Page 63 of The Duke and His Jilted Bride

“I wouldn’t say I was hidden – just reading,” Aurelia said, watching her.

Seraphina sat down in the chair across from her without waiting to be invited. Nike lifted her head and assessed the newcomer, then put it back on Aurelia's knee.

“Frederick… has gone out,” Seraphina said. “With Mr. Poole alone, I think, to have a chat about the future, or something equally vague. Your husband suggested they go riding together before breakfast, and Frederick was very keen.”

She settled back in the chair with fabricated ease. Aurelia was surprised she could tell, as though the events of yesterday had made her more discerning somehow.

“It's good for him, I think, to be taken seriously by someone. He has always needed that from Evander, and he can only provide so much in that regard. He’s just a man.”

“I'm sure,” Aurelia said.

She glanced back at the journal. Meantime Seraphina looked around the room.

“You know, I have been thinking,” Seraphina continued, “about what I said on the hill yesterday.”

Surprised, Aurelia did not look up from her page, merely asking, “Oh?”

“I want to apologise for what occurred. It was indelicate of me and I should not have said it. My only concern…” There came a small pause. “It is Frederick. If he were to find out I had mentioned that evening at the house party, he would be hurt. He does not know all the details of what happened between Evander and me before we ran off together, and I would rather he didn't find out. He is sensitive about Evander, about what Evander thinks of him.”

Seraphina’s decision to call Evander by his name at times and by the Duke at others struck Aurelia as odd. But it was not the oddest thing to come out of the new Lady Canterbury’s mouth that morning.

Aurelia merely nodded, turning the page. “I promise I won't say anything to Frederick,” she said.

“I didn't think you would. But I wanted to ask just in case you had views about it.” She smoothed her skirt with one hand. “The truth is, I feel badly about everything. What happened to you was not fair. Finding yourself in a marriage that was never designed for you, that takes a particular kind of resilience. I admire it, truly.”

Aurelia set the journal down then, slowly. She didn’t particularly want to be having this conversation. She felt she had made amends with Evander last night, but that didn’t mean a part of her didn’t want to strike Seraphina dead for kissing her husband years ago.

“I didn't find myself anywhere,” Aurelia said, more bitterly than she intended. “I made the decision to accept his hand. We have spoken about this before.”

“Of course. Yes.” Seraphina smiled. “But what you said… That is exactly what I mean. You are very capable. I have always thought so, even when we hardly knew each other.” She looked at her with an expression of forced sincerity. “I want us to be close, Aurelia. We are sisters now. Legally, at least. And I think women in our position need each other. We are surrounded by Battle men, after all. They are not always easy as a species.”

“No,” Aurelia admitted against her better judgment. Agreeing with Seraphina about anything felt like a betrayal of her own womanhood. “I suppose they aren't.”

“It would be good to have someone we could each trust and confide in.”

“Maybe.”

“Which is what I wanted to say actually, not about the house party, though that came up first.” Seraphina leaned forward slightly, dropping her voice to the registre of shared confidence. “But about Evander specifically. Because I think you should know, from someone who has spent a considerable amount of time trying to understand him, that he is a man who knows exactly how to behave in any situation. Even as a young man he had this ability to appear to feel whatever the moment required.”

A strange way to talk about someone, Aurelia thought, but she said nothing, not wanting to provide Seraphina more ammunition. Quite frankly, she wanted her to stop talking and leave altogether, as quickly as possible. She glanced absently at the clock in the corner while Seraphina went on, her good manners wearing thinner by the second.

“He couldn’t pretend to be warm if his life depended on it,” she said. “But he scratches just beneath the surface to find some interest he can display. It’s a very good skill, since it keeps a woman guessing. It is not dishonesty. It is more that he is so thoroughly trained in the correct response that even he cannot always tell the difference. His father’s influence. He was a severe man, worse than Evander.”

Aurelia felt her throat go dry. She recalled the night prior, the things Evander had admitted to her. He hadn’t been warm then, not exactly. But he had been honest. She could tell – thought she could tell. A man didn’t come up with lies that easily. Not lies like that, about transgressions and misplaced brides, and marriages that should have felt simple but didn’t.

Seraphina continued: “I don't say this to be cruel. I say it because I was in your position once, more or less. And coming back here has reawakened some old feelings. Watching him and trying to read what was real and what was, well, what was simply Evander being appropriate. It is very difficult to distinguish, even for me, and I had considerably more time to study the man than you did before you married him.”

“I'm sure you tried to study him very thoroughly indeed.”

“On many occasions, he made me feel that there was something there between us. Something real, even if it was borne from old promises. And I am a woman who has been wanted by a great many men, you know. I don't say that to be vain. I say it to give you some context. My father was batting them off with a stick at one point, saying I was a promised Battle woman. If someone like me could be made to feel uncertain about Evander’s feelings – to wonder whether it was duty or something more – then I think it is entirely understandable that you might find the same difficulty.”

“Do you think?” Aurelia said, keeping her voice level.

“I do. And it must be particularly… Well, I only mean that he chose you under circumstances that were not typical. Not because of what you are, obviously. You are perfectly–” She stopped, as though finding the word took a lot of effort from her. “You are perfectly convenable. But the circumstances were what they were. And when circumstances push two people together, it can be very easy for both parties to mistake that pressure for feeling. Or heaven forfend, for love.”

Aurelia glared at her, at the careful expression and the kind voice that didn’t register right when Aurelia received it. Why say all this? She wanted to ask Seraphina directly. But how could she do that without upsetting their already delicate situation? Was it possible Seraphina really did care – or was her marriage to Frederick not as happy as she predicted? Misery loves company, Aurelia thought. Especially when wives did not love their husbands, as the pantomime on the front steps just now might have suggested.

She mustered just enough composure to say, “Thank you for the advice.”