Page 43 of Lord of Mischief
Chapter Twenty-Five
When Eve and her mother arrived home, Eve headed up to her room without greeting any members of the Saunders family.She couldn’t bring herself to face them.Especially Caroline.
A maid brought up a plate of supper.She was accompanied by Adelaide.After the maid set the tray down and left the room, Adelaide came and sat beside Eve.
“I’ve told your father the bare bones of what happened.To say he is furious would be a gross understatement.Your father was prepared to overlook some of his foolishness because you clearly loved the boy, but after today I will say Freddie is lucky he is not within a hundred miles of here tonight,” she said.
Eve picked up a small cheese sandwich and took a bite.For all the fine dining at Rosemount Abbey, it was good to be home, back eating simpler fare.As she sat and chewed, her mother gently held her hand.
“What have you told Caroline and Francis?”asked Eve.
“Nothing.”
Having intelligent, caring parents was a priceless gift.While both Adelaide and Charles Saunders would be livid at the outrageous injury inflicted upon their daughter’s heart, neither of them would be making a fuss in public.
The events at Rosemount Abbey had taken place far from London.It was unlikely anyone outside of the Rosemount family would know what had transpired to compel the Saunders women to suddenly up and leave the abbey.Lord and Lady Rosemount were respectable, decent people, who Eve knew to be shocked and disgusted by Freddie’s actions—or what they knew of them.
“You might want to talk to Caroline in the morning, after which your father and I will decide what we shall tell Francis.Your father will no doubt speak to Will.”
The conversations with her brothers were, to Eve’s mind, the easier of the tasks.What she herself would tell Caroline was far more difficult.In confiding in Caroline, she would finally have to give voice to some of her inner demons.
Eve slept late the next morning.The trip home in the coach had been long and uncomfortable.She woke to soft rapping on her bedroom door.As she opened an eye, she caught sight of Caroline’s face in the doorway.
“Are you awake?”asked Caroline.
Eve sat up in bed and settled the blankets neatly around herself.She beckoned for her sister to enter the room.
Caroline closed the door gently behind her and walked slowly across the floor toward the bed.She took a seat at the end of the four-poster, her back against one of the upright posts.
“So how was your trip?”she asked.She was slowly wringing her hands and wouldn’t meet Eve’s gaze.Her discomfort was evident.
Eve sucked a deep breath in, then slowly let it out.“It was an utter disaster.He rejected me,” she replied.Facing the cold, hard truth was the only way she would ever get over the heartbreak.Part of that cold, hard truth was also accepting she had been a willing participant in her own downfall.
Caroline wiped away a tear.“Oh, Eve, I suspected something terrible had happened when you and Mama arrived home last night.I heard you downstairs and I waited for you to come racing up and be full of happiness, ready to show me your betrothal ring.When I heard you go straight to your room and close the door, I knew.I knew that beastly boy had broken your heart.”She climbed off the bed and moved closer to Eve.She leant down and kissed her sister softly on the cheek.“He doesn’t deserve you.He never did.”
“He was not the only one to blame for what happened,” replied Eve.While Freddie was now in her past, there were still things she needed to resolve before she had a clear path forward.
“What do you mean?If Freddie behaved in an ungentlemanly fashion toward you, I cannot see how that is your fault.”
Freddie may well have been the one who’d torn all her hopes and dreams to pieces, but she had been very much the architect of her own destruction.She had ignored everyone and their not-so-subtle hints about him.She had been a willing participant in the foolish Bachelor Board games and stood by while he insulted her family and friends.She was now paying the price for her reckless behavior and for having given up her heart.
“I was in such an almighty rush to get married.I thought Freddie was the perfect mix of rake, brains, and money, all wrapped up in a heavenly masculine body.I fell in love with him.What I failed to see was he was playing me all along.That I wasn’t a part of the hunt—I was the prey.”
Caroline dropped down onto the bed beside Eve and studied her sister for a moment.Eve knew Caroline well enough.Her beauty hid a clever mind.Little got past Caroline.
“Why were you in such a rush to get married?As I recall, you were the one who was saying Lucy and Avery were a cautionary tale for all young women.That none of us should act with haste when it came to marriage.”
Eve sighed.The time had come to have the most difficult conversation of her life.A conversation where she would have to bare many of her deepest secrets.
“I originally set my sights on Freddie because I wanted to beat you to the altar.I was desperate to be a bride before you.To have my one moment in the sun.”
Caroline sat for a moment and stared at Eve.“But why?”
Eve closed her eyes as fresh tears began to fall.“Because you are so beautiful, and you are always the one the young gentlemen want to talk to and dance with at parties.There have been so many times we have been in a group of people, and while you were the bright and shining center of attention, I stood on the side invisible to all.Freddie was the first one who paid me attention.I was filled with bitter happiness when instead of falling at your feet, he treated you with such horrible disdain.”She put her face in her hands and began to sob.The shame of finally acknowledging she had spent much of her life being bitterly jealous of her younger sister threatened to overwhelm her.
Caroline had been nothing other than a loving and supportive sister.She had been Eve’s rock so many times, yet all the while, she had been the cause of much pain in her sister’s life.
“And that is why you threw yourself at Freddie Rosemount, just to spite me?Oh, Eve, how could you do such a thing to yourself?I cannot believe you hate me so much you would throw your life away in the hope it would make me miserable.”
