Chapter 24 #2
“I knew it,” he muttered, closing his eyes briefly as though appealing to heaven for patience.
Amelia fought back a laugh as she knew he was teasing. “You see Lady Valerie?” she said, nodding towards the young woman beside her. “She is suffering.”
Valerie, who had clearly realized she was being discussed, spluttered indignantly. Several nearby guests turned to look before she quickly composed herself again, her cheeks flushing pink.
John folded his arms and adopted the expression of a physician preparing for a consultation. The transformation was so convincing that Amelia nearly laughed.
“What symptoms?” he asked.
“Extreme nervousness about having to dance her first dance this evening,” Amelia said with a smile.
“Ah, that is dangerous indeed,” he said. John nodded thoughtfully, as though considering a particularly complicated diagnosis. His gaze drifted back toward Valerie, who was now watching them with increasing suspicion.
Around them, couples drifted across the ballroom while the orchestra prepared for the next dance. Candlelight shimmered against crystal and polished silver, but Amelia kept her attention fixed firmly on John.
John nodded solemnly, as though considering a particularly difficult diagnosis. “I believe I possess a remedy.”
Amelia leaned closer, lowering her voice conspiratorially. “Do you?”
“I do indeed.”
She winked discreetly. “Excellent.”
John’s eyes twinkled, and Amelia knew at once that he understood precisely what she was asking.
Turning toward Valerie, he offered an elegant bow.
“Lady Valerie,” he said, extending his hand, “would you honor me with the first dance?”
Valerie stared. For a moment, she seemed genuinely speechless, her eyes widening as she looked from John’s outstretched hand to his face as though searching for some sign that he was teasing her.
“Truly?” she asked at last, her voice softer than before.
“Absolutely,” John replied without hesitation, keeping his hand extended.
Valerie bit her lip. “But I might make mistakes,” she admitted, glancing nervously toward the crowded dance floor where couples were already beginning to assemble.
John shrugged as though the possibility did not concern him in the slightest. “Then we shall make them together.”
The simple answer seemed to catch her completely off guard. A surprised smile appeared. Then another. Brighter this time.
The tension that had been clinging to her shoulders began to ease, and some of the uncertainty faded from her expression.
“I would love that immensely,” Valerie said, placing her hand in his.
John’s grin widened as he gently closed his fingers around hers. “Excellent. I was afraid I might need stronger medicine.”
Valerie laughed. A genuine laugh. Not the polite, carefully measured laugh she offered strangers but a warm, spontaneous one that lit her entire face.
Amelia’s heart squeezed at the sound.
For weeks, she had watched Valerie struggle against her fears, hiding uncertainty behind sharp remarks and stubborn pride. Seeing her smile so freely felt like witnessing the first rays of sunlight after a long storm.
John offered Valerie his arm, and she accepted it without hesitation.
Together, they made their way toward the dance floor.
As they joined the other couples, Valerie glanced back once and caught Amelia watching.
Amelia smiled encouragingly. Valerie returned the smile before turning back to John.
The orchestra swelled around them, and for the first time that evening, Valerie looked less frightened than excited.
Amelia felt a wave of relief wash through her.
Perhaps this night would become a memory Valerie treasured rather than endured.
Amelia’s attention drifted back toward Gabriel despite her best efforts to remain focused on Valerie’s improving confidence on the dance floor. The thought of his earlier words lingered stubbornly in her mind, circling like a restless bird she could not shoo away.
What important matter had he wanted to discuss with me? More pressingly, why had he looked at her like that, half seriousness, half something she could not name?
Her pulse tightened with every passing moment she allowed herself to dwell on it.
Is he going to ask me to leave first thing in the morning?
The idea landed in her chest with an unpleasant heaviness she could not quite explain.
She forced herself to breathe evenly and lifted her gaze across the ballroom. The glittering chandeliers blurred for a moment before she found him. Gabriel stood near the far edge of the room with Lady Provie at his side, both of them half-shadowed by the edge of the candlelight.
His posture, usually controlled to perfection, had shifted, subtly wrong in a way only someone watching closely would notice.
One hand rested at his side, the other flexed once then stilled again as though he were restraining himself.
Lady Provie was speaking animatedly, her fan slicing through the air with sharp little gestures.
Amelia frowned slightly. “He looks… angry.”
As she continued watching, Gabriel shifted his weight again, his jaw tightening as Lady Provie leaned in closer.
Whatever she was saying, it was clearly not agreeable.
Amelia’s fingers curled slightly against the edge of her skirts, an unconscious reaction she did not understand.
She had seen Gabriel irritated before, even sharp, but this was different.
This was controlled anger, carefully contained, like a storm held behind glass.
Lady Provie, however, looked entirely unbothered, as though she were enjoying herself far too much.
Amelia’s unease deepened.
What on earth could she be saying to him?
Then, abruptly, Gabriel did something that made Amelia’s breath catch. He lifted a hand and pointed toward a small adjoining parlor near the edge of the ballroom. The gesture was precise, controlled, final.
Lady Provie’s brows lifted sharply, and for the first time that evening, her composure cracked.
Her eyes widened in clear surprise before narrowing again as though reassessing him.
After a brief pause, she snapped her fan shut with a decisive click.
Without another word, she turned on her heel and walked toward the indicated room.
Gabriel followed a step behind her. Amelia straightened instinctively, her heart beginning to beat faster.
No. No, this is not normal.
She watched as Gabriel opened the door for his aunt, his movements stiff with restraint.
Lady Provie entered first, and Gabriel stepped in after her.
Then, with a final glance back toward the ballroom, he pulled the door shut behind them.
The sound of it closing felt louder to Amelia than the music, than the laughter, than anything else in the room.
For a moment, she simply stared, frozen in place. Her mind began to fill the silence with possibilities she did not like.
Arguments. Accusations. Discussions about her, no, surely not.
And yet she could not shake the feeling that her name might somehow be tangled in whatever was happening behind that closed door. Her stomach tightened unpleasantly.
“This is ridiculous. I am being ridiculous,” she muttered to herself.
And yet she did not move.
Valerie appeared at her side a moment later, flushed and breathless from dancing, only to follow Amelia’s gaze.
“Why has my uncle taken Lady Provie into a room like a prisoner?” she asked lightly, though her expression suggested she was not entirely joking.
Amelia swallowed, forcing her voice to remain calm. “I am sure it is nothing,” she replied, but she did not believe it for a second.
“Oh dear,” John said.
Amelia turned toward him, her composure slipping.
“What is happening?” she asked quietly.
John followed her gaze to the closed door, then back to her. His expression was infuriatingly unreadable. “That,” he said at last, “depends entirely on which version of your duke you are about to meet when that door opens.”
Amelia’s breath caught again. “That is not an answer.”
John gave a small, almost sympathetic shrug. “I am afraid it is the only one I have.” And with that, he took a drink off a passing tray and took a slow sip as though the entire situation were nothing more than mild entertainment.
Amelia returned her gaze to the door once more, unable to look away. The music continued, the guests continued to laugh, but everything felt suddenly distant, blurred at the edges.
Behind that door, something important was happening. Something that might change everything she had only just begun to understand about this place. And for the first time that evening, Amelia realized she was no longer worried about Valerie’s debut at all.
She was worried about Gabriel… and her own future.