Chapter Nine #2
“It certainly is a strange coincidence,” Arden said carefully, which was the truth.
It took him a moment to remember the name Rafe was calling himself here—likely because it was such a ridiculous name.
“Dagwood and I were members of the same club, so I knew him far better than Delphinia. I confess I didn’t have the patience for balls like this back then—I much preferred gambling at the club. ”
Thaddeus laughed, clapping Arden on the shoulder like they were old school chums. “To be honest, I still don’t have the patience for balls like this,” he admitted, lowering his voice. “Unfortunately, I have a sister who needs a husband and now a fiancée who likes to play hostess.”
Arden glanced sideways at Thaddeus, struggling to piece together the picture taking shape before him.
He considered taking the opportunity to press Thaddeus about Oriana but decided against it.
He didn’t want to come across as desperate.
Deep down, though, he also knew that Oriana wasn’t the person he wanted to learn more about at the moment.
“My aunt mentioned you proposed to Delphinia after only a fortnight.” He was walking a dangerous line. The longer he talked to Thaddeus—especially about Mavis—the more chances he had to trip over his lies, but he felt compelled to continue all the same. “You must be quite taken with her.”
Arden understood that—he himself had been taken enough by her when she was calling herself Arabella to propose almost as quickly. It felt like they’d known one another for eons rather than weeks.
“What isn’t there to be taken with?” Thaddeus’s brow furrowed in bemusement as he took a sip of champagne. “Delphinia has beauty, good breeding, and a gift so rare Garlin has never seen anything like it. I’d have been a fool to tarry and let some other bachelor snap her up.”
Arden reached for a coupe of champagne for himself, ducking his head to hide his frown. Thaddeus could just as well have been talking about a painting rather than the woman he intended be his wife.
Why do you want to marry this girl? Arden’s father had asked him when he’d told him he wanted to propose.
Arden hadn’t known what to say to that except Because I love her. And I don’t want to live without her.
He knew now that he’d been a fool, and that love was far more of an illusion than anything she conjured up with that bracelet of hers, but Thaddeus’s answer still irked him.
Arden ignored the thought. “It sounds like she’ll make you a perfect wife, then.” He raised his glass toward Thaddeus’s, clinking the rims together. “To the future Mrs. Mayles.”
Thaddeus smiled and inclined his head before downing the remainder of his champagne in a single gulp. Arden lifted the champagne to his mouth but couldn’t bring himself to take a sip.
Amid the whirl of brightly colored silk gowns, music from the string quartet, and an endless stream of small talk with casual acquaintances, Mavis shouldn’t have been so acutely aware of Arden Ryskamp, and yet she was.
She was aware of the moment he came in, escorting his aunt and looking far more polished and well slept than he had when she saw him last week, though the dark circles beneath his eyes were still there.
She was aware of every step he took across the ballroom—far less aware than she was of Thaddeus’s hand on her back and his murmured voice in her ear saying he was going to get a drink.
And, as she listened to Hortensia Tsu ramble on about the renovations being carried out at the home her new husband had purchased, Mavis was excruciatingly aware of Arden talking to Thaddeus, shaking his hand, making him laugh, toasting to something Mavis couldn’t begin to guess at.
How easily Arden could ruin everything if he wanted to, and how fragile her trust in him was, but it somehow held as Arden and Thaddeus parted ways, Arden bringing a second coupe of champagne to his aunt and Thaddeus greeting a group of old school friends eager to congratulate him on their engagement.
She let out a sigh of relief and forced herself to pay attention to Hortensia’s diatribe on the benefits of parquet wood flooring over marble.
Her thoughts were elsewhere, though, wondering what, exactly, Arden had said to Thaddeus.
What could they possibly have in common, apart from her?
“You’ll have to do away with the chandelier.” Hortensia cast her gaze at the mammoth fixture hanging over their heads. “And perhaps you can convince Thaddeus to finally embrace the modern marvels of electricity.”
Hortensia was near her own age and newly returned from her honeymoon with a belly already showing a slight swell and a glow that had been commented on tonight nearly as much as Mavis’s engagement ring.
While Mavis had no firsthand experience with childbearing, she knew enough to discern that if the rumors were true, the only reason she would be showing so early was if the pregnancy predated her wedding.
