Chapter 11 #2
Caroline stepped forward. She spoke to the couple, but kept her gaze on Julia so her niece would feel her support. “And I will, of course, chaperone since that seems to be the solution. I would be more than pleased to perform that service.”
She was anything but pleased, but this was what had to be, at least for now.
There were drinks to be had then, though no one had ever drunk good whisky with such long faces.
Julia departed with her fiancé not long after and though Caroline could see there would be many discussions to come, Evie was clearly exhausted and her husband insisted on her going home, as well.
Caroline left last and put her arm around Arabella as they went to the foyer. She was shocked to find her usually strong niece was trembling.
“After all we did to save her from just this,” Arabella whispered, her voice cracking.
Caroline faced her, gathering all her strength so that she could be hopeful when Arabella needed it.
She cupped her niece’s cheeks. “You did save her from something far worse. Julia chose this, even if we don’t approve.
And there is still time before a wedding happens.
I’ll go to the country and be by her side at all times.
I’ll watch everything closely and I will do everything in my power to keep her safe. You can depend on me.”
Arabella sniffled and then leaned forward to kiss her cheek. “We always could. Thank you, Aunt Caroline. If you weren’t going with her, I swear I would run mad.”
Caroline squeezed her arm and left Arabella to her husband as she stepped toward the carriage. When her niece had gone in, though, she looked up at her driver. “Potts, I don’t wish to go home. Take me to Miss Stanhope’s.”
Her drive inclined his head and she got into the carriage. Her hands shook as they made their way through the busy streets to Simone’s house.
Caroline had stayed away from her for weeks out of fear of rejection after their heated encounter in the carriage.
But this night, this horrible night, had shown her she couldn’t put those fears first. Julia was in danger, and Caroline would be the only line of defense.
She needed Simone’s advice. And Julia needed her longtime mentor to know what was happening in case there was an intervention that could be had.
And when she was honest with herself, she also simply needed to see Simone. To ask for support. At least to try to find it in the arms of the woman she had come to depend on so much over the long years they’d known each other.
Over a tulip glass of fine cognac, Simone was considering turning in for bed early. She really had become boring now that she had no lover and the wild antics of the courtesans held less appeal to her. But that was where she was at and she couldn’t seem to change it.
There was a light knock on her study door and she turned to find Waring awaiting her response. “Yes?”
“Mrs. Banfield is here to see you,” he announced. “I’ve put her in the back parlor since the fires weren’t lit in the other, though I can tell her you aren’t in residence if you’d like.”
Simone was still trying to come to terms with what he’d first said.
Caroline was here? And with no word first to announce her impending arrival?
Simone had been avoiding her for weeks, uncertain if she would be met with regret over the night they’d shared at the Donville Masquerade and after.
Was that why Caroline had come here tonight? To finally hash it all out?
“I’ll see her,” she said and wished her voice didn’t sound husky with fear. “You may turn in, I won’t need you again. Goodnight, Waring.”
“Goodnight.”
He left her and she downed the rest of her drink without even savoring the fine flavor.
Then she looked at her reflection in the mirror above her fireplace.
She was wearing a flannel gown that said anything but seduction and her hair was partly up in a messy bun she’d wrapped up in haste after a bath earlier in the evening.
But what could she do now? If Caroline had come to her, she didn’t want to keep her waiting.
She drew a shallow breath and made her way to the back parlor.
It wasn’t the one with the naughty wallpaper she’d put Caroline in before, but the more homey and real place where Simone spent time with true friends or by herself.
She was happy about that. Somehow the seductive parlor seemed in poor taste when she couldn’t predict the subject, nor the outcome of this meeting.
The moment she entered the room and found Caroline standing at the fireplace, turned toward the door in anticipation, Simone knew something was wrong. She could see it in the tension in Caroline’s eyes and the way she worried her hands before her.
“What is it?” she asked as she gave into the drive to go to her, comfort her. “What’s happened?”
Caroline seemed surprised Simone had asked that but didn’t resist when she took her hands. “Oh, Simone,” she whispered, and then she began to talk, almost without drawing breath, about Julia’s engagement to her protector and the rushed wedding that was to follow almost immediately.
When she was finished, Simone drew her to the settee and as she settled there she went to get her a drink.
Although she shared the same fears about this sharp turn in events as Caroline did, in this moment, she needed to be stronger for her.
She brought her a madeira and waited until she sipped it a few times before she spoke.
“What are your specific fears?” Simone asked.
Caroline set her glass aside and rubbed a hand over her face. Her exhaustion was evident and Simone had to sit on her hands to keep herself from touching her.
“It’s not the marriage, not the idea of it anyway.
Arabella and Evie have married and I was nothing but happy for them.
But this is not the same. Silas and Vaughn love my girls.
I think either of them would burn the world down to protect them.
But this…this thing with Julia, it’s not that.
The engagement feels like—like desperation. ”
Simone winced. Julia had always been the most romantic of the Comerford sisters.
It had been the thing that worried Simone most when Julia had decided to take the same path as her elder sisters and become a courtesan.
It did seem like a desperation drive that she had surrendered all that and was now rushing into a marriage with this man.
“I know the courtesan network hears all. What do you know about Castleton?” Caroline asked.
Simone pursed her lips. “You likely know more than I do, as he is in your circles.”
“I know what he publicly displays. You know the…the rest. The worst.” Caroline covered Simone’s hand and the warmth felt like it climbed through her body and settled in her stomach. “Please.”
Simone bent her head. “He’s not cruel. I’ve never heard about violence. But he is known to be selfish and full of his own power. He likes appearances and he’s constantly at war with his grandfather, from whom he’ll eventually inherit the earldom.”
Caroline’s brow wrinkled. “That was always my impression, as well, from what little I know of him. Odd that he would choose to marry his mistress when appearances are so important. I fear he has some ulterior motive and she will be left alone with the consequences.”
Simone couldn’t help herself anymore. She leaned forward and brushed Caroline’s cheek with the back of her hand. “She won’t be alone. She’ll have you.”
Caroline’s gaze held with hers. “Who will I have?”
Simone’s heart all but stopped in that charged moment. There was a rush of irrational thoughts that tore through her. She wanted to go to the country with Caroline. She wanted to wrap around her like a shield and never, ever let her come to harm.
She said none of it. Instead she said, “Write to me.”
Caroline’s gaze softened, but then it grew heavy. Almost sultry. She cupped Simone’s cheeks and then her lips brushed hers, soft then harder, deeper. Caroline kissed her, not sweetly, not hesitantly. She kissed her like Simone was hers. In that moment, she felt like hers.
“I will write to you every day,” Caroline whispered, resting her forehead against Simone’s for a breath.
Then she seemed to regather herself. She took a step back and smoothed her gown. “I have so much to do to ready myself. This man wants to take her to the country in days. You’ll look after Arabella and Evie while I’m gone? Evie is so close to the baby’s birth.”
“Of course,” Simone said, and slowly followed when Caroline exited the parlor and moved back to the foyer. What would happen if she asked her to stay?
She feared she’d never let her go and right now that was what she had to do for Julia’s sake. Caroline gave her one long, last look before she said goodbye and left her.
Simone watched her leave from the step and then went back inside.
She closed the door and leaned her head against it.
There was one thing that was abundantly clear now: Simone was lost. Because she was already so very much in love with Caroline that she could no longer ignore it or label it as something else.
But the future still seemed impossible. And so all she could do was try to save herself from the most heartbreak as she could.
“Oh. Just stop the world from spinning,” she muttered as she took herself to bed and the dreams that would surely follow.