She shook her head, backing away from him. “She betrayed you.” Her fists clenched in and out at her sides. “She was my best friend and she betrayedme. How could you consider letting her back into your life,ourlives? How could you think of going back to her?”
Stenfax shifted. In his attempts to not be crude, Gray had obviously left a great deal to the imagination.
“It is…it’s not a courtship, Felicity,” he whispered.
His sister had been married. Quite unhappily, of course, but she had experienced a great deal more than the typical virginal miss. It took her a moment to digest what he said, to parse out its meaning, but when she did, her face twisted in disgust.
“Oh, Lucien,” she breathed as she shook her head.
“It’s complicated,” he said, a weak defense of an indefensible position.
“I know complicated,” she sobbed, tears flowing down her cheeks. “You don’t even know how well acquainted I am withcomplicated, Lucien. Butthis?” She shook her head as she backed away from him toward the door. Her hands were raised as if in surrender. She reached behind her and opened the door, but before she left, she said, “Not this.”
“Felicity,” he said, but she turned and left, slamming the door.
He let out a painful bark as he slapped a palm against the closest flat surface. He leaned there for a moment, trying to block out the intense pain his actions had caused his sister. Felicity was often cool, she was sophisticated. It was easy to forget what she had endured in her life. How she had suffered before her husband had conveniently died in a drunken hunting accident.
She buried all that so deeply, not allowing anyone to speak to her about it. Losing Elise had only multiplied her pain.
And now he was dragging Felicity back through it because he couldn’t keep his hands off Elise. He had to talk to his sister. He had to try to make her understand, to comfort her.
He spun around and stalked out the parlor door. He moved down the hall to the foyer swiftly and saw his sister getting into her carriage in the distance. She was gone before he could even call out to her and he let out a groan of disappointment.
But perhaps it was best to let her go for now. She would calm down and he would find a way to explain the unexplainable to her.
He moved to return to the ballroom, but before he could round the corner to the doors, there was a loud announcement from the entryway.
“The Duke of Kirkford and the Duchess of Kirkford.”
Stenfax slowly turned the corner and watched as the new Duke of Kirkford enter the ballroom. And on his arm, dressed in a pink gown, was Elise.
Chapter Seven
Elise understood the concept of humiliation. In the past three years she had endured much of it. Her husband had been a happy extender of the feeling, reveling in her shame when he could create it.
Others had made her feel the sting as well. When she first entered Society as Duchess of Kirkford, there had been plenty of people who had cut her off for the scandalous breaking of her engagement to Stenfax. She had deserved that, she knew, and had taken it with her chin lifted as high as she could manage, even if she’d wept into her pillow at night at the shame.
But tonight, on display in a shocking gown, at a ball where she never should have been, out in company when the world thought she should be closeted in mourning, she had never experienced humiliation so completely.
The music no longer played in the room, everyone had turned toward her and they were whispering, their fans moving like butterfly wings as her name echoed on the air around her. Ambrose seemed immune to it all. In fact, he even seemed to enjoy it as he dragged her into the room.
She let her gaze move around those in attendance, hoping to find a friendly face. Instead, she found Grayson Danford, Stenfax’s younger brother. His hard face was like steel as he glowered at her from his place with his new wife. Their mother was also in attendance, and even the flighty Lady Stenfax looked stunned to see her there.
None of the rest in the room gave her a smile or an acknowledging wave and her heart sank. She was well and truly ruined at last. After years of spiraling toward that end, it was here.
But as the stunned silence hung on, the Marchioness of Swinton rushed forward, dragging a very bored Marquess with her. She made a huge show out of greeting Elise and Ambrose, though Elise couldn’t have understood what she was saying if the lady had tattooed it across Elise’s arm.
Because when she turned to greet the couple, she saw that Stenfax was now standing in the ballroom door behind her. Staring at her. His face filled with shock and horror. The crowd seemed to notice it, too, for they began to look back and forth between them. Waiting for…well, a showdown, Elise was certain. A scene.
In truth, she wasn’t sure there wasn’t about tobea scene. But then Stenfax sniffed and entered the room, passing her by like she wasn’t even there as he moved over to where his family was standing.
That seemed to settle the room, for the music started again and the silence gave way to murmurs, though the stares went on. Lady Swinton sighed in relief as her party returned to something close to normal.
“Enjoy yourselves,” she said, giving Elise a look that told her the marchioness wasn’t an ally for her, either. Then she slipped back into the crowd with her husband, leaving Ambrose and Elise by the side of the dancefloor.
“I have some business to conduct,” he said, releasing her arm at last. It felt like being released from a prison. “But you’ll save a waltz for me later.”
Elise pinched her lips together. “I shall not dance, Your Grace. It wouldn’t be right.Noneof this is proper.”