Mavis wondered if she and her new husband, Gordon Tsu, had gotten ahead of their wedding vows or if Gordon Tsu had little to do at all with her current state.
“Oh, I haven’t given renovations much thought,” Mavis said with an airy laugh. “There’s a wedding to plan first, after all.”
Hortensia laughed. “Oh, that should come together quickly. Gordon said that Thaddeus already reserved the cathedral for the end of summer.”
Mavis stilled, her thoughts turning rapidly. “Has he?”
Luster weddings tended to be lavish affairs, often a full year in the making, and the only reason for such a rushed engagement was if Mavis were to find herself in the same position she suspected Hortensia was in.
And she was certainly not pregnant. She knew better—the one time she’d broken her only rule about not sleeping with marks haunted her to this day, and she remembered all too well how the weeks that followed that lapse in judgment trudged by at a snail’s pace, how she felt as if she were holding her breath until that telltale twinge of cramping that preceded her monthly blood finally began in her belly.
She had been so incredibly relieved at what before had always been a nuisance.
The disappointment that had commingled with that relief had been a surprise, one best left unexamined.
Without meaning to, she met Arden’s gaze across the ballroom.
If she had been pregnant when she left Strall, that child would be nearly five years old now.
The baby wouldn’t have had Ryskamp magic—not with her Lack blood in the mix—but she wondered, suddenly, if they would have had his eyes.
Mavis tore her attention away, focusing on Hortensia, whose gaze dropped to Mavis’s own belly, as if trying to see a swell that wasn’t there.
“I’m sure Gordon misunderstood. Thaddeus and I have made no plans as of yet.
There’s no need to hurry the wedding along, and I fully intend to ensure it is the wedding of the century. ”
Uncertainty flickered over Hortensia’s face. “Perhaps Gordon did misunderstand and Thaddeus booked the cathedral for the end of next summer.”
“Perhaps that’s it,” Mavis said, though even that didn’t make sense.
Surely, Thaddeus wouldn’t have made any plans of that scale without her.
In her experience, men never bothered with wedding details, seeming to believe that she would see to everything and simply inform them when and where to show up on the day of.
Mavis’s thoughts were interrupted when she caught sight of Oriana entering the ballroom through the main doors that led to the foyer, looking ethereally beautiful as always in a silver gown that draped off her shoulders, leaving them bare.
She also looked vaguely annoyed, and Mavis suspected she’d been forced to leave the comfort of her library by the housekeeper on Thaddeus’s orders.
Oriana had taken up the mantle as hostess tonight, but while she’d planned a smashing party, she seemed to have little interest in participating in the event herself.
“Excuse me, I must say hello to my future sister,” Mavis said to Hortensia before making her way across the ballroom toward Oriana.
When she approached, some of the irritation dissipated from Oriana’s face.
Oriana glanced around the room with mild interest flickering in her gray eyes. “What a marvelous party. I could hear it all the way upstairs.”
“You did an excellent job in planning it. If you give me an hour’s time, I’ll distract your brother to keep him from noticing when you slip off back to your book upstairs.”
Oriana considered it for a moment. “Half an hour,” she countered.
“Forty-five minutes,” Mavis pressed.
She clicked her tongue. “It’s a very good book, Delphinia—I’m just about to discover if the disreputable rake the heroine has been forced to marry is, in fact, her childhood sweetheart in disguise.” When Mavis didn’t budge, she sighed. “Fine. Forty-five minutes.”
Mavis’s smile was victorious. “Then I have not a moment to waste.” She looked out at the crowded ballroom and found Arden with unnerving ease.
His eyes met hers like he’d been waiting all night for her to look his way, and she inclined her head toward him.
It was all the invitation he needed to make his way across the room toward them.
“May I offer my congratulations again, Miss Lindcourt?” he said to her with a polite bow.
“You may,” Mavis replied before glancing at Oriana. “Oriana, I believe you’ve met Mr. Arden Ryskamp?”
“Miss Mayles.” Arden took Oriana’s hand when she extended it to him and bowed over it, pressing a polite kiss there. “You look beautiful tonight.”
Mavis struggled not to roll her eyes. Everyone told Oriana she was beautiful, and while Mavis thought it was the sort of thing a woman could never tire of hearing, it seemed Oriana had long ago. The compliment rolled off her like water from a duck’s back.
“Thank you.” She didn’t quite manage to keep the boredom from her voice.