“Poxy bastard!” Arabella gasped out after a few moments had passed.
Evelina did turn then, watched as Arabella threw the letter aside, her blue eyes bright with righteous anger. Her older sister had always been like that. Certain and ready to go to war if she felt someone needed it.
Arabella was coming toward her as Julia bent to retrieve the discarded letter and read it again, her face as pale as Evelina’s felt.
“I don’t understand,” Julia said softly. “Harry loves you. Helovesyou.”
Those words pierced Evelina’s breaking heart and she bent over just as Arabella reached her. Her sister shored her up as she let out a long, pained wail that echoed in the room.
“How could he love me, have ever loved me, and end things this way?” she sobbed, her breath coming short, tingling pain rushing through her chest and her limbs like claws scraping along every vein and nerve. “How? How could this happen?”
She sank down then onto the settee, Arabella’s arms coming around her, Julia rushing to flank her on the opposite side as she sobbed out her confusion and heartbreak and the loss of every dream she had apparently foolishly allowed herself to have.
Every dream that had been ripped away in a few cold words from a man whose heart she had so deeply misjudged.
CHAPTER1
One Month Later
In the end, Evelina didn’t require the time Harry had granted her to move out of the home he’d gifted her. No, that wasn’t right. Hehadn’tgifted it to her because a gift couldn’t be snatched away like her home and life had been. Every time that thought passed through her mind, Evelina tasted bitterness on her tongue and felt the same rush of pain and humiliation and anger as she had that first night when he’d ended things.
Still, by the time that last day had passed, Evelina had already been comfortably settled in the home Arabella had beentrulygifted by a protector years and years ago. Her sister and brother-in-law no longer lived there. After their recent marriage, they’d started over in a beautiful new home just half a mile farther into the city, so Evelina had the place to herself.
She had hardly left the confines of her chamber since coming there. She couldn’t bear to do so. The idea of wandering around London, pretending all was well? Bumping into friends who would look at her with interest and pity? Potentially even seeing Harry for the first time and finding not love or affection in his stare but…nothingness?
Impossible.
And even if she had been strong enough of character to endure those things, she feltphysicallyweak at present. She only wished to sleep and cry and revisit every moment of her relationship with Harry as if she could find the one scrap of time together that had caused the unexpected break.
She had been pacing her chamber with these thoughts and flopped back on the bed at last, resting her forearm across her eyes as she let out a shuddering sigh.
“Why?” she whispered, just as she had been whispering through every moment, every dream, every nightmare.
There was a light knock on her door and she lifted her arm. “Yes?”
When it opened, Julia stepped in. Her younger sister had moved out of Arabella’s house at just about the same time that Evelina had moved in. She’d made a match with a new protector and was settling into life as the mistress of…God, what was he? An earl or a viscount or something? He never came around, so it was hard to make a measure of him or even create a memory strong enough to recall any facts about him.
“Julia,” she said, and tried to force a smile so her sister wouldn’t give her the same worried and pitying look that both her siblings seemed to have permanently ready to flash across their lovely faces.
“Dearest,” Julia said, and entered. She crossed to Evelina and sat beside her on the bed, enveloping her in the kind of hug one gave someone with a terrible illness or a broken bone.
Sometimes the situation did feel so dire.
“What are you doing here? I thought you’d be flitting about with your new protector.”
“Laurence was busy with his cousin this evening,” Julia said with a slightly sour look to her expression. “Alexander Castleton doesn’t approve of me, I suppose. Gives me the most irritated looks when he deigns to look at me at all.”
“Castleton!” Evelina said. “Viscount Laurence Castleton. I couldn’t recall his name.”
Julia gave her a playful glare. “I hope you’ll have a great deal of time to learn it. At any rate, I was free andlongedto see you. Not just see you, I so want to go out with you.”
Evelina let out her breath in a little huff. “Oh, good Lord. Has Arabella sent you here to perform charity work? Did you two draw straws for who would have to beg me to go out and then ferry me around while I looked ghostly and tragic?”
“Of course not, you’ve been reading too many novels,” Julia said, folding her arms. But her sweet sister had never been very good at covering her emotions and it was evident Evelina had struck close to the truth. She rolled her eyes when Evelina arched a brow at her. “Wediddiscuss that one of us should approach you with this idea. Arabella thought you’d use Silas as an excuse against her, so I volunteered most enthusiastically.”
“Silas as an excuse?” Evelina said. “What does that mean?”
She truly adored Arabella’s new husband. He was devilishly handsome, quick to laugh, entirely wicked and also completely devoted to her sister. Plus, he had been nothing but kind to Evelina since the end of her relationship. He’d helped whenever he was needed and treated her with nothing but care. He’d even made her laugh a few times when all she wanted to do was cry. How could one not adore him?
