Chapter Five
The first thing Victoria noticed was that someone was in her bed.
The second thing she noticed was that someone was warm and soft and smelled like vanilla and something else she couldn't quite identify.
The third thing she noticed was the sound of breaking glass and the sharp pain of someone's elbow connecting with her ribs.
"What the hell…" she managed, sitting up too quickly in the darkness just as the warm, soft someone did the same thing. She should, she was beginning to think, be afraid. But then she didn’t have time to think further.
The collision was spectacular. Two heads meeting with the sort of crack that suggested both parties would be sporting matching bruises by morning.
"Ow, Christ," said the someone, who had a distinctly feminine voice and appeared to be clutching her forehead. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I was looking for the loo and I got completely lost and I thought this was my room and…"
Victoria blinked in the darkness, trying to make sense of what was happening. There was a woman in her bed. A woman who was, she realized as her eyes adjusted to the dim light filtering through the curtains, absolutely gorgeous.
Long blonde hair tumbled over bare shoulders, and even in the shadows Victoria could make out green eyes wide with mortification and a sharp, curious face.
Victoria's brain, which had been functioning perfectly well right up until the moment she'd woken up with a beautiful stranger in her bed, promptly shut down.
"You're…" she started, then stopped, because what exactly did one say in this situation? 'You're trespassing'? 'You're lovely'? 'You're making me question whether I’ll ever bother with the male part of being bisexual ever again'?
"Sasha," the woman supplied. "I'm Sasha. I'm with Ambrose. Well, I mean, I'm supposed to be with Ambrose. Pretending to be with Ambrose. It's complicated."
"Right," Victoria said slowly, though nothing about this felt right at all. She was acutely aware that they were both sitting up in her bed, close enough that she could feel warmth radiating from Sasha's skin. "You're Ambrose's… girlfriend."
"Fake girlfriend," Sasha clarified quickly. "Very fake. Completely fake. The fakest girlfriend in the history of fake girlfriends, actually."
Victoria felt a lightness. Not that it mattered. Not that she cared whether her brother's supposed girlfriend was real or imaginary. Not that she was having distinctly unsiblingly thoughts about said supposed girlfriend.
"I should, um, go…" Sasha said, making no move to actually leave. "I'm so sorry about your water glass. And your… um, everything."
"Don't worry about the glass," Victoria heard herself say. "It's just a glass." And then, because she really couldn’t help herself, "Are you hurt?" She reached out without thinking to touch the spot on Sasha's forehead where they'd collided.
The contact was electric. Sasha's skin was soft and warm, and Victoria felt something spark between them that had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they'd just headbutted each other and everything to do with the way Sasha's breath caught when Victoria's fingers brushed against her temple.
Oh dear. Oh deary dear very much fucking dear. Victoria’s heart pounded and her mouth dried up.
"I'm fine," Sasha said, though her voice sounded slightly breathless. "Just, um, embarrassed."
Victoria reluctantly dropped her hand, though she was fairly certain she could have happily spent the rest of the night cataloguing every freckle on Sasha's face. Where the hell had that come from? "The house is rather confusing if you're not used to it."
"Rather confusing," Sasha repeated with a slight laugh. "Sophie did say third door from the main staircase, but apparently I can't count."
"Sophie told you third door?" Victoria smelled a very ratty rat.
"Mmm." Sasha was feeling around on the floor, presumably looking for her slippers. "She seemed lovely, by the way. Bit intense, but lovely."
Victoria felt a strange warmth at the compliment. Sophie was notoriously difficult to win over, suspicious of anyone new who entered their family orbit. If she'd taken to Sasha immediately, that said something interesting.
"She is lovely," Victoria agreed. "And you're in the right place, actually. Third door from the main staircase. But your room is the blue guest room, which is the fourth door. Sophie probably miscounted."
"Or she did it on purpose," Sasha said with another laugh. "She strikes me as the type who might find it amusing to watch chaos unfold."
She was probably right about that. Sophie had always been fond of stirring up trouble when she was bored.
"I should let you get back to sleep," Sasha said, finally locating her slippers and standing up.
In the dim light, Victoria could see that she was tall and athletic, with the sort of casual grace that suggested she was comfortable in her own skin despite the current mortification. "Again, I'm so sorry."
"Don't apologize," Victoria said. "These things happen." Except they generally didn’t. She couldn’t think of the last time she’d woken up to a woman in her bed. She also couldn’t think of the last time she’d felt so immediately and powerfully attracted to someone she'd literally just met.
After Sasha left, Victoria lay awake staring at the ceiling and trying to make sense of what had just happened.
Not that there was much sense. Just some vaguely defined feelings.
About her brother’s fake girlfriend. She swore to herself and rolled over.
Hopefully in the bright light of day, Sasha would prove to be ungenerous or cruel, or she’d shave her head before breakfast. Anything to make her less attractive.
brEAKFAST WAS SERVED on the terrace in deference to the warm morning, and Victoria arrived to find the family already assembled around the long table.
Her grandmother presided at one end, looking formidable in pale blue silk, while her mother fluttered around ensuring everyone had sufficient tea and toast and morning papers.
