Instead, she reached out to touch his hand. “Thatwas for hurting my sister. But I also thank you for saving my husband today.”
With that, Rosalinde turned and left the room. Gray followed, and then Stalwood. Clairemont waited for Celia to step away, as well, but she hung at the door, staring at him.
“You told me a few days ago that if I needed to sneak away I should call on you to help me,” she said when the silence had stretched between them for what felt like forever.
“Yes,” he said. “I did say that.”
“Then meet me tonight, in the same place you dropped me off after I saw my grandfather,” she said. She moved for the door. “Midnight. Don’t be late.”
Clairemont stared at her retreating back, then hurried to follow her. Did she truly want to meet in private with him after everything he’d done, everything that had been said?
It was a very bad idea. But he would do it. She deserved the privacy to fly at him, to curse him, to give him the hell he had earned.
And he couldn’t help but want to be alone with her one last time.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Celia stood away from the door, but she couldn’t help but stare at Aiden’s retreating back as he made his way to his horse. His shoulders were stiff, rolled forward, and his pain was as clear as her own. Finally, Gray shut the foyer door and cut the image away.
There was a beat of a moment before he and Rosalinde turned together to face her. When they did, their expressions said everything, even before either of them spoke. Humiliation and pain flooded Celia, yet she somehow managed to keep her chin up.
“Oh, Celia,” Rosalinde whispered, her voice broken with empathetic pain for her sister. “There are no words I can find to express it. I’m just so, so very sorry.”
“Why?” Celia asked, shocked she could find her voice after everything that had just happened. “Youdidn’t lie to me.Youdidn’t create this situation at all. We are all victims of this investigation.”
Gray’s jaw tensed, and he hesitated slightly before he moved forward. “But none more than you.” He cleared his throat and his discomfort was clear. “You and I were not always close, but I feel we have become closer recently. When I had you come to live with us, it becamemyresponsibility to ensure that any man who courted you was worthy, and I failed in that.”
Celia shook her head. “This isn’t your fault, Gray. In the end we were all fooled by him.”
She turned away from the sting her own words created. Fooled by him. That implied each and every thing between them had been untrue. Aiden…or whatever his name truly was…he had said as much.
Except there was a part of her that didn’t believe him. When she had finally looked into his eyes and declared she would allow the false courtship to continue in order to help him, there had been something that lit up in his stare that told her some things had been real. That was why she was determined to meet with him. Alone, she could see better what his motives had been, beyond his case. Beyond his deceptions.
“What can I do?” Rosalinde asked, sliding up beside her. “How can I comfort you?”
Celia slowly faced her. “I love you and Gray so much for wanting to shelter me from these feelings. But I’m afraid I must simply feel them until they have lost their power. Right now I want to go upstairs and lie down for a while.”
“Alone?” Rosalinde asked, her eyes brightening with tears.
Celia smiled sadly as Gray took a place beside Rosalinde and put his arm around her. At least her sister would have comfort and someone to remind her that this wasn’t her fault.
“Yes, alone. For now,” Celia said. “Perhaps later, perhaps tomorrow or the next day, I’ll be more ready to talk. Right now I can hardly think of anything to say. I have to consider it more.”
Rosalinde nodded. “I understand.” She rushed forward and yanked Celia into a fierce hug that nearly squeezed the air out of her. “I love you.”
Celia smoothed her hands over her sister’s back and blinked at tears. “I know.”
When she managed to escape Rosalinde’s arms, she smiled weakly at the pair, then turned to go upstairs. What she had said to them was true. She did want to lie on her bed and simply digest everything that happened this afternoon.
But she also had plans to make for her escape tonight. And for how she would confront Aiden when there were no barriers and no one to protect either of them from the truth.
Clairemont swept his pocket watch from his jacket and flipped it open. It was after midnight now and yet he was still sitting in his carriage, watching out the window as he waited for Celia to join him. Had she been waylaid? Or had she changed her mind?
Worse, was she just toying with him, letting him feel a tiny fraction of the pain and embarrassment he had forced her to endure with his lies? Would she leave him sitting here, waiting for her?
If she did, he deserved no less. And he would wait here all night if necessary to pay the penance she required.
The servants’ entrance to the house opened just as that thought filled his mind, and Celia stepped out. She was wearing a cloak pulled up around her face, but Clairemont recognized it was her from the way she moved with such grace.
