Page 69 of A Queen's Match
“Quite a lot, given that she blackmailed me into leavingyou!”
Eddy stared at her, stunned. He placed a hand on the back of her chair, a small feminine thing tucked up to her vanity, and held it so tight his knuckles turned white.
“What do you mean, May blackmailed you?”
“She had proof of something I had done, something indecorous, and was holding it over my head. I thought it best not to tell you,” Hélène said haltingly. “I was worried that if you knew, you might confront May, and then she would expose me. I’m sorry it took me so long to figure out a solution,” she added more softly, “but I never thought you would get engaged to someone else.”
“I only got engaged to May because I’d seen you with Nicholas that very morning.” Eddy cursed under his breath. “Come to think of it, May was with me when I saw you two together. She’s the one who pointed out that you’d left the party together, who made me think that you had…”
Why am I not surprised?Hélène thought wearily. Somehow May had gotten her tentacles into all their lives, influencing their very thoughts.
“Eddy. I would never betray you like that,” she said intently. “Nicholas and I let people think we were courting, but only because it benefited us both. I wanted May to stop considering me a threat, and Nicholas used me as an excuse to see Alix. We’ve already told our parents that there will not be an engagement.”
“You had me convinced,” he said, voice raspy.
“Ineededto be convincing, to throw May off the scent! It destroyed me a little bit every day, pretending that you meant nothing to me. Trust me when I say that I never stopped loving you.” Hélène’s voice broke; tears threatened to slide down her cheeks, but she needed him to hear this. “I will neverstop, for all the days of my life. There is no one for me but you, Eddy.”
Eddy ran a hand over his features, then looked back up. His eyes flicked around the room as if seeing it for the first time. He seemed to finally register that they were alone in her dressing room—that Hélène was standing before him, her bare legs visible through the sheer skirts of her dressing gown. The distance between them was only a few feet, and yet at the same time it felt impossibly vast.
“There is no one for me but you, either,” Eddy finally said, then stepped forward to pull her into his arms.
Hélène tipped her mouth eagerly up to his, her hands wrapped around his shoulders. She wished she could stay here forever, inhabiting this moment—this kiss—for the rest of her life. Heat coursed through her, and she knew that Eddy could feel it too: how well they fit together. How utterlyrightit was.
When they finally broke apart, Eddy tucked her head into his shoulder. “God, Hélène, how I’ve missed you.”
That evening, the two ofthem were intertwined in bed, in the rooms Eddy kept in north London. As much as Hélène would have loved to do this at her parents’ house, she knew better than to push her luck. After their conversation this morning, Eddy had slipped quietly away. They had agreed to meet up at night, as they used to.
Hélène had forgotten how good this felt. Not just physical intimacy, but afterward: when you could drape yourself overyour lover’s body, letting your head rest on his bare chest. Listening to the steady and reassuring beat of his heart. All the pins had been tugged loose from her hair, which fell about her shoulders, wild as a lion’s mane.
“You said May used something you had done and blackmailed you,” Eddy began, lacing his fingers with hers. “What happened?”
So Hélène started from the beginning. She told him how she’d had an affair with Laurent years ago, before she and Eddy were ever involved—and then, when she and Eddy were secretly engaged, how she’d gotten a threatening note from May.
“What?”Eddy sat upright, his expression thunderous. “What did the note say?”
“She told me that I needed to end our engagement ‘before it was too late,’ or else she would tell the queen about me and Laurent! She had a love letter that he wrote me,” Hélène added, her cheeks flaming. “That American friend of hers, Agnes, tricked Laurent into writing it. So May had proof. Even back then, she was clearly planning to swoop in and marry you herself.”
Eddy wasn’t really listening anymore. He slid out of bed, reaching for his shirt as if he meant to storm White Lodge at that very moment. “Howdareshe. I’m going to tell her exactly what she—”
“Eddy, I have the letter!” Hélène sat up. “Just relax for a moment, all right? I stole it back!”
Reluctantly, Eddy sat back on his bed and listened.
Hélène told him how she’d been in Rome when she wrote Laurent, how he’d sent his reply back to the Quirinal Palace. How Emanuele had come to London, and helped her breakinto the Americans’ rented house in Mayfair. Eddy listened in silence, his expression unreadable.
“You seem upset,” Hélène said at last, twisting the sheets in her lap. “Are you angry that I didn’t tell you any of this?”
Eddy sighed. “It certainly would have made the last year more bearable, knowing the truth instead of thinking that you had stopped loving me.”
Hélène placed a hand tentatively on his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she told him, knowing how utterly inadequate the words were. “I worried that if I told you, you would have revealed it to May, and she would have shown the letter to Her Majesty. Then weneverwould be able to get married.”
“But now I’m publicly engaged to May,” he said flatly.
Well, yes. Hélène hadn’t imagined that he would take such a drastic action so quickly.
Eddy shifted farther back on the bed, tucking an arm around Hélène’s shoulders and pulling her next to him. “You were probably right not to tell me. We both know I don’t exactly have a delicate touch when it comes to things like this.” He shook his head. “I just…I keep thinking of all the time we lost. We had finally gotten my grandmother’s blessing, and then to lose it because of May…”
“I’m sorry,” Hélène said again, and Eddy turned, brushing a kiss on her temple.
