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“The man can mean no harm, Cordelia, but I may send him away if you -”

Cordelia pulled herself out of her sister’s grasp. There wasn’t any time for anything, as Colin was suddenly upon them. He held his hands behind his back as he bowed, keeping a respectable distance.

“It is a pleasure to see you both this afternoon,” Colin said as he rose.

With the distance gone between them, Cordelia saw the age in his face. A few years had passed since she last saw him, since they were betrothed, and he was almost a new man. Hair grew along his jawline, scruffy but kempt. He gazed upon her fondly, though there was a nervous sway in his step every few seconds.

“Might I speak to the Duchess in private?” Colin asked.

Irene straightened. “O-Of course.” She passed by, her hand gently passing over Cordelia’s before she disappeared around the corner.

“I hope you won’t start calling meyour Grace,” Cordelia teased, an awkward smile tugging at her mouth.

Colin chuckled. “I was ready to.”

“I insist against it.”

He bowed his head. “As you wish, Cordelia.”

She gulped, glancing around at the flowers. Behind him, her eyes caught on the group of people waiting for him. A few of them looked familiar, but she couldn’t quite tell at the distance. Her curiosity grew and grew.

“You are well, I hope,” she blurted, uneasy with the silence.

“More than well.” Colin turned to gesture towards the nearby people. “My wife and parents -”

Cordelia sighed louder than she meant to. “Excuse me,” she murmured sheepishly. “I-I knew I recognized them.”

“They told me of your marriage,” Colin said with a smile. “I was very pleased to hear it.”

“Pleased?”

Colin winced. “T-That was terribly rude of me. I am sorry, Cordelia. It wasn’t what I meant at all.”

She looked away, feeling uncommonly small in his presence, suddenly.

Cordelia pressed her lips together. Though she never found herself missing the idea of having Colin as her betrothed, the idea of being so easily tossed aside was hard to step over. It lingered with her still, even more so with Colin standing directly in front of her. Perhaps if she had Michael at her side, the ease would return to her. She almost twisted around in search of him, when Colin cleared his throat noisily.

“I was hoping to hear that you would attend the event today, Cordelia,” Colin said.

She raised a brow. “Really?”

“There is something I have wished to do for quite some time now, and feel rather like a fool for not striving to have it done sooner,” he explained. “How dreadful life in London must have been for you after I left.” He lowered his head, his eyes lost in a distant reverie. “I never realized what a selfish man I was till I reflected on it years later. To have left you in the midst of a scandal, all because I found a different future. It was -”

“Colin,” she interjected in a soft voice, “While I appreciate the sentiment, I do not blame your actions too much. Not even for such a pleading apology.”

“H-How could you be so at ease about it?”

“Much like you, I have had time to think it over,” Cordelia said. “Neither one of us sought the other out with the real intent to marry. You know as well as I that it was an agreement arranged by our parents, made at the expense of our families. There wasn’t a bit of either of our souls in that pairing.”

Colin frowned. “Perhaps not. But the scandal -”

“I was wed the week after you left London, Colin.” Cordelia ached to see Michael somewhere within the garden.

“To the beastly Duke,” he said. “I heard very well.”

“Don’t tell me you disapprove?”

He chuckled. “I doubt everyone was entirely happy,” he replied. “And the rumors that followed were quite precarious, weren’t they?”