“Urgh,” Anna sighed. “You know, I forget how frustrating you can be.”
“Which is why you love me.”
“As does the Duke, from what I have heard,” Anna shot back with a gleeful smile and a knowing wink of her own.
Just as Anna had forgotten how much Helena enjoyed teasing her, Helena had forgotten how much she missed her friend’s company. It felt like years since they had last spent time together, which she knew was highly exaggerated, even if so much had changed since they last spoke.
Anna was one of Helena’s best friends. One of four, in fact. All ladies of the ton who were once part of a small social club that they had cleverly namedThe League of Untamed Hearts. It was a private joke, its point to highlight how each of the five—Helena included—was determined to live their lives as they saw fit, regardless of what Society expected from them. And that included falling in love.
So determined were they in this venture that they had even come up with a motto:We choose our own destiny, and love only if it dares to keep up.
Of course, this club of theirs was not quite the stalwart bastion against romance that they each claimed. Recently, two of its members had married and fallen head over heels in love with their husbands, Anna being one of them. And while there was still Helena as well as two others left, it was slowly dying like a flower denied sunlight.
“If you must know, he is over there.” Helena pointed to where her husband was speaking with five men.
“Oh!” Anna found him quickly, her eyes widening and then lighting up. “Oh my, he is certainly as handsome as they say.”
“I suppose he is.”
“I hear he is quite charming too,” she added.
“From what I have seen, he most certainly is.”
“And I was told that he is a good kisser.”
Helena’s eyes widened. “Where did you hear that?!”
Anna smirked wryly. “And she does not deny it. Good to know.”
“Oh, very funny,” Helena said dryly. “And you wonder why we rarely spend time together.”
Anna had not been able to attend the wedding, as she and her husband were abroad at the time. But she told Helena that she was eager to attend this ball for the sole purpose of seeing if the rumors about Helena and Sebastian were true. And not that she was married, because that was perfectly provable. Rather, to see if the love that was spoken about by all those who had met them was as enchanting as people said.
Times were that Helena might have struggled to keep up the ruse, especially where her friend was concerned, because she trusted Anna enough to tell her the truth. However…
Best not to take that risk. And what will it hurt to lie as I promised Sebastian I would? Anna seems to be happy for me, and I would hate to upset her.
Yes, Helena was using her friend’s happiness as justification for why she was more than happy to lie by confirming that she and the Duke were a love match. All the while knowing that wasn’t close to the real reason. Not that she would admit such a thing to herself.
“I am sure he will come and see me shortly,” Helena told her friend. “Once he is done with his peers.”
“He should be following you about like a lost puppy.” Anna pouted. “You have only been married for a week!”
“Nearly two weeks,” Helena corrected. “But do not let this fool you. I promise that behind closed doors, the two of us are…” She allowed herself to smile, feeling it in her chest. “We are happy, Anna. More than that,Iam happy. Is that not enough?”
“Happy and in love,” Anna sighed wistfully as she held her hands to her chest. She was watching the Duke now, her eyes glistening, a sense that she was imagining Helena and him wrapped in one another’s arms.
It was strange to think that only half of what Helena told her friend was a lie. Stranger still, that Helena found herself smiling with her friend as she watched her husband. A smile not for appearances, but because she was in as good a spirit as she had ever been.
The ball itself was a typical affair. Not quite as grandiose as the one her parents had thrown, but still an extravaganza populated by scores of lords and ladies in the throes of merriment and celebration and a lot of drinking.
Colorful gowns. Smart suits to match. There was music. There was revelry. There was laughter and chatter and even dancing… not all of which was confined to the dance floor.
Helena had always hated balls. She was not one for social appearances, as their express purpose was to find a man to be courted by in the hope that one day he might propose, and the very nature of them disgusted her right down to her core.
In this instance, however, she was enjoying herself.
Sebastian had decided to approach tonight differently. As promised, he would not spend the evening attached to her side, announcing for all and sundry that they were the happiest of couples whose love might inspire poets to write epics about them for future lovers to read. Rather, he would be morerealabout their marriage, treating it as a natural thing that did not need to be bragged about.
