Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Eliza’s chest ached. Each sob held back ten others—trapped with nowhere to escape.
“Oh, Lizzie,” Sophie whispered, pulling her even tighter.
“I swore—” she gasped. “I swore I would never cry over”—gasp—“a man again. And him—”
“I don’t understand. What has he done?” Sophie asked.
“You don’t know?” Eliza finally pulled her tear-streaked face away from Sophie’s shoulder. “I thought Mama might have told you.”
“No,” Sophie said as she brushed tears away from her sister’s cheeks.
“But you sent him away…”
“He made you cry. Of course I sent him away.”
“I am such a fool. I cannot even voice my humiliation.”
“Do not speak of my sister that way! I can speak without thinking, and I vex you more often than not, but I will not abide such an insult. You are many things, Eliza, but a fool has never been one of them.”
“He was using me the entire time. From the first moment.”
“What?”
“Papa… The night he won the money for the club? It was Lord Sinclair’s father he won it from.”
Sophie’s jaw dropped. “No!”
“It was all a scheme. They intended to humiliate Papa by humiliating me. And blackmail him for the money.”
“Oh, Eliza!” Sophie tugged her sister in for another embrace.
“The worst part—” Eliza whimpered into her sister’s nightdress. “The worst part is… they chose me because they knew—they knew after a single conversation—that you would never fall for such a scheme. They chose me because I am plain and dull and would be flattered by any attention—”
“The cad! But, Lizzie, you could never be plain, nor dull. You are perhaps the most intelligent person I know. No one knows more about plants than you. I’m certain of it.
You read nearly as much as Mama and Papa.
No one so well-read could be dull. And your figure— I cannot stand beside you for fear of comparison. ”
“Do not patronize me. I cannot bear—”
“I am not. Have you failed to notice that not a single man has returned for a third call? No one has requested a fourth dance. I’ve been so jealous of your Lord Sinclair, so devoted to you from the first.”
“It was all a lie.”
“It may have begun that way. But there was no guile in his expression tonight. You’ve broken him, Lizzie.
And Leo— That man is bizarrely steadfast given so little encouragement.
I’m not certain what you see in him. I could never respect a man whose voice hit such a pitch when presented with a singular—tiny—frog in his bed, but—”
“Hush, we were children. And you shouldn’t have been hiding amphibians.”
“May I hide small land mammals?”
Eliza huffed a single chuckle, the corners of her lips turning up.
“I am not suggesting you forgive Sinclair, Lizzie. No one could. You are not taking the right lesson from this moment. You are not unwanted or unloved. That man fell desperately in love with you entirely against his will. He’s risked Papa’s wrath by returning.”
“It was all a ruse. Just another part of his scheme.”
“If you insist. But I do think we should tell someone about his warning.”
“I cannot tell Papa I met him alone in the garden at night again.”
“Again?”
Eliza winced as she buried her face in her hands. “I’ve been a fool—as I said.”
“Oh, my Lizzie. You have been naughty…” Sophie teased. “What was it like?”
Eliza merely shook her head, refusing to surface from her palms.
“We should at least alert Bash. An extra set of eyes cannot hurt.”
“He does not need yet more work to do. He’s overextended as it is. And extra eyes are hardly necessary. There is no risk now. You cannot think me so weak.”
“If you insist,” Sophie said, a hint of weariness dipping into her tone. “Come to bed with me. I’m sure you’re exhausted after all your scolding.”
“Scolding?”
“Honestly, you were frightful. Please never use such a tone or speak to me in such a way. I would never recover. Lord Sinclair may, at this very moment, be slumped dead in a heap against the garden bed. Perished from the force of such an evisceration.”
Sophie urged Eliza with an arm around her shoulders back through the house. Silently, she guided Eliza back into her bed before climbing in after her. “In case you feel sad again.”
“Thank you. I’m sorry for being a jealous shrew—”
“It is alright. You cannot be too perfect—it would be most rude. And I apologize for everything that came before.”
“Good night, Soph.”
“Good night, little sister.”
“It was five minutes,” Eliza griped as she flipped over to one side.
“Six, and they were very important minutes.”
That comment earned Sophie a wordless grumble.
“You do know I’ll continue to pester you about what happened in the garden?” she asked.
“Probably for as long as you continue to remind me you’re the eldest.”
“At least. Go to sleep.”
Eliza hummed and soon drifted off to a restless sleep.