Chapter 5
Chapter Five
“You’re home!” Millicent appeared at the top of the staircase. “Tell me, everything, Edward! Leave nothing out!”
Edward started at the sight of his niece. Where her appearance was not unexpected, nor was her excitement, it was the gown that she wore which had him balking in surprise.
The gown was a lavish garment of different shades of pink. Its neckline was high, its sleeves were long, but the body was cinched tight at the waist before flowing over her legs so that it swirled as she hurried down the stairs.
“Millicent, what are you wearing?” he asked her.
“What?” She came to a stop once she landed in the foyer and her eyes widened with more excitement than she was already showing. “Oh! It is the gown I plan on wearing to my debut next month. Do you like it?” She held out her arms and twirled on the spot. “What do you think? Be honest.”
Edward did not bother hiding his smile. It came naturally and was he a different type of man, it might have been paired with a tear leaking from his eyes. She looked beautiful. Truly, as elegant and regal as any princess might wish to be.
She is turning into a woman… no, she is a woman.
“You look perfect,” he said to her. “Your mother would be so proud.”
Millicent flushed as pink as her dress and looked away shyly.
Her mother was Edward’s sister, and rarely did they speak of her as to do so brought more pain than either he or Millicent liked to show.
And the fact that Millicent looked just like her too made it all the harder to forget just how much Edward missed her.
“I still need to decide on what jewelry to wear,” Millicent said, still looking away as if embarrassed. “And how to wear my hair. But I wanted to make sure it fit. Also…” She grinned. “I just like to wear it.”
He chuckled. “Careful now, you might grow bored of it before the big day comes.”
“Never!”
Her excitement was like a tonic that Edward did not even know he needed. If he’d had any doubt at all about what he was doing, seeing Millicent in her gown, positively ready to explode at the mere thought of her debut, was enough to quell those doubts.
Not that he had such doubts… which itself was a small problem.
Today had been a little too easy. Oh sure, Miss Celestine was argumentative and purposefully aggressive when she saw her chance to be. She tested him. She pushed him. And she was accusatory to a point of absurdity. But that was to be expected.
What Edward had not expected was how much he’d enjoyed her company. Yes, he was playing a role. And yes, he was exaggerating his feelings as he knew he must. But beneath the theatrics, there was an air of truth that niggled at the back of his subconscious and refused to leave him be.
Who would have guessed how well he and Miss Celestine might get along?
When they were not bickering, their conversation was free-flowing and natural.
When they were not mocking, their words were carefree and real.
The day had not dragged. It had not been a chore.
And most surprising still, Edward found that he almost looked forward to seeing her again…
“So!” Millicent rounded on him. “How was today? Tell me everything!”
He rolled his eyes. “I did not hear a please in there.”
“Please,” she pleaded. “I want to know! No!” She looked at him with excitement, her eyes wide, her body shaking. “I want to meet her. Why have you not brought her home yet? She must be special. I cannot believe you are already engaged.”
Edward smiled at his niece, truly touched by her enthusiasm.
Yes, there was a little bit of guilt added to the mix, because it was all lies. But he did this for her, and one day, he was certain that she would thank him for it. Better if she never knew at all…
“Did I even tell you how nosey you are?” he said to her.
She grinned. “Almost always.”
“My day with Miss Celestine was pleasant, and that is all I will tell you.”
“But –”
“Upstairs,” he cut her off. “You wear that gown much longer and you might wear it out. Take it off, ready for supper, and maybe then I will answer your questions.” He raised a commanding eyebrow at Millicent.
She just giggled and hurried back up the stairs.
Edward was not the monster everyone thought him to be. As he had said to Celestine, he was rather good at pretending. So good in fact that he often forgot himself entirely. That was why he needed Millicent, to remind him of who he could be, if only things were different…
“Your Grace…” A footman rushed into the foyer. “I do apologize but I am afraid you have a guest.”
Edward blinked. “I do?”
“I tried to ask him to leave, Your Grace, but he would not hear it. He is in your office right now…” The footman grimaced. “As I believe he is helping himself to a glass of your brandy.”
Edward shook his head and this time it was not paired with a smile. He knew who the guest was, because only one man would dare treat Edward’s hospitality with such contempt.
“It is perfectly fine,” he said. “I will be supping with Millicent this evening, ensure everything is ready.”
“And your guest, Your Grace?”
“Oh, he won’t be here,” Edward said. “Of that, you can be sure.”
With that said, Edward made his way through the manor and toward his office. He was more than aware of what this coming conversation would bring, and he spent that walk preparing himself.
Sure enough, when he walked into his office, he found his guest sitting in Edward’s chair. Feet up on the table. A glass of brandy in his hand. He saw Edward walk through the door and rather than apologizing, he held Edward’s eyes and took a purposeful sip of his glass of brandy.
“Please, make yourself at home,” Edward said dryly.
“I believe that I am.”
Percival Gambrill, the Duke of Tamblyn was Edward’s oldest and only friend. It was the type of friendship born from practicality, as Percival was the only man living capable of standing up to and speaking down to Edward without wetting himself.
Are we really friends? Or are we just the only two men able to stand one another?
He was a cold fish. Rarely did he make jokes. Rarely did he smile. And rarely did he give any indication that he cared what people thought about him. Tall like Edward, dark of feature too, his face was long, his cheeks were hollow, and his eyes were black pits that bore little to no emotion.
