“Then I will tell you that I like the man. When he spends time with the three of us, I feel as though he fits into our little family group. He seems intelligent, which is good, as someone who didn’t match your wit would certainly bore you no matter how handsome he was.”
“That is true,” Celia admitted. “Though heishandsome.”
Rosalinde laughed. “A bonus in his favor. But he also seems kind, and that puts my mind at ease. Most importantly, he appears to care for you. I have caught him watching you from time to time when you aren’t looking, and there is an expression on his face that makes me think he would work very hard to make you happy.”
Celia sighed. “There is a bit of sadness in him, as well. I see it around his eyes, his mouth. He hasn’t opened up to me about it, but it is there. He isn’t just some spoilt duke who never understood pain.”
“Then he has depth,” Rosalinde said. “Of course, none of how I feel about him makes any difference. The true question is how doyoufeel?”
Celia’s hands had begun to shake and she clenched them together on her lap. She was about to say those words she hadn’t dared to say out loud. Once she did, they would be real. They would be dangerously real.
“I am…in love with him,” she whispered. The second she said it, her heart began to pound faster, but not out of nervousness or anxiety. No, this was out of pure joy. She smiled even as tears of wonder filled her eyes. “I’m in love with him. I know it’s soon.”
“Sometimes it takes years to know, sometimes just one night,” Rosalinde reassured her, tears in her own blue eyes. “I’m so happy, Celia. There were times I questioned if I damaged you by encouraging you to break your engagement to Stenfax last year. But to see you now makes me so happy that you gave yourself a chance at love. You deserve nothing less.”
Celia’s smile faded a fraction. “I’ll admit that these feelings are part of my distraction the past day, but there is…more. And I must tell you because it impacts you.”
Rosalinde cocked her head. “What more?”
“When Aiden was here yesterday afternoon, I-I told him the truth.”
Rosalinde drew back. Celia obviously didn’t have to say more. Her sister fully understood what she meant by that comment. “I see. Thewholetruth?” she asked.
Celia managed a nod. “About Grandfather and the breaking of the engagement and about our origins. That we are bastard daughters of a servant whose name we don’t even know.” She shook her head. “I couldn’t keep it from him. To pursue anything further without telling him felt like something Grandfather would do.”
“A trap,” Rosalinde said softly.
“Exactly.”
“And how did Clairemont take the news?” Rosalinde asked. “He left so hurriedly and I wondered why.”
Celia shrugged. “He was infinitely kind. He told me that none of it mattered. He said all the right things and it was a great comfort.”
Rosalinde wrinkled her brow at those words. “That should make me feel better and yet it doesn’t. Do you think he didn’t mean those things?”
“I’m sure he did,” Celia replied. “But just because he doesn’t care about my origin doesn’t mean it won’t damage the bond between us. There was hesitation in him when I told him, I felt it.”
Rosalinde folded her arms with a sudden, dark scowl. “Did I say I liked him? I meant that I think he’s callous and self-serving.”
“Oh, don’t,” Celia said, grabbing her hand. “Please don’t, Rosalinde. Youknowit’s more complicated for men like that. Even Stenfax hesitated when he learned the truth, although that isn’t why our engagement ended. And Aiden is a duke, the last of his line. He must think of his title, his reputation.”
“I suppose,” Rosalinde said with reluctance. “Though if he loves you, I would thinkthatwould trump all else.”
Celia shifted. Aiden had not said he loved her. Hecaredfor her, which felt like cold comfort, indeed. Especially when her heart was swelled with love like a creek after heavy rain.
“Perhaps it will yet,” she said, pushing those hesitations aside. “He said he would assist Gray in his search.”
Rosalinde’s eyes went wider. “He did? I’m certain Gray would appreciate that.”
Celia sighed heavily. “I want to know who our father is, Rosalinde. So much that it makes my chest ache with the wondering.”
“I know, Celia. And I want so much for both of us to have those answers. But not at any cost.”
Celia flinched. Her sister didn’t know she’d gone to Fitzgilbert. She wasn’t about to share that fact, either. She would just have to keep her promise to Aiden and hope he would be able to help her.
“Do you think we’ll ever know?” Celia asked. “Or that I’ll ever reach the place you’ve come to?”
“What do you mean?” Rosalinde asked.
