Page 59 of The Duke and His Jilted Bride

Whatever he was going to tell her, and whatever she was going to ask him, didn’t matter in the end. They heard someone say her name and both turned.

Frederick was coming down the slope inelegantly with Seraphina on his arm, both of them in their coats. Frederick waved with cheerful obliviousness, having unconsciously entered at exactly the wrong moment. Seraphina was smiling. It was a very tight smile that made Aurelia’s blood run cold. She looked at Evander sadly. Just like that, the moment folded itself up and put itself away neatly.

“We saw you from one of the upstairs windows,” Frederick called as he dragged Seraphina down the knoll. “Seraphina said the view from the south wall is extraordinary, and I said, well you should see it up close. I have been promising her a long walk all week. Do you mind if we join you?”

There was no version of the next sentence that didn't involve saying no, they didn't mind. Aurelia found an acceptable combination of words from somewhere inside her, even though her mind was still on the lost moment between her and Evander.

“Not at all,” she said, hoping she had successfully masked her disappointment. “You are welcome to join us and see.”

Seraphina took her arm almost immediately. It was graceful, the way she did it, sliding her hand through Aurelia's elbow as they walked as though they had been doing this for years, old friends on an afternoon stroll, rather than two women who had somehow managed to exchange would-be husbands.

Aurelia could never be like that. Aurelia let things like this happen because the alternative was pulling away in front of the brothers, and she was not going to do that while the moment with Evander had been left unresolved.

Jealous, she thought to herself. How can he be jealous of such a small thing when he behaves so distantly, like right now?

Evander and Frederick fell back naturally over time. She could hear Frederick talking about the view, whether you could see the coast from here on a clear day like when they were children, or if the clouds were too low for that. She could hear Evander’s reply but it was muffled by the breeze. They sounded almost ordinary walking together, like the last few months had never happened.

“It really is extraordinary,” Seraphina said, looking out at the expanse in front of them. The edge of the hill, a steep rocky drop, came into view. “I had forgotten how much sky there is here. London makes you forget that sky exists at all, don’t you think? Unless you go out of your way to see it. But who would bother when there is so much to do in town? Do you miss it as much as I do, town?”

“Not particularly,” Aurelia replied. She had come to like Norfolk, the pace of the country life. “But it takes some adjusting to.”

“Have you adjusted?”

“Mostly, I think.”

Seraphina looked at her with something that was warm, possibly genuine. “You seem like you have. You seem very at home here.”

They had reached the highest point of the southern grounds, where the Roman wall ended completely and the land dropped away, the fields below laid out in long flat lines, the first crops pushing through the tilled earth. The brothers had stopped under a thick elm tree a little way back. Frederick said something and Evander laughed, and Frederick looked pleased with himself. The sun made Evander’s hair look bright again. Her heart panged involuntarily at the sight of him, his beauty, her husband.

“Look at them,” Seraphina murmured. “I forget sometimes that they are capable of being so normal with each other. Frederick spoke about the Duke of Sandacre all the time when we were travelling, you know. He really does think the world of him. I suspect there is nothing on earth so important to Frederick as the approval of his brother… That tends to be the case for many people.”

“What do you mean?” Aurelia asked, detaching herself just enough to look Seraphina in the face.

“Surely you’ve noticed? How people arrange themselves around Evander like he’s the sun and we’re all just orbiting him? He’s quiet. You wouldn’t think he had so much magnetism when you first meet him, not owing to anything except his title. But his pull is…” She stopped, smiled nervously. “Suffice to say, it’s no wonder you seem to be obsessed with him. As you should be, of course, as his wife.”

Aurelia watched Evander's face in the easy moment, the laugh still in it, Frederick gesturing about something with his hands. She thought about what Frederick had said in the garden, and about that pull. She thought she had been the only one to notice. But maybe she wasn’t so special. Maybe they weren’t.

“I interrupted something earlier,” Seraphina said, her voice lilting.

Aurelia looked at her.

“When Frederick and I came down the grounds to you.” Seraphina's eyes were on the view. Her voice was light and conversational. Her dark lashes caught the light and turned silver. “I could see from the window. I told Frederick we should give it a few minutes actually. But he was already out the door.” A small pause. “I'm sorry about that. It looked like it might have been a kiss in the making.”

Aurelia felt suddenly too large for her own body. How could Seraphina tell a kiss was brewing when she hadn’t even been able to read him at all in that moment? She shouldn’t have been embarrassed if that was the case. It was natural for a man and a wife to kiss. Just not natural for them, it seemed.

“Actually,” Seraphina continued, “it reminded me of something. Just a moment long ago… Made me feel like a girl again. I suppose that’s how I knew. At a house party here at Carrstone, two summers ago... I told you about it, didn’t I?” She turned her head slightly. “Do you know, he looked at me exactly that way too. Just before…” She stopped as though catching herself, as though she hadn't meant to say it.

“Just before what?” Aurelia asked.

Seraphina looked at her. Her smile was small, and she laughed prettily. “I should not have said anything. Forgive me, Your Grace. It was a long time ago and it meant nothing. He will tell you so himself, I'm sure, if you ask.” She looked back at the brothers. “Frederick,” she called, “come and look at this properly. You can't see it from there. I want to see this with you.”

Frederick detached himself from the tree with good-natured compliance. Evander followed slowly, a tall mass in the distance Aurelia couldn’t bear to look at.

The four of them stood at the edge of the hill looking out at the view, and Seraphina pointed at something on the horizon and commented on the fields. Frederick agreed with whatever she had said.

It was a perfectly pleasant moment. But Aurelia stood there and just felt sick.

Just before... Before what, exactly? Before Evander had kissed Seraphina? That was what the pause had been rather than an accident or a slip. A purposeful ellipses, a door opened just wide enough for Aurelia to see what was behind. And Seraphina had opened it on purpose.