A Touch Unexpected

23. In the Papers

23

In the Papers

Rosalind sat in the corner of Valentina’s room, her legs draped casually over the arm of an oversized red damask armchair. She was partway through one of her favorite novels, one she’d read at least half a dozen times. Throughout the past five days, she’d found comfort in stories she already knew the ending to. She had enough uncertainty on her mind; she hadn’t the energy to contend with the uncertain fate of fictional characters as well.

As hard as she tried to distract herself since returning from Ashwind, memories of her last encounter with Jonathan wouldn’t leave her be. Too often they stole her focus and left her with questions she didn’t know the answers to. What had he been about to say? Why had he seemed so nervous? How much longer would she have to wait to speak with him? Did she even want to hear what he had to say?

I fear my silence is little more than deceit, which is the last thing you deserve. Though bits and pieces of their conversation were mottled, that was one of a few fragments that had shown crystal clear in her mind. What had he meant by it? There’d been something that had weighed on his conscience, some sort of explanation he’d felt he owed her. If he had felt guilty about it, it couldn’t be anything good, could it?

A knock sounded from the doorway, interrupting her thoughts and the companionable silence in the room.

“I’ve come with fresh tea,” Charlene announced as she entered with a tray in hand .

Valentina perked up at this. She pushed herself up from where she had been lying on the bed, sketching in her notebook.

The housemaid set about preparing their glasses. She poured hot tea into two delicate, gold-trimmed porcelain cups. In one, she added a splash of milk and one cube of sugar before offering it to an appreciative Valentina. To the other, she added only milk and handed it to Rosalind. The cup was warm against her hands and the delightful scent held notes of lemon and rose.

After gathering the old teapot and cups, Charlene paused and glanced shyly over at Valentina. “My lady, may I ask you something?”

“Of course. Anything for the bringer of life,” Valentina replied as she smiled into her steaming cup of tea.

“Is it true?”

Valentina cocked her head. “Is what true, Charlene?”

“The Chancellor, is it true he’s engaged?” The housemaid was almost giddy.

Valentina choked, a few drops of tea dribbling from the corners of her mouth.

To her credit, Rosalind didn’t react as viscerally, though she felt as if someone had squeezed out all the air from her lungs. She set down her cup of tea, fearing it might slip from her unsteady hands.

“Everybody’s talking about it,” Charlene continued, seemingly oblivious to their shock. “Even the postman made a quip about it this morning. Not surprising, seeing as it’s in the papers.”

“The papers?” Valentina repeated incredulously. “What papers?”

“ The Great Vine , my lady. I figured you’d read it already, but if not, I have a copy here.” Charlene dug a hand into her apron and produced said paper.

Valentina quickly snatched it from the housemaid’s grasp. “Yes, I read the paper this morning,” she said as she skimmed the pages in hand, “but I skipped the society section seeing as I’m to meet up with a few ladies for luncheon tomorrow. I figured they’d fill me in on anything of note. With more tantalizing details to boot.”

Valentina found the excerpt in question and began to read aloud. “ An engagement years in the making. The Denaultian Chancellor has been spotted sporting a ring matching that of Lady Ilora Mason, daughter of the illustrious Chancellor of Meridian, Lord Gerald Mason. Simple in nature, the rings are said to be placeholders until the engagement has been made public. For those close to both parties, the impending union doesn’t come as much of a surprise. ”

“Sure comes as a surprise to me, his sister ,” she interjected dryly before reading on. “ The pair were linked to one another years prior, when Lord Rashford, the youngest Chancellor in Denaultian history, at six and twenty, was studying at the capital alongside Chancellor Mason’s son, Lord Padraic Mason. To add fuel to the fire, a reliable source has confirmed the Chancellor of Denault’s prevailing presence at the Mason estate. It looks as if they’ve rekindled their romance—anticipate a formal announcement in the coming days for what is sure to be an alliance for the ages. ”

Valentina scoffed before tossing the paper to the edge of the bed.

“Are you not thrilled, my lady?”

“There’s nothing to be thrilled about,” Valentina replied. “Because it reads like little more than conjecture to me.”

