It made her heart ache with joy.
"Tomorrow," she called softly. "Two on the hour."
"I'll be there."
She turned and followed Edward into the bright chaos of the ball, her lips still tingling from Martin's kiss and her heart lighter than it had been in years.
***
The retiring room was mercifully empty when Vanessa arrived.
A maid in the Castleton livery helped her repair the damage to her hair, pinning up the loose strands and rearranging the curls to hide the worst of it. It was not a perfect restoration as it was highly impossible to recreate the elaborate arrangement that had taken her own maid an hour to construct, but it was passable…It would have to be.
There was nothing to be done about her swollen lips or flushed cheeks, but a splash of cold water helped somewhat. She pressed the cool cloth to her face, willing her racing heart to slow, willing the heat in her cheeks to fade.
It didn't work. Every time she closed her eyes, she was back on that terrace, Martin's mouth on hers, his hands in her hair, his voice rough with years of suppressed longing.
His heart belongs to me…He is utterly devoted to me…
I have wanted nothing but you.
She opened her eyes and stared at her reflection in the mirror. She looked different, somehow. Transformed. As though the kiss had changed her at some fundamental level, rewritten something essential in her being.
Perhaps it had.
"You look as though you've been thoroughly kissed," Helena observed from the doorway.
Vanessa met her friend's eyes in the mirror. There was no point in denying it. "I have been."
"Montehood?"
"Yes."
Helena's face broke into a wide, delighted smile. "Finally." She crossed the room and embraced Vanessa from behind, careful not to disturb her newly repaired hair. "I was beginning to think the two of you would dance around each other forever. Six years is quite long enough for a courtship, do you not agree?”
"It wasn't a courtship. We weren't…he never said anything before tonight."
"He didn't need to say anything. The way he looked at you said everything." Helena released her and perched on the edge of the vanity table, her expression softening. "So. Tell me everything. What happened? What did he say? Are you betrothed?"
"Not yet. I don't…we haven't discussed…" Vanessa pressed her hands to her cheeks, which were heating again. "Helena, he cherishes me. He said he's cherished me since are first encounter. All this time, and I never knew."
"Of course he has. Anyone with eyes could see it."
"I couldn't. I thought…I was so certain he didn't feel the same way…"
"Because you're both foolish." Helena said it fondly, without malice. "Brilliant, beautiful fools who couldn't see what was right in front of you." She squeezed Vanessa's hands. "What happens now?"
"I don't know. We're meeting tomorrow. To talk. He said there are things he needs to tell me…things I should know before we go any further."
Helena's brow furrowed. "What kind of things?"
"I don't know. He didn't say." A flicker of unease passed through her. "It's probably nothing. His past, perhaps. His reputation. Things he thinks might change my mind."
"And would they? Change your mind?"
Vanessa considered the question carefully. She knew Martin's reputation, the gambling, the women, the reckless behaviour of his youth. She knew the whispers that followed him, the speculation about his affairs, the raised eyebrows when his name was mentioned in certain circles.
None of it mattered to her. None of it had ever mattered.
