Anna’s anger faltered for a moment, but it was quickly replaced by something like pity. “Well… now you do.”
Alexander’s mind raced with images of Theodora laughing, teasing him. He remembered the way her eyes lit up when she learned something new. But then he imagined her face when he rejected her. She had looked at him like he had broken something precious.
“You said that she is leaving tomorrow?” He exited the study, walked across the foyer, and grabbed his coat from a nearby chair.
“Yes,” Anna said exasperatedly.
Spencer stepped towards him and placed his hand on his shoulder. “Alexander… what are you going to do?”
He did not answer right away because he didn’t even know the answer himself.
His body moved before his mind caught up.
Anna watched him, and her expression softened.
“You are going to her,” she said quietly.
“I have to. You were right, Anna. This is my fault.” He turned to Spencer. “Can you stay here tonight? Rosalind is asleep and I do not want to wake her.”
“Of course, my friend.” Spencer smiled at him as he walked towards the door. He was already halfway there.
But Anna was not finished.
“Alexander!” She called his name sharply.
He stopped.
“You do not know what she has been through and what he has done to her. Her father has been cruel and unforgiving. He blames her for everything.”
Alexander’s jaw clenched. “I never meant?—”
“I know,” Anna interrupted him. “But intentions do not matter. Not now. What matters is that she believes you abandoned her. And she is being punished for it.”
Alexander felt something inside him crack.
Anna continued, “She has resigned herself to this life that awaits her. Theodora thinks she deserves this. She thinks the convent is her fate and that you do not want her.”
Alexander’s gaze dropped. “I did not say that. I just did not want to get married.”
“You walked away and that said a lot.”
He closed his eyes.
Spencer cut in. “Alexander… what Anna is trying to say is that you have one day.One. If you want to fix this, you need to leave now but that is not important. What is important is what you are going to say to her when you get there.”
Alexander thought about it for a second then held up a finger.
“Excuse me for one second.”
He ran through the corridor, and up a staircase until he reached his parents’ chambers. Alexander had not entered it since the time they passed away. He took a deep breath in and grabbed the handle, pushing the door with great force. The scent of the room immediately brought back their memories but there was no time to reminisce. Alexander went to his mother’s dressing table; he admired her portrait before he took out the key from his pocket and opened the first drawer.
He smiled as he looked down. “There it is.”
CHAPTER 29
“Theo… is this really your last day with us?” Lady Dowell whispered with a trembling voice as she stood nearby.
Theodora could not answer. Her hands were shaking as she folded another dress and placed it into the trunk. The room felt smaller than usual, and suffocating, as if the walls themselves were closing in on her. She had spent her entire life reading, studying, and dreaming of a future she thought she could shape in this room. Now she was packing it away piece by piece, as if erasing herself from her own life.
