Page 77 of Bound to the Heartless Duke
“I am,” she replied quietly.
Cecilia nodded slowly. “And you’re happy?”
“I am.”
There was a long beat of silence between them, as though Cecilia was trying hard to see behind Lily’s mask, while the latter was trying her hardest not to slip.
“I missed you,” Lily said.
Probably an attempt to distract her friend, but in any case, she had meant it.
Cecilia’s lips curled into a trembling smile. “I missed you, too.”
Lily sat up, brushing invisible wrinkles from her skirts. “I was going to explain everything. I owe you that. All of it. I didn’t want you to hear about the house from Nathan, and I should have told you the moment you returned. You’re my dearest friend, and I?—”
Cecilia placed a hand on hers. “Later.”
Lily blinked. “But?—”
“No buts. Right now, I’d rather talk about anything else. Let’s just… have some tea. Possibly eat our weight in scones. Complain about the men in our lives, like decent women do.”
Lily’s eyes widened. “Even Theo?”
Cecilia shrugged. “Especially Theo. He woke me up at dawn and told me not to pack three different coats for a two-day trip. As if I don’t know how many moods England has in August.”
Lily laughed. It was good to have her best friend back. “You haven’t changed.”
“And neither have you, thank God.”
“I’ll call for the maid,” Lily said as she intertwined their fingers. “You can tell me everything about Venice.”
“And you can tell me what in the Lord’s name possessed you to fall for my brother.”
“Oh, I’d need more than tea for that.”
“Wine it is, then.”
They both laughed as they walked out of the room together, the sound echoing through the corridor reminiscent of girlhood.
Whatever storms had passed or were yet to come, they still had each other.
And that was most important.
CHAPTER 18
Magnus had not seen Nathan again.
Not since that cold and disquieting afternoon when Theo had spoken to him after the chaos he had caused in the drawing room.
Ever since Nathan’s departure, there had been no raised voices, no slammed doors, not even a bitter goodbye. Just silence. And absence.
And in Magnus’s experience, silence was always the more dangerous of the two.
Now that the house was like that, Lily’s footsteps were no longer accompanied by Nathan’s hopeful attempts to persuade her to marry Ronald Bailey.
Now, she walked with a certain reservedness, a grace that told him she was thinking too much, again. It could be about herbrother’s whereabouts. It could be his—he wasn’t so sure. And though he kept his distance, though he told himself it was for the best, he found himself listening for her. Watching the door when he heard her pass. Wondering.
And that was the trouble, wasn’t it?
