Page 104 of You Only Love Twice
"I hear you rescued Miss Hamilton," Isabella said tonelessly.
Gemma hesitated. "Isabella, she's a young woman. She didn't deserve what happened to her."
"I know." Isabella's eye was twitching, as if she'd lost control of the muscle there. "I don't blame Miss Hamilton. She took her chance, and she captured her duke. But that duke had a choice. No. I don't particularly wish her well, but I don't blame Miss Hamilton."
An awkward silence descended.
A squirrel scampered across the grass in front of them, turning to watch them pass.
"Has he called off the wedding?"
It was the barest whisper.
Gemma hesitated. "I don't know. He's intent upon capturing this Chameleon at the moment. And Miss Hamilton will take several days to recover. There's still hope."
"No." Tendrils of Isabella's black hair ripped past her in the wind. "I am done with Malloryn." She pressed her lips firmly together, as if she wanted to say something more.
Gemma wrapped her arms around the baroness, squeezing her tight. "More fool Malloryn. He doesn't know what he's missing out on."
"Gemma, please don't." The baroness pushed away from her. "You're making this harder for me."
"Ingrid and Ava were there for me when I needed them. I can do no less for you." And Isabella was so cool and detached, she found it difficult to make friends.
Gemma was probably the only one who considered herself such.
"You've always been my true friend," Isabella whispered, drawing back from the embrace. "And yet, do you know how many times I've hated you?"
Gemma looked at her sharply. "What?"
Isabella turned and stared across the gardens. "I wanted what you had so effortlessly. I wanted Malloryn's affections, even as I knew I would never own them. I knew, and still I forged ahead, trying to fool myself. And I hated you for the place you held in his heart."
"There's nothing between Malloryn and—"
"You look like Catherine," Isabella said sharply, turning those glittering green eyes upon her. "Eerily so. When you were sent to assassinate Malloryn, he couldn't kill you, and I didn't dare tell you why. It hurts him to look at your face. That's why he sent you away to be trained as a spy upon the Continent. He couldn't bear to look at you for such a long time. You could be her sister. Hethinksof you as her sister, Gemma. He loves you, as much as Malloryn probably can, and he's gone out of his way to protect you over the years. He swore he'd never let you suffer the same fate."
Isabella's words took the ground out from under her. "But... I...."
She looked like Catherine?
Isabella would know. She'd been working with Malloryn before Gemma was sent to kill him.
He thought of her as a sister?
It hurts him to look at your face.
For the first time in her life, she didn't know what to say. There was a horrible mix of emotions within her. She’d always wondered why he’d saved her life the night she tried to take his.
I hated you....
"I thought you should know," Isabella murmured, drawing her cape jacket tightly around her shoulders. "You shouldn't hug me. I don't deserve it."
"Everybody deserves a hug," she whispered, but she couldn't find it in herself to resume the embrace. Shock rampaged through her.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said such a thing."
"No, I'm... I'm fine."
She wasn't fine at all. So many things suddenly fell into place. She felt like crying.