Sasha was sitting between Ambrose and Sophie, looking fresh and lovely in a simple sundress that should have been unremarkable but somehow made Victoria acutely aware of the way the morning light caught the gold in her hair.
"Victoria, darling," her mother called. "Come and meet Sasha properly. Though I understand you may have encountered each other already?"
Victoria felt heat rise in her cheeks as she remembered exactly how they'd encountered each other. "Something like that."
"I got lost," Sasha explained cheerfully to the table at large. "Ended up in completely the wrong room. Very embarrassing."
"The house can be rather maze-like," her grandmother observed, studying Sasha with sharp eyes. "Particularly for those unaccustomed to houses of this age."
Victoria tensed, recognizing the slight edge in her grandmother's voice that suggested judgment was being passed. But Sasha seemed completely unperturbed.
"It's also absolutely beautiful," she said warmly. "Like something out of a fairy tale. Though I admit I was rather hoping for breadcrumbs to help me find my way back to my room."
"Did you sleep well once you found it?" Sophie asked innocently, though Victoria caught the mischievous glint in her sister's eyes.
"Eventually," Sasha replied with a laugh. "I might need to invest in a compass for tonight."
Victoria found herself watching the way Sasha interacted with her family, noting how naturally she seemed to fit into their dynamic.
She answered her grandmother's questions about her background with charming honesty, admitting she was between jobs but making it sound like an adventure rather than a failure.
She complimented her mother on the table without being obsequious, and she listened to Sophie's enthusiasm about veterinary medicine with genuine interest.
She was, Victoria realized with growing dismay, absolutely lovely. Warm and funny and genuine in a way that made Victoria feel slightly breathless. Not at all ungenerous and definitely not cruel. And all her blonde hair was still intact.
"Victoria's in banking," her mother was explaining to Sasha. "Terribly successful. Just been promoted to Senior Vice President."
Victoria nearly choked on her tea. She'd forgotten about that particular lie, and hearing it repeated made her stomach clench.
"That sounds impressive," Sasha said, turning those green eyes on Victoria with interest. "What kind of banking?"
"Investment advisory," Victoria managed. "Corporate restructuring, mergers and acquisitions. That sort of thing."
"Right," Sasha said, though she looked slightly glazed over, which was fair enough. Most people found banking about as interesting as watching paint dry.
"Victoria works terribly hard," her grandmother added. "Always has. Very dedicated to her career."
There was approval in Lady Alexandra's voice, the sort of approval Victoria had spent her entire life working to earn. Now it felt like a weight settling on her shoulders.
"That's wonderful," Sasha said warmly. "It must be nice to have something you're so passionate about."
Victoria found herself studying Sasha's face, looking for signs of sarcasm or judgment, but found only genuine warmth. When was the last time someone had described her career as a passion rather than an obsession?
"What about you?" Victoria asked. "What are you passionate about?"
Sasha's face fell slightly. "That's… a very good question. I'm still figuring that out, actually."
"Sasha's exploring her options," Ambrose interjected smoothly. "Taking time to really consider what she wants to do next."
"How refreshing," Lady Alexandra said, though there was a slight frost in her tone. "So few young people take the time for proper consideration these days."
Victoria felt a flare of irritation on Sasha's behalf. Her grandmother's disapproval was subtle but unmistakable, and Victoria found herself wanting to defend this woman she barely knew.
"I think that's very sensible," she said firmly. "Better to take time to find the right path than to rush into something unsuitable."
Her grandmother's eyebrows rose slightly at the mild rebuke, but Victoria didn't care.
When breakfast finally ended and people began dispersing to their various morning activities, Victoria caught Ambrose's arm.
"A word?" she said, nodding toward the morning room.
"I know what you're going to say," Ambrose began the moment they were alone.
"Do you?" Victoria closed the door behind them. "Because I rather doubt that."
"You're going to tell me I should just be honest with grandmother. Stop all this ridiculous pretending and tell her I'm gay."
"Actually, yes. That's exactly what I was going to say.
" Victoria crossed her arms. "This whole charade is absurd, Ambrose. Grandmother isn't as fragile as you think she is. And to be honest, I think dad’s full of shit when he tells you to keep things to yourself. We can’t all cater to an old woman just in case she decides to leave all her money to the local cat shelter. "
"Easy for you to say," Ambrose said. "You're the perfect daughter with the perfect career and the perfect life. You don't know what it's like to be the disappointment."
The words stung.
"That's not…" she started, then stopped. How could she explain that her perfect career had just imploded? That she was sitting here lying to their entire family about her own life? That she felt like a complete fraud? Which in the end didn’t exactly make her much better than Ambrose and his fake girlfriend.
"Look," Ambrose continued, apparently taking her silence for agreement. "For once in my life, I'm being the good son. I'm bringing home a girlfriend, I'm making grandmother happy, I'm not causing any family drama. Can't you just let me have this?"
Victoria stared at her brother, seeing something desperate in his expression that she'd never noticed before. When had he started thinking of himself as the family disappointment? When had she become so focused on her own achievements that she'd missed his insecurities?
"Fine," she said quietly. "But Ambrose… you know you don't actually have to be perfect to be loved, right?"
He looked at her with surprise. "Says the woman who's spent her entire life being exactly that."
Victoria shook her head and let him go. This was going to be a very long two weeks.