Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
By noon the next day, having tended to the headache that he fully deserved, Hugo found himself outside the townhouse of Selina Parsons. Octavia had given him the address, and though he knew it had to be done, it took him a moment to muster the courage to march up the steps and knock on the door.
She is Evelyn’s best friend. If she does not take this news well, it may thwart everything.
The worry had followed him on the brief ride from his own townhouse, through the pleasant, sun-drenched streets of Mayfair.
A housekeeper answered the door, blinking up at him. “Good afternoon, sir. May I help you?”
“I should like to speak with Miss Parsons,” he replied, straightening up. “Please tell her that the Duke of Ravenvale has come to call upon her.”
Excitement animated the woman’s face as she welcomed him into the grand townhouse, the scent of lilies drifting toward his nose from the plumes of flowers that seemed to occupy every available surface.
He was led down an airy hallway to the drawing room, where he duly sat and waited for Selina to arrive.
She breezed into the room ten minutes later, dressed as if she were about to leave for a ball, her hair fashioned into waves that had been pinned into a bun. A white flower adorned the gathered locks.
Hugo observed her for a moment, and smiled as he realized that he truly felt nothing for this woman. Her beauty and grace, so celebrated among society, did not matter in the slightest to him.
“This is very unexpected,” she said, coming to sit beside him on the settee, rather too close for comfort. “Have you come to take me to the botanical gardens after all?”
Hugo got up. “I have not, Miss Parsons.”
“Then, have you come to beg my forgiveness for not taking me to the botanical gardens?” She frowned, fidgeting with the seam of her dress.
“I am sorry that we have not been able to partake in our final outing,” he replied, and was about to continue, but she jumped in first.
“No matter. There shall be countless outings in the future, I am sure.” She smiled what he imagined to be her winning smile, though it would not grant her any triumph today. “Unless you are about to tell me that you are leaving the country?”
She laughed, but it echoed hollow, a nervous tension appearing around her eyes.
Hugo could understand that the situation must have been rather foreign to her, when she was so accustomed to gentlemen throwing themselves at her, but it could not be helped.
If he wished to win Evelyn’s heart, he had to begin by smoothing things over with her friend.
“I am not leaving the country, no, but there will be no final outing for us, Miss Parsons,” he explained carefully, feeling a slight chill in the room. “You see, it is no longer appropriate.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“Well… the truth is, I am in love with Evelyn,” he said, the declaration igniting a little flurry of excitement within him.
Revealing the truth of his feelings to Octavia and revealing them to more of society were two very different things. In a way, it made it altogether more real.
“I am in love with her,” he repeated, “and though I know it is outrageous of me to ask, I should like your help in gaining her love in return.”
For what felt like an eternity, and a rather infernal one at that, Selina stared at him.
Her eyes blazed with a simmering rage, her mouth set in a grim line, the nervous tension in her face now hardened to pure derision, her slender hands clenching into fists in her lap, while a patchy flush of red colored her cheeks.
If I make it out of here with my face unmarked by her palm, it shall be a miracle… And he would take her ire too, for he deserved it. He did not think he had made it seem like he had an affection for her, but he could understand if she believed there was the beginning of an agreement between them.
“You have wasted my valuable time because you love Evelyn?” she spat at last. “You have spent all of those excursions with me, at my side, pretending it was for me, when, all the while, your attention was upon her? Well, Your Grace, you must be society’s rare exception, to have noticed the goose instead of the swan. ”
There was venom in her voice and fury in her eyes, and though he might have deserved her ire, Evelyn did not.
“I understand that you are angry,” he said coolly, “but you will not speak of Evelyn unkindly. Remember, she is your friend, and she does not know of my feelings. I have not told her, and I have no idea if she feels the same, but I am determined. If I can halt her marriage to that baron, I must do it.”
Selina blinked and some of the fire died in her eyes. She shook her head as if to dispel whatever nastiness had possessed her to speak like that about Evelyn, and leveled him with a cold but calm glare. In her lap, her hands relaxed, her tense posture easing.
“You are right,” she said stiffly. “It was beneath me to say such things about Evelyn. She is no goose at all, but every bit a swan… and I am pleased that someone did notice at last.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Pleased?”
“Yes, pleased.” She took a breath. “Make no mistake, I am not at all pleased with you, but… the fault is not entirely yours. You see, I had an… understanding with a gentleman, and Evelyn warned me against it, but I did not listen. As it turned out, he was every bit the scoundrel that she said he was, and… I found myself clinging to the idea of you, out of desperation. Or revenge. I do not know which, to be honest.”
The revelation surprised Hugo, though he did not know why; she was universally admired and adored, so it would have been far stranger if someone had not piqued her interest. Perhaps it was the vulnerability with which she had told him that had surprised him.
“I panicked,” she said with a shrug. “And now I am disappointed that you have no interest in me, for it means I shall have to begin again, searching for someone, anyone, who is not a knave and a lying weasel. You would think it would be easy, when there is all of society’s gentlemen to choose from, but you would be mistaken. ”
A faint, tired smile graced her lips as she flopped back against the settee and stared up at the ceiling.
“Could you not have come to this conclusion about Evelyn sooner?” she asked, after a moment. “At the opera would have been more useful.”
“I did not know then,” Hugo replied, feeling a thaw in the air.
She pushed herself back up. “Well, at least you have realized it now instead of after she is already married to that boring man. Goodness, I have never encountered anyone with less character. There are statues in the museum that have more interesting things to say than him.” Her face brightened.
“Oh, but what a glorious thing, if my dearest friend should become a duchess.”
“Does this mean you will help me?” Hugo asked tentatively, not quite certain he would emerge from the townhouse unscathed.
Selina’s face cracked into a grin. “This means that I will help her, and if that means conspiring with you, then I shall just have to bear it.” She paused to pluck the flower from her hair. “We should begin the day after tomorrow.”
“Why is that?”
“Because that is the evening of Evelyn’s engagement dinner, and I am cordially inviting you as my guest,” Selina replied, the very last ember of her anger sputtering out, replaced with a little jitter of excitement. “And we are going to make sure that she does not become the Baroness of… wherever.”
Hugo nodded. “I shall be there.”
“I should hope so.” Selina’s face turned serious for a moment, her eyes hardening once more. “But, Your Grace, if you hurt my best friend, if you are not sincere, if you break her heart or make her cry, I promise you that you shall not like the consequences.”
He did not appreciate threats from anyone, but he could see that these were the well-intentioned words of a friend who loved Evelyn very much. For that reason, and that reason alone, he allowed it to pass.
“If I should hurt Evelyn in any capacity, I would punish myself long before you ever had the chance,” he told her, meaning it. “Believe me when I say that I mean to be the man that she deserves.”
I want someone who will be honest with me.
Someone who does not deceive or play games.
I want someone who would not be afraid to show that I am loved and that I am important.
I want someone who would never, not for a moment, dream of making me feel small.
Evelyn’s words circled around in his head as he thought of the mountains still to climb, and the proof it would take to make her see that he loved her and wished to be hers.
I can be him, Evelyn. I promise.
All he needed was a chance, before time ran out.