“I wouldn’t have to give up my life. Hollyhead is all I’ve ever known.”
“Perhaps you should come to London with me,” Justin suggested. “I’d be able to show you a good time. Think of all the things we could get up to in a city that never sleeps.”
His intimation caused Cordelia’s stomach to flutter. “Oh no, that would never do. I can’t stand London.”
“Can’t stand London?” he parroted in disbelief. “It’s the beating heart of this country!”
Cordelia scoffed, walking over to the dressing table to fix her hair. “The poets and gentry know that England’s true gem is her countryside. I fail to see how you could overlook such beauty! Give me rolling hills and endless sky any day!”
“Couldn’t you trade that in for culture and conversation? Good food and parties? What about brushing shoulders with great minds?” Justin said, his cockney accent coming out thicker than before. “You haven’t seen my London yet, love. You might like it.”
The thought was tempting to her, but she brushed it away. “See? This is why we shouldn’t marry. It would be a disaster. I would always be holed up in the country, and you wouldn’t be able to leave your beloved London.”
Justin smiled but was undeterred. “At most, it would keep us interested in one another.”
“At worst, we’d come to resent each other.”
“Always the worst scenario with you, Lia?” he replied.
“There are no more scenarios. I am going to accept Rhys, Justin. It’s the right thing to do. For everyone,” she said. Cordelia glanced at his reflection in the mirror behind her, trying to detect if he was disappointed. Instead, the corners of his mouth had turned up.
“Have you told him yet?” he asked.
“No,” she said, sticking a pin between her teeth as she twisted a thick section of hair, setting it at the top of her head. “We should announce it at the ball next week. Of course, I will need your permission. And he will need to ask you for my hand, since technically I am your ward.”
“Now that’s interesting,” Justin said in a low voice.
Cordelia swiveled on her chair to look at him, pin still poised between her lips. “I would thoroughly suggest you grant it. Like I said, this marriage would solve all of our problems. It’s the best solution for everyone.”
“It does not solve the fact that I’ve fallen in love with you.”
Cordelia’s whole body stilled, the hairpin falling out of her mouth and to the floor. The two of them regarded one another for a long moment. Justin’s face was unreadable as Cordelia searched it. She was not quite sure what she was looking for in his lapis gaze, but what she saw there was an entirely different constitution than Rhys’s sad, wrecked form. He seemed… determined.
“I was—”
“That doesn’t—”
Cordelia sighed in frustration. “Fine, then,” she said, her teeth clenched. “Go first, since youinsist.”
“Oh, never mind,” Justin grumbled. “It won’t change things. You’ll simply refuse me again and then run into the arms of aman who doesn’t want you. For what? Is a crumbling pile of bricks worth selling your body and soul over?”
The words stung. Not least because Cordelia could detect the truth in them. Justin seemed to recognize that he’d gone too far, his eyes widening as he felt the weight of his words settle in the room.
“Lia,” he began, but Cordelia interrupted him.
“Don’t,” she said. “Do not continue. You might say something else you’ll inevitably regret and then we will have to repeat this whole charade over again. Truth be told, it makes the whole process easier, if that’s how you view things.”
Justin drew in a breath as though he meant to say something else, but he stopped himself. Cordelia finished positioning her hair, pleased it did not look so wild. Once again, she’d managed to hide all evidence of their lovemaking, save for a red mark on her neck where he’d bitten her. Cordelia had arranged a curl to fall in precisely that spot. Hopefully, it would be enough.
Standing, she fluffed out her skirts.
“Lia, that wasn’t what I meant,” Justin said. “I should have expressed my frustrations differently. I simply don’t understand your position on this. Here I am, telling you that I—”
“I really must go,” Cordelia said, cutting him off. She’d backed herself to the shut door, reaching behind her back for the knob.
He shook his head as she opened the door and stumbled through the threshold. Closing the door behind her, she leaned her head against the wood grain. The lump that she’d tried to swallow down before was now almost choking her.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
