Page 36 of Duke of Diamonds
Nancy hovered at the foot of the bed, her arms crossed, her entire stance taut with outrage. Her Scottish blood was up; Fiona could see it in the way her chin jutted forward.
“Suffice it to say,” Fiona said, forcing the words through the tightness in her throat, “my father was...not pleased.”
Fiona watched her friends exchange a look—one of those quick, wordless conversations that only true companions could carry out without a single syllable.
Hester moved first, gathering Fiona into a tight, unreserved hug. Her arms wrapped around Fiona’s shoulders, offering a warmth that made her breath catch painfully.
Anna and Nancy each took one of her hands, their fingers firm and reassuring around her chilled ones.
“We are so very sorry, Fiona,” they said together, their voices soft but fierce with feeling.
“No matter what led to it,” Anna added, her eyes flashing, “he had no right whatsoever to lay a hand upon you.”
Fiona managed a small smile, but it felt brittle, stretched too thin over the ache inside her. “Well,” she said with a lightnessshe did not feel, “I did not expect a scandal of this magnitude to go without some consequences.”
I merely underestimated the depth of my father’s wrath. How foolish of me to think I could escape unscathed.
The memory of his hand against her skin—the sharp, humiliating sting of it—rose unbidden, and she forced her mind away from it before the sickness in her belly could overtake her.
Hester leaned back, her arms still looped around Fiona’s shoulders. “After the shock of last evening, we could not remain away,” she declared stoutly. “We had to be certain you were well.”
“And we are most decidedly not pleased with the state we find you in,” Nancy added, squeezing Fiona’s hand again, her mouth thinning in disapproval.
The tenderness and the sheer loyalty of her friends wrapped around Fiona like a balm, but it also scraped against the frayed edges of her composure. Tears threatened, prickling hot behind her eyes. She swallowed hard, tilting her head back slightly, willing them not to fall.
Not now. I must not break now. They have seen enough already.
Anna’s fingers tightened around hers. “Tell us what happened,” she said gently.
For a long moment, Fiona simply stared at the intricate pattern of her coverlet, tracing the embroidered flowers with her gaze as if they might offer her courage.
Say it. If you say it, it becomes real. If you keep silent, you might yet pretend it was all a fevered dream.
At last, she spoke, her voice quiet but steady.
“I had to end my betrothal,” she said. “I could not... I would not go through with it.”
Across from her, realization lit Anna’s face. She sat up straighter, her mouth parting as if the final pieces of a puzzle had snapped into place.
CHAPTER 13
Hester and Nancy, however, looked utterly bewildered. They glanced between Fiona and Anna, their confusion almost comical if the situation had not been so grave.
They deserve the truth. They deserve more than the half-truths I have given everyone else.
“What is she speaking of, Anna?” Hester demanded, her bonnet askew in her agitation.
“You know something we do not,” Nancy added sharply. “Now spill it out, or I shall surely burst.”
Anna turned to them, her expression shifting from secrecy to resignation. “Fiona was not merely entertaining suitors, as you believed,” she said. “She was betrothed. To the Earl of Canterlack.”
The silence that followed was deafening.
Say it plainly. Say it without shame. He does not own your shame any longer.
“You never said a word,” Hester said, her voice filled with hurt surprise.
“”Perhaps because it was never my choice, and I’d held off hoping to make a more desirable match,” Fiona said with a rueful sigh.