Oh, how Rosalind hoped that was the case. She hoped it with every fiber of her being. Even so, no amount of optimism could quash the doubt niggled at her. It dredged up memories she would have preferred to remain dormant.

In her mind’s eye, she remembered the easy rapport between Jonathan and Ilora during the Masons’ visit to Brighthall. It was followed by an image of Jonathan’s hand gently stroking Ilora’s back as she sought solace in him that night in Ashwind. Then, she recalled how she had felt upon learning that Jonathan and Ilora wore matching rings to confer with one another. Rosalind’s throat tightened at the memory like it had at that moment.

“You don’t think it’s true then?” Charlene asked.

“No, I don’t,” Valentina snapped. “How could I? He hasn’t said anything to me.”

“Perhaps he says so here,” Charlene exclaimed as she reached back into her apron and pulled out a letter. “Arrived this morning.”

Again, Valentina was quick to snatch the letter from the housekeeper’s hand. She tore open the letter and began to read. A frown settled over her features as her eyes darted back and forth across the page.

The frown deepened as she read the letter over again. She then held the paper up to the light as if looking for some hidden message. When it was apparent there was nothing more to the letter, she puffed out a breath and glanced over at Rosalind.

Something about the look in her eyes made Rosalind’s heart seize. “Is it confirmed then?”

“No, not exactly…”

Valentina hesitated a moment, then cleared her throat and proceeded to voice the contents aloud. “ Dearest Valentina, I apologize for not writing to you sooner. I hope I have not caused you too much worry; I know how you can get while I’m away. ”

She made a face before continuing. “ Rest assured, I am well. Busy, but well. During the day, I am learning much from Chancellor Mason. His dedication to the role is truly remarkable. In the evenings, much of my time is spent with Padraic and Ilora. As you can well guess, we are never short on conversation.

"Now, I am sure you are eager to learn when I will be returning to Brighthall. That day will be a week from Thursday, and ”—Valentina faltered, a grim expression flitting across her face—“ I shall be accompanied by the Masons. I have written to Louis with instructions for we are to host a ball that evening. I recommended he consult with you on decor as I believe you to have exquisite taste. I look forward to seeing you then. Please give my regards to Rosalind and the rest of the household. Yours sincerely, Jonathan. ”

Rosalind had only ever witnessed one ball held at Brighthall, and that was back when Lady Tildawan Rashford was alive. To host another now suggested there was something significant to celebrate.

The timbre of Jonathan’s voice rang out in Rosalind’s head as another memory from the evening Padraic and Ilora came to Ashwind surfaced in her mind. She was lying in bed, looking up at him, and he was about to tell her something. Now is as good a time as any to tell you that I find myself inexorably en—

Before he could finish, Valentina had entered the room, and she never got to hear what he was about to say.

Ice-cold realization washed over her. What if, at that moment, he had been about to tell her he was engaged to Ilora?

Valentina carefully folded the letter in half and set it on the bed before her. Though she addressed the housekeeper, Valentina’s gaze was trained on Rosalind. “Charlene, will you kindly leave us, please?”

The housekeeper nodded and hurried out of the room. In the silence that followed, Rosalind tried desperately to avoid squirming under her friend’s watchful gaze, but it was no use.

Unable to meet Valentina’s eye any longer, she looked away. “You know, don’t you?”

“I do,” Valentina said simply.

“How long have you known?”

“I’ve had my suspicions for a while now, but they were confirmed last week.”

In Ashwind then. Rosalind quickly recounted the trip in her head, trying to determine what this confirmation was that Valentina had spoken of. Had she overheard them on the horse ride into the village? Perhaps she had witnessed them dancing? Or… A mix of ho rror and humiliation sent a trickle of dread down her spine as realization dawned on her.

Her mouth felt impossibly dry as she spoke. “That night, when you fell asleep in Jonathan’s room by mistake…” Rosalind trailed off. She dared a glance at Valentina and regretted it immediately upon seeing the raised brow and sly smirk dancing on her lips.

“Ros, love, we’ve shared many a night drinking together, have we not? In all those instances, how often have I gone to bed without brushing my hair?”

“None,” she murmured. And it was true. Valentina had always made a point of taking down her hair before bed. Brushed it every single night. She’d often reminded Rosalind to do the same on nights they drank, and had even helped her follow through with it on occasion.

