“I’m sorry.” He was gone in the dark before I could argue further. Emmett was always slippery, too hard to pin down, but I think he liked it that way.
We moved into Caledonia Cottage for the remainder of the season, and on the first day, all of Bram’s suitors went around the table and shared their bargains. Marion Thorne made up some half-hearted lie about giving up the ability to smell flowers so that she would experience no more headaches. Another little ping went off in my head, and I knew for certain she was lying.But why?
Then Emmett started flitting around Ivy Benton, who wasn’t nearly as good at sneaking out at night as she thought she was.
If he wanted to ignore me? Fine. Wanting to replace me was unforgivable.
For weeks, it was only Marion who seemed to notice or care. I couldn’t lie to her about why I was upset, so I told her the truth.
“He’s an idiot,” she said.
“You’re right.” It didn’t change anything, but it felt better to no longer be alone.
At first it was small things, the way she laid her hand on my knee or her head on my shoulder. I’d never felt butterflies like that before. I thought everyone else was being dramatic when they’d described it, but with Marion next to me, I suddenly understood.
Marion kissed me for the first time in the garden of Caledonia Cottage under the big weeping willow tree, and it wasn’t until her lips touched mine that I feltit,that feeling that had always been missing with Emmett.
“I’ve wanted to do that for so long,” she whispered against my mouth, and I didn’t need the queen’s bargain to know she was telling the truth.
“I wish you would have done it sooner.”
From that moment on, we were inseparable.
I was stupid to ask Emmett to kiss me at Count Doncaster’s ball. I was so mad for Marion, I thought maybe the pressure of the season had warped my sense of reality and I was imagining the force of my feelings for her. I pulled Emmett into a drawing room and begged him to kiss me.
“Why?” he asked, his eyes soft. He always was exceptionally pretty.
“I need to compare it to something else.”
He leaned in slowly, reluctantly, overthinking everything as usual. Emmett and I are good at kissing each other, we’ve had plenty of practice, but that kiss in the Doncasters’ drawing room felt nothing but hollow.
I pulled back, smiling. “I felt nothing.”
He grinned. “I should be offended.”
“But you’re not.”
“I’m happy for you, I hope you know that. I’ll do all I can for you both.”
“What about Ivy?” I asked him. “What will you do?”
“I’m not sure what you’re referring to.” His voice turned remote.
I walked toward the door. “We don’t do that. Don’t start lying to me now.”
“There’s never going to be anything between Ivy Benton and me.” And my gift from the queen told me he thought he was telling the truth. I didn’t feel jealous. I just felt sad for him.
Later that night, I told Marion about my silly kiss with Emmett and all that it confirmed for me. She trailed her finger over my leg, and I finally worked up the nerve to ask her the question I’d wanted to since the first time I saw her at the Pact Parade.
“Is there a reason you pretended we’d never met?” I asked.
Her finger stopped. She looked up at me, brown eyes wide with shock. “What?”
“That first day of the season, you introduced yourself to me like we’d never met before.”
“We hadn’t.” Marion’s brows were furrowed as she searched her memory. “I would have remembered, I’m sure of it.”
I knew she wasn’t lying; I would have been able to tell if she was. I was hurt that she didn’t remember.