“What are you doing here, Percival?” Edward sighed as he walked into the office.
“What? Can’t a friend stop by to see how another friend is doing?”
“A friend can,” Edward said. When he reached the table and shoved Percival’s legs off the desk. “But you? I won’t waste our time pretending that is why you are here.”
Percival chuckled dryly as he stood from behind the desk and walked around it so that Edward could take his chair back. Percival had a final mouthful of brandy, placed down the empty glass, and sat neatly in the chair across from him. There, he sat straight, hands folded on the desk.
“I came on account of curiosity,” Percival said.
“Meaning?”
“A little bird visited me earlier,” his friend continued. “And this bird’s song was a most curious thing. It told of a duke waltzing through St. James’ Park, arm in arm with a madwoman, laughing and skipping and --”
“Enough with the theatrics,” Edward sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Yes, I went for a promenade with Miss Celestine Hargrave today. What of it?”
Percival exhaled sharply through his nose.
“When you told me what you meant to do, I thought you had lost your mind. When you told me who you meant to do it with, I knew you had. Now that said plan is in action, I cannot help but wonder…” He cocked a thin eyebrow at Edward.
“How much of what you are doing is a lie and how much of it is real?”
“Is that why you are here?” Edward looked flatly at his friend. “Do you really mean to suggest that I…” He scoffed. “That this engagement is real?”
“Is it?” Percival asked simply. “By all accounts the two of you made a most picturesque couple.”
“Which is the exact point,” Edward said. “This entire plan hinges on the notion that we want to be together. That our engagement is true.”
“You always were a good actor. But you were never that good.”
Edward looked flatly at his friend, making sure there was no chance that his next words might be misheard.
“You know why I do this. You know how important it is. And, as I have told you, so does Miss Celestine. We are playing a role, and that we have managed to fool even you is proof that my instincts about the woman were correct.”
Percival smirked with mirth. “So you say.”
Edward knew what his friend was doing.
Percival was a most wicked sort, and he took untold amounts of pleasure in driving in the knife and then twisting it slowly. Whether he truly thought that Edward was falling for Celestine or not was irrelevant. What he wanted to do was plant the seed of doubt so that Edward would question himself.
And why? For fun, was the reason. The sick man that Percival was.
“I will remind you that this entire plan is highly unnecessary and grossly elaborate,” Percival continued. “If you wished to clean up your image, there are any number of ways you could do so without faking a marriage.” He scoffed. “But that you have chosen such a path is telling.”
Edward looked warningly at his friend.
Even as he did so, he felt a pang of guilt. He should not have done. He had nothing to feel guilty over. But the idea of dismissing Celestine with such coldness sat wrong with him for some reason. Almost as if she deserved more…
She would want me to do so. She would insist that I put my friend in his place!
Either way, Edward squirmed under his friend’s intense and questioning gaze. Today had been fun, carefree, possibly the best day he’d had in longer than he could remember. And that, Edward could not deny, was a problem.
“Is there anything else?” he pivoted out of the conversation. “Or did you just come here to annoy me?”
Percival allowed a wry grin. “Do you think I would waste a trip to see you otherwise? It concerns the rumors about your gaming hell…”
Edward groaned. “What is it now?”
“They are getting worse,” Percival said. “Like fires that appear from nowhere, and the more they are stamped out, the more that appear.”
The gaming hell that Edward ran was starting to become a problem. Although it was known by most, what he did not appreciate was the notoriety it was beginning to covet.
When he had started the venture, it was done with an air of mystery, a whisper behind closed doors. Everyone already suspected that Edward was the worst of people, so why wouldn’t he be the type to run such a dastardly business as that?
Lately, however, the whispers had become mutterings.
Now, it was not just suggested that he ran a gaming hell but said matter-of-factly.
Worse too, the reasons that he ran it were spreading and turning malignant.
They said he did it for power. They said he did it so he could own other lords.
They said that he did it so that he could prove to his peers that the rules of society did not concern him.
If only they knew the truth… but who would believe it?
“Deny everything you hear,” he said to Percival.
“What do you think I have been doing?”
“Do we know who Is spreading these rumors?”
Percival scoffed. “I have my suspicions. Lord Grundon, for example…” His upper lip curled. “He is not a fan of yours.”
“The feeling is mutual.”
“Very true,” Percival chuckled. “You know he has his eyes on Millicent. And he knows that you will do anything to stop him. I do wonder if he is trying to ruin your reputation so that should he ask for her hand, you will have no choice but to give it.”
“Which is why this engagement is so important,” Edward said. “Everything rests on it working. It must work.”
Percival smirked. “And again, you just cannot help bringing up your engagement. Funny, that.”
Edward did not bother snapping at Percival, for there would be no point. He was tired. So darn sick of it all. His reputation… one that he was responsible for… and the efforts gone through to fix a mess that refused to be fixed.
He looked past his friend and his mind turned back to earlier today. Despite his mood, despite the chaos that surrounded him, the day spent with Miss Celestine was a light in the darkness of his nightmare, so bright that it almost blinded him to the reality of his woes.
That saw him smile for just a moment, which saw him grimace, which saw him slink down in his chair as Percival smirked to himself.
The plan was a good one, it would work. But how well it worked, and what would happen at the end of this month… that was a problem that was sure to come with its own cost, just as Edward refused for now to admit to what that might be.