“Precisely.”

“Y-you did it on purpose,” Rosalind stammered. “But why?”

Valentina shrugged. “As I said, I had my suspicions, and it wasn’t as if you two were very forthcoming. So when the opportunity presented itself, I thought, why not?”

Rosalind buried her heated cheeks in her hands.

“I will admit,” Valentina added, “I paid the price for it. Spent nearly an hour untangling the mess on top of my head the next morning.”

“I’m sorry,” Rosalind said, her face still in her hands. “I’m so sorry.” She lifted her gaze to Valentina’s. “I shouldn’t have kept it from you. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sure you had your reasons.” This time it was Valentina who looked away. She straightened her shoulders and pressed on. “I know I’m not always the easiest person to confide in. I can be indelicate at times. I’m rather quick to judge and even quicker to act, and I’m aware that, on occasion, I’m liable to impose my opinions on others. ”

Guilt roiled in Rosalind’s belly as she listened to her friend list out her perceived flaws in an attempt to reconcile why she hadn’t confided in her. It wasn’t for any of these reasons, and Valentina deserved to know that. She deserved to know the truth. Tentatively, Rosalind made her way over to the bed and sat down beside her.

“Val, me not being honest with you was through no fault of your own. You are the greatest friend anyone could ever wish to have, and there is no one I trust more in the entire world. Truth is, I don’t have a good reason for why I didn’t tell you. I suppose I was afraid; I still am.”

Rosalind’s breath shook as she went on. “I’m afraid to admit everything aloud because that makes it all the more real. I’m afraid you’ll tell me it all meant nothing. I’m afraid”—she swallowed—“you’ll lose your good opinion of me. That you’ll think I was being opportunistic; that after all your family has provided me, I still wanted more. I’m afraid you’ll be ashamed of me. And I’m afraid that—that you won’t trust me anymore.”

Valentina considered her for a long moment, her expression inscrutable. Then the lines of her face smoothed over and her eyes softened. She reached out and cupped Rosalind’s cheek. “It’s alright to be afraid, Ros, but avoiding the truth doesn’t make it go away.”

And so, Rosalind told Valentina everything. Her early morning encounters with Jonathan in the kitchen, when they’d spent a few minutes engaging in idle chatter. The welcome dinner, when she and Jonathan first discovered the enchantment was fading. The night they’d kissed after being left on their own, to which Valentina admitted she had retired early on purpose. Her birthday. Learning it was Rosalind who had propositioned Jonathan delighted Valentina immensely; she had assumed it was the other way around.

Rosalind went on to recount their interludes in Ashwind, during which she discovered the extent of Valentina’s meddling. Her insistence that Rosalind accompany Jonathan on the trip was essentially to force them into spending time together. Then there was the horse ride, which was a lark more than anything else, and, of course, the evening she had not-so-accidentally slept in the wrong bed.

As she suspected, committing these moments to words made them feel more palpable, and in the light of day, she could no longer deny how they made her feel. How he made her feel. Though Rosalind had never been in love, she’d consumed her fair share of poems and plays to know the emotions it inspired in others. The longing when they were apart; the thrill when they were together, and all the push and pull in between. She had grown increasingly familiar with these feelings over the last month and a half, despite trying her damnedest to ignore them. But it was a fool’s errand, simply prolonging the inevitable. She was falling in love with him and could ignore it no longer.

After detailing her last conversation with Jonathan, Rosalind rummaged through her pockets and revealed the note he’d left her.

“What a cryptic little bastard,” remarked Valentina as she looked the note over. With her free hand, she felt around for something on the bed. Moments later, she brandished the letter from earlier.

As she scanned it again, she remarked, “Didn’t you think his letter sounded a bit odd? Dearest Valentina —what was that about, hmm? He’s never been so formal with me in his entire life. And then he goes on to compliment me about my exquisite taste? What utter nonsense. He’d never voluntarily commit kind words about me to paper. That, and he and I have very different views on what’s fashionable and they don’t overlap, save for a mutual respect for fine tailoring.”

Valentina had a point. It did sound strange, though Rosalind hadn’t noticed it the first time. She’d been preoccupied by the impending dread that plagued her as she waited for confirmation of a proposal .

