“I know I will, Father.” She took his hand with both of hers and made sure to smile. “I am so… so excited for what this might bring.”
As hard as it all was, Lucy was able to find some pleasure when Lady Beatrice came to see her. One would think that such a marriage as this would please her stepmother, seeing as she was the one who wanted Lucy to marry in the first place. But one would be wrong.
“Lucy…” Lady Beatrice stood back from the table and while she did not scowl, she did not smile either. Her expression was restrained, but Lucy could see the side of her lip twitch. “Congratulations on the ceremony, and your choice in husband.” She took a deep breath. “I do pray that the two of you find happiness.”
With Lady Beatrice was Lucy’s stepsister, Lady Amelia. While she had her mother’s long nose, the rest of her face was perfectly symmetrical, and her big blue eyes were dazzling. A true beauty in every sense of the word, she, at least, was able to feign happiness.
“We are both so happy for you,” Lady Amelia said with a smile. “Truly, not in one million years could we have guessed…” She laughed and shook her head. “This is too good to be true, Lucy. And I cannot imagine how pleased you must be feeling.”
“Very,” Lucy said simply as she eyed her stepmother and stepsister. “It is like a dream.”
Her stepmother snorted. “Let’s hope you do not wake from it suddenly. Dreams, as wonderful as they might be, do not last.”
“This one will I am sure,” Amelia said to her mother. “Lucy would not be here otherwise.”
It was clear that Lady Beatrice was displeased by this union, and she did not even try and hide it. Amelia, however, was harder to read. While she had always been kind to Lucy, she had never been friendly, and Lucy sensed in her someone who was calculating and ruthless when she needed to be.
She has always seen me as a threat, which I blame her mother for. Rather than trying to make us friends, she pitted us against one another, and this is the result.
“Thank you both so much for coming.” Lucy’s smile was exaggerated. “Perhaps I will ask my new husband if he has any friends for you, Amelia? It is the least I can do.”
Lady Beatrice narrowed her eyes.
Lady Amelia almost did the same, only to soften them and giggle. “Oh, yes please. You are too kind.”
That was the total extent of joy that Lucy was able to glean from the day’s events. A few seconds of fun found in hours of misery and torture.
For the rest of the day, she sat alone, smiling her thanks to those who came to see her, secretly lamenting her life and what was to come of it. And all the while, she watched her husband across the room…
I just wish I knew what he wanted. Or rather, if what he has told me that he wants is the truth of it. If so, there is nothing to fear. But if he is lying…
Finally, after many hours, her dashing husband approached her. He did so with dispassion, no smile to be seen, no sense of happiness found behind his eyes.
“It is time that we depart,” he said simply.
“Oh?”
“Our carriage awaits and we need to be getting back.” The way he spoke to her, she might as well have been a mule he was trying to lead to water.
Lucy sighed deeply and then rose as asked. Her marriage had only just begun but if today was any indication, it promised to be a most tortured affair.
