Page 85 of Anything But a Duke
“Oh, Diana.” Grace pulled out a hat pin and tugged off the large satin flower-covered hat. Beneath the veil, her face was splotched pink, her eyes swollen from crying, her lips quivering as if she was on the verge of tearing up again.
“Come in, Grace.” Diana clasped her friend’s hand and drew her to a corner of the workshop where she’d placed one of the family’s old threadbare settees. “Tell me what’s happened.”
“Papa has refused us, of course. He’s threatened Mr. Hambly and he’s vowed to send me away if I pursue this course.” Her chin wobbled and tears welled in her eyes, but she swiped at them and seemed determined not to cry.
“The worst part,” she said on a broken whisper, “is that it’s worked. Mr. Hambly has been frightened off, despite vowing he would persist.”
Grace’s shoulders slumped and she closed her eyes. A line of tears slid down her cheeks, but she said nothing more.
Diana didn’t know what to say to lessen the pain. “I’m sorry, Grace,” were the words that emerged, but she knew they weren’t enough.
“He’s withdrawn his proposal.” She hiccupped and pressed a hand to her chest. “But even that hasn’t satisfied my father. Mama says he plans to send me to the countryside for the Season so that I ‘bring no more shame upon our family.’” After a ragged indrawn breath, she added, “I’ve lost everything.”
Diana reached an arm around Grace’s shoulders. She searched for anything to say that might soothe her. “Perhaps a few months in the country will be restorative.”
Grace frowned at her. “Isolation? Banishment? I’m tired of my father dictating my life, Diana. Why do you think I was so keen to marry?”
“I thought you loved Mr. Hambly.”
Grace pulled a lace-edged handkerchief from her pocket and pressed it to her nose. “Love is a fancy. You told me that yourself just a few days ago.”
Diana opened her mouth but everything she considered saying caught on her tongue. She had been dismissive of Grace’s romanticism, but she couldn’t deny the potency of love anymore. Still, she hesitated to confess as much to Grace, not because she had any doubts about her feelings or Aidan’s, but because the emotions were too raw for her to sift with a few words.
“I know you like solving problems, Diana, but I think I may have found a solution to this dilemma myself.” Grace stripped off her gloves and turned to face her on the settee, a blush creeping up her cheeks.
“Good,” Diana said, shocked by her friend’s change in demeanor.
“I’ll need your help,” Grace told her with an eager glint in her gray eyes.
“You know I’ll assist you however I can.”
“Can you arrange another meeting with Mr. Iverson?” Grace reached for Diana’s hand when she didn’t reply. “I know he must think me a ninny after what happened at the Zoological Society, but we could make a fair match, I think. He has enough wealth to please my family, and I have something to offer him too.”
Diana tried swallowing against the painful knot at the back of her throat, but she couldn’t even manage that. She wasn’t sure she could manage breathing. Every exhale got trapped in her chest.
“Remember how he mentioned the industrial exhibition?” Grace continued. “My father knows several of the men on the planning committee. Apparently, they rejected Mr. Iverson’s proposal to join, but I think my father could convince at least one of the men to reconsider.”
Diana nodded. Some rational part of her understood what Grace was saying. She could help Aidan, and Diana loved him enough to want that. If he wished to be part of this exhibition, then he must be. She understood how much he wanted to belong, and he’d helped her achieve her goals. Could she truly claim to care for him if she didn’t do the same?
“Perhaps your family could host a dinner and invite us both.” Grace rapped her nails against the table. “We could invite him to our reunion ball at Lord and Lady Merton’s. Or perhaps I could simply go to him. It’s not proper etiquette, but he doesn’t seem bothered by such matters, and I’m too desperate now to mind a bit of a scandal.”
“I’ll speak to him and arrange a meeting.” Diana heard her own voice and the words she spoke, but they reverberated painfully in her chest.
This morning, her heart had been full of joy and her mind raced with delicious memories. Now she felt hollow, empty, and could only force out words she knew she should say.
“Do you think he’ll still consider marrying me after that business with Hambly?”
Diana looked at her friend—blond, beautiful, clever, and fashionable. A viscount’s daughter. A noble lady who wished for nothing so much as to marry and manage a household of her own. She was precisely what Aidan had wanted.
But the previous night, all their whispered words, the way they’d loved each other. That was true too.
“Diana?” Grace prompted. “Is there still a chance?”
“I don’t know.” They were the most honest words Diana could offer.
She was a woman who spent her days puzzling over design conundrums and wanted nothing so much as to solve every mystery she encountered. But Diana couldn’t calculate this. She couldn’t be objective about Grace’s dilemma or her own. All she could do was what she’d never done before. She could follow her heart.
Her heart led her to Aidan, but she loved him enough to want his happiness first. She couldn’t be the cause of his missing out on what he craved most.