“Something’s up,” Valentina concluded. “And I think this was his way of letting us know. Whatever it is, he can’t say, and I reckon we’ll have to wait until he returns to find out. Shame we don’t have one of those nifty rings. Then we wouldn’t have to wait for answers. I bet if we could ask him if he were engaged, he’d say no.”

Rosalind’s ears perked up at this. “What makes you say that?”

“Well for one, he didn’t explicitly say so in his letter. A ball could be for any number of reasons. Secondly, he has feelings for you and was going to tell you as much had I not interrupted.” Valentina shook her head and laughed. “After all my meddling, to think I was the one to ruin the moment!”

“You don’t know that,” said Rosalind, doing her best to temper the fluttering of her heart. “He may have been about to admit that he and Ilora were engaged. Sure sounded like the word ‘engaged’ was about to leave his mouth.”

Rosalind threw herself back onto the bed and covered her eyes with her forearm. “I told you he hesitated the night before, didn’t I? When I asked if he wanted me to stay, he froze, like he wasn’t sure what to do. I was certain he was going to leave. Perhaps he had wanted to tell me then, but…”

“But your feminine wiles proved too tempting?” Valentina finished. She snorted. “You act as if you locked him in the room and threw away the key. You didn’t. You offered him a choice, and he accepted. Besides, do you believe he’s the type to bed someone while knowingly being engaged to someone else?”

Rosalind shook her head. "No."

“Ros, love, you seem to think you’re the only fool in this situation, but you aren’t. Jonathan knew full well what he was getting himself into when all of this began. You can’t convince me he hadn’t considered the ramifications. He’s far too diligent for that, but don’t tell him I said that,” Valentina added quickly. “He’ll take it as a compliment. What I’m trying to get at is that Jonathan is just as much of a fool as you. The wise decision would have been to say no the first time you asked. So why, then, did he say yes?”

Rosalind shrugged. “Because I… asked nicely?”

Valentina barked a laugh. “He’s the bloody Chancellor. One of only four in the entire country. He’s wealthy, he’s powerful, and he’s unmarried. People throw themselves at him all the time. He’s more than capable of politely declining propositions such as the one you offered him. No, he said yes because he wanted to.”

“That doesn’t mean he—”

Rosalind squawked as Valentina thwacked her with a pillow.

“I don’t want to hear it. I’ve seen the way he looks at you, how he seeks you out in a crowd. The feeling is mutual, and you can’t tell me otherwise,” Valentina insisted. “It just makes sense, you know? You balance each other out nicely. Plus, he’s less obnoxious when you’re around and I sincerely appreciate that. Want to know the most grievous part of all this?”

Rosalind eyed her warily. “What?”

Valentina let out a dramatic sigh. “That I won’t get to hear about your foray into the world of men because the man you chose to jump in bed with is, in fact, my brother.”

Rosalind stared incredulously at Valentina. “ That is what you’re most upset about?”

“Yes,” Valentina hissed. “Had it been anybody else, I would insist you spare me no detail. Remember that night we snuck out? Think of the questions I asked you then. I’d ask you those same ones now and then some because you had sex with a man, Ros, and I want to know what it was like for you. You must’ve enjoyed it to have given it another go. But to ask you would be to learn far more about Jonathan than I ever wish to know.” Her lip curled in disgust.

“So we’ll be alright, you and I? Even after all you’ve learned. After I kept it from you for so long?” Rosalind ventured.

“Of course we will,” Valentina replied. “Am I disappointed you didn’t tell me sooner? Yes. I want you to feel as if you can tell me anything because you can. But it’d be hypocritical of me to expect you to confide everything in me when there are things I haven’t told you.”

Rosalind blinked. “There are things you haven’t told me? But you’re always so descriptive about everything…”

Valentina gave a wry smile. “I do like to tell a good story, but that doesn’t mean I’ve told them all. I need to keep a bit of mystery about myself.”

Remembering their departure from Ashwind, Rosalind’s eyes grew wide. “Mr. Raynor!”

One of Valentina’s shoulders lifted in a casual shrug. “Maybe I’ll tell you about it someday.”