, scuffing his boot across the marble floor, arms crossed.
Once we reached the drawing room, the giggling I had heard from a distance before was now a full roar, echoing in high trills as a top hat filled with small slips of paper was passed from lady to lady. I searched the room for Clara and found her standing beside Rachel, eyes scanning the room. As soon as she saw me, her face broke into a smile. Relief flooded through me.
She rushed to my side and pulled me away from the crowd of ladies. “He loves me, Charlotte!” she whispered. “You were right. You were right! And—and he said he was wrong to be so aloof, and that he was sorry. And…” Her cheeks turned pink. “He kissed me.”
I couldn’t stop my grin. “I am not surprised.”
She took my hand, and I noticed in her eyes a brightness that had been missing for a long time. “Thank you. If you had not intervened, I would still be grim and Thomas would still be entirely blind. You are the world’s most amazing sister.”
“We both know that is not true.” I rolled my eyes half-heartedly. “You owe your gratitude to little Sophia. Your future step-daughter?” I raised an eyebrow in question.
