Chapter 4 #2
‘I had not seen it either. ’
‘It seemed he detested her. Very subtle, I have told you, but clear enough to deceive me,’ Oliver said.
‘He was always watching her, correcting her, judging her. He believed I did not notice, though I am always attentive to everything concerning my sister. Yet this I did not see coming. Arden does not lose his control over anyone. Not even over me, and I have spent years provoking him with considerable success. ’
‘You know him far better than I. Are you completely certain he loves her?’
‘If you had heard the way he spoke of her, you too would have no doubt whatsoever. ’
‘You said he did not mention love. ’
‘He did not. And that worries me a great deal. I cannot think of Eveline as a woman who awakens a man’s sexual desire. For the love of God! I do not even want to think of such a possibility. ’
His friend had spoken of Eveline with a fury too intimate, with the exhaustion of a man who had spent years resisting a weakness and had just discovered that the resistance had served him no purpose at all.
‘What do you think we ought to do, Oliver?’
‘I am sure of nothing. I only know that his possessiveness was undeniable,’ he admitted.
‘He grabbed me by the lapels when I told him I would find a way to free him from the engagement, and he went mad. Arden shouted at me that she was his and that neither I nor anyone was going to take her from him.’
Alice closed her eyes for an instant and sighed.
‘That complicates things a great deal.’
‘I would say it clarifies them.’
‘For you, perhaps. Not for Eveline.’
Oliver frowned.
‘What do you mean?’
Alice at last touched his arm, not to calm him completely, but to keep the disquiet from hardening him again.
‘She does not realize what Arden feels. And your friend, I suspect, would sooner tear out his tongue than admit what he truly feels for her. ’
‘After that kiss, I find it hard to believe my sister does not know how much he desires her. This is hell, Alice! I cannot think such things… She is my little sister…’ he lamented.
‘She is a grown woman, Oliver,’ she warned him with conviction.
‘And a kiss can express a great deal, but it does not always say what a woman needs to hear after having been surprised in a questionable circumstance. Eveline believes Arden detests her. She has spent years convinced that he judges her constantly and considers her a burden. She herself confessed it to me, and she does not wish to ruin your best friend’s life.
At this moment she is certain he will marry her out of obligation, to repair the scandal and because you will demand it of him. ’
‘Obligation, Alice? Did you see how she returned his kiss? There is no need to compel him to anything. He desires her as much as, or more than, I desire you. Hell, I said before? No. To speak this way of my little sister is a great deal worse than living in the eternal flames of the inferno. ’
Alice looked at him with a seriousness that quenched his protest before it could grow larger still.
‘Indeed I saw it. I wonder whether they would have finished what they had so ardently begun if we had not happened to appear…’
Oliver straightened.
‘Alice!’
‘It was a spectacular kiss. ’
‘Have you any complaint about the ones I give you?’
‘Of course not. Besides, we are not speaking of us. The essential point here is that I believe Eveline needs to know that Arden chooses her because he loves and desires her, not because he was caught kissing her.’
‘Arden will never admit that he feels a weakness for her. He is more stubborn than I. He will not have sent a secretary to her with a list of demands for her to be his wife, but…’ He fell silent when he saw his duchess raise an eyebrow.
‘Then he will have a problem just as you did when you behaved like a boor.’
‘I was not so much a boor. I managed to get you to marry me,’ he defended himself.
‘Focus. What shall we do with your sister and Arden, Oliver?’
‘It is all problems. Arden will see his reputation imperiled if he does not marry. To say nothing of his having made it very clear that he is going to marry Eveline with my approval or without it. ’
‘Was he as frank as that?’
‘Frank, no. I have the proof of his eloquence on my face,’ he noted, in reference to the bruise that must already be visible.
‘And as I was telling you before you interrupted me, he could lose his irreproachable reputation, we shall have a scandal, and Eveline runs the risk of ending up with a broken heart. This is a disaster.’
Alice nodded. There were many problems at once.
‘She has asked me for time.’
‘Time?’
‘Eveline wants to return to London.’
The duke drew back from her in disbelief.
‘No.’
‘Oliver…’
‘I will not take her to London for all of society to tear her apart between balls and dinners while the news of her ruin at the hands of my best friend runs from drawing room to drawing room.’
‘The news will run wherever she may be. At least in London we will be able to steer part of the conversation. Your title must keep serving as a shield for your family.’
‘Is that the reason Eveline gave you for wanting to go to the city?’
‘Not entirely. She wants to distract herself. She wants to enjoy the Season.’
‘She is engaged.’
‘To a man who, according to her, detests her with all his might.’
Oliver clenched his teeth.
‘Arden does not detest her.’
‘I know. You know. He perhaps knows it, though he seems willing to call it by any other name in order not to be too exposed. Eveline, the one who needs to know it, does not.’
‘And what does she intend to do in London?’
Alice looked towards the window.
‘Meet a gentleman who loves her truly and who does not have to marry her out of obligation.’
The sentence slipped between them as though it were a death sentence.
‘I cannot allow her to humiliate herself,’ he said, now with less assurance.
‘She does not want to humiliate herself. She wants to choose, even if her choice ends up being Arden. Above all if it ends up being Arden.’
‘I tell you that you do not grasp the gravity of the situation, Alice. Arden will not let her go without a fight. He looked like a hound from hell; he was ready to kill me for having told him I would free him from the marriage. If he sees her flirting in London…’ He shook his head.
‘The ten plagues of Egypt will be little compared to what he will unleash.’
‘Good.’
Oliver looked at her.