“Axel, of course, my fiancé. What do you think of him? Dreamy, right?” Francine closed her eyes and sighed again.
“Your fiancé? Did you sign the papers already?” Lucy didn’t mean to sound accusatory.
Francine’s eyes opened to a slit. She gave Lucy a sideways stare. “No. Not yet. But Mother did bring up setting the date and I agreed that we should start making plans as soon as possible.”
“The date!” Lucy practically screeched.No. No. No. This can’t be happening.
Her sister leveled a curious gaze her way. “What’s up with you?”
“Nothing. I’m just surprised by the whole evening.”
Her sister smiled in a knowing way. “You and me both. I was stunned by the arrival of our unexpected dinner guests.” Francine suddenly sat up straight. “What did Ardelia say after we left? I’ll bet she was mad that her wedding wasn’t discussed first. You know how she is always bragging about being the first one to get married. She’ll be whining about it for the rest of our lives.”
Lucy didn’t know what Ardelia thought. She hadn’t waited around to listen to their eldest sister whine about her life. Likely she was fit to be tied. Lucy didn’t care. She’d followed her parents, the Greys, Francine and Axel right out of the dining room, intending to join them. Unfortunately, a servant accosted her with pointless questions regarding the morning routine, keeping her out of the library until the door closed firmly behind the others.
She sensed her mother’s hand in the diversion.
“I don’t know,” Lucy said. “I came to my room right after dinner.”
Francine nodded. “What did you think of him?”
Lucy swallowed hard. Her sister looked for all the world like a woman in love. But that wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. Lucy loved Axel. But she couldn’t very well shout to the rafters, “How dare you like the man our parents selected for you?”
She lifted one shoulder. “I don’t know.”I do know. He’s wonderful. He’s perfect. He’s the guy I’m in love with.
“Well, he seems very nice. And he’s funny, too.”
“Funny?”I know. He is funny, charming, and did I mention he’s a great dancer?
“Well, amusing, you know. Like he finds the part of every situation that is amusing instead of being cross about everything around him. It’s refreshing to be in the company of someone new and not from Alpha-Prime.”
Lucy was aghast.No, Francine, please don’t fall for him! Help me fight to get you out of this arranged marriage so thatIcan marry him.
Unable to think of a smoother way to say it, Lucy blurted, “Honestly, Francine, I thought you were in love with someone else.”
That got her sister’s attention. She sat bolt upright in her chair. “What are you talking about? What makes you think there is…someone else?”
Lucy couldn’t see a way out of her gaffe other than admitting the truth. “I might have accidentally seen a passage in your personal journal that you liked someone with the initials H.R. at one time.”
“H.R.?” Francine paled. “You saw that?”
“Yes. I’m sorry. I truly didn’t mean to look, but I couldn’t ‘unsee’ it afterward, you know?”
Francine stared for a few seconds until color seeped back into to her cheeks. She leaned back in her chair with a soft smile. “That’s okay. It’s no big deal. It was a long time ago. Don’t worry about it.”
“What happened with H.R., if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Nothing came of it. Nothing will ever come of it.” Her smile wavered and she looked forlorn.
“Are you certain?” Lucy was ready, willing and able to start Operation Find Mr. H.R. and make him love Francine. The subtitle of that story was, of course,So that I can have Axel.
“Positive.” Her smile brightened. “And now it doesn’t matter. I’ve got a fiancé. A very nice man that I look forward to marrying.”
“Right.” Lucy tried not to display the utter misery she felt inside.
“So, what do you think of him?”
Lucy cleared her throat. “He seems nice.” She tried to think of other innocuous things to say, but the words, “I love him! I love him! I love him!” kept repeating in her head. She didn’t trust herself to say more.
