Eventually Yours

39 We're All Broken

Only a short week later, I found myself in the midst of a hub of activity as my mother swarmed the grounds, checking and double checking everything to ensure it was perfect. Elijah had arrived with news that half of our hometown had already settled into inns and boarding houses in the city in preparation for the occasion which only served to heighten my mother's anxiety as she ran from room to room trying very hard not to shout at servants who were not hers.

Colin and Emily were both adorably nervous but I could see their excitement as well. Father had arrived before Elijah and had begun to attempt to calm my mother but, once he realized the lost cause that was, he had resorted to enjoying the Duke's imported cigars on the veranda for hours at a time.

"Well?" I asked from the threshold of Elijah's room as I peered over my brother unpacking again for the second time in two weeks. He turned to me and smiled. "Did you make up with your girl?"

"I did," he told me with a grin. "Thanks to some surprisingly insightful advice from my youngest sister."

"Is she coming to the wedding?"

His smile faltered here.

"No," he replied. "She is not."

I frowned and pushed off from the doorjamb, stepping into the room.

"I'll tell you a secret if you tell me yours," I offered, referencing this game we used to play when we were younger and one of us clearly had something that was eating at them. The other would offer to disclose a secret of their own to allow the first to get whatever it was off of their chest. Typically, it left us both feeling much better. Perhaps that would work this time. Besides, it was killing me not to tell my brother about Victor.

Elijah looked up at me now, watching me with a strange interest. Had he been able to tell already that I was hiding something? Did he want to know what it was?

"Madame Francis," he said suddenly. "That's who I've been seeing."

My jaw dropped. I stared at him for a moment, dumbstruck, unable to speak. He waited, swallowing nervously as he allowed me time to process.

"I- that's wonderful," I told him finally. He raised a brow.

"Is it?" he questioned and I could tell he truly wanted to know.

"Of course," I exclaimed. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"What do you suppose mother would say to the news?"

I stopped, biting my lip in thought. At first, she'd be thrilled to learn that Elijah was finally seriously courting someone. But once she would out that it was Madame Francis... a local woman who valued her independence and stooped so low as to commit herself to manual labor...

"It doesn't matter," I told him abruptly, shaking my head fervently to show him that I meant it. "You're happy?"

He started to smile but made an effort to stop to no avail.

"I am," he proclaimed.

"Then mother will learn to accept this," I declared. "Or she will face me."

He chuckled at that.

"I wouldn't wish such a fate upon my worst enemy," he said. "Now, it's your turn."

So it was. I took a deep breath. I'd thought about this dozens of times in the past few weeks, how I would tell everyone once I was finally able. But Elijah had simply spat it out and that seemed to me to be the best course of action. So that's what I did.

"I've been seeing the Duke," I told him.

I expected the same reaction I'd given him. Shock at first, relaxing into acceptance and then finally a congratulations and a firm promise to uphold my happiness. But I realized at the set of his jaw that his reaction was about to be something else entirely. I couldn't stop him as he stormed past me from the room.