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It was Anwen who broke the tenuous quiet.

“You were looking for adventure,” she pointed out with her ever-present optimism. “Now we’ve all found it.”

Groaning, Faith rolled her eyes.

“What?” the other woman asked defensively. “We have. Why, I cannot expect attending the opera would prove even half as interesting as all this.” She paused. “Even if we were alone there.”

Faith suddenly widened her eyes, and her cheeks went pale.

“What is it?” Marcia asked uneasily.

The other woman leaned close. “What if he’s… with the other man?” she asked in her invariably loud whisper.

As one, she, Faith, and Anwen looked to Mr. Red.

Mr. Red who made no attempt to reassure them.

Faith swallowed hard.

“They are never going to let us venture out alone again, are they?” Faith bemoaned, cradling her ear, and guilt knifed at Marcia.

It was highly doubtful the Marquess and Marchioness of Guilford would ever again allow their cherished daughter near Marcia after this. Nor could she blame them. “You should have let me go,” she lamented, and moved Faith’s fingers out of the way to inspect her ear. A bruise had begun to form on her cheek.

“And leave you alone?” Faith scoffed. “Absolutely not. Why, there was a greater chance of us commandeering someone else’s carriage at gunpoint than in us ever leaving you. Isn’t that right, Anwen?”

The other woman gave an emphatic nod. “Absolutely.” She smiled. “We are friends after all, and friends do not leave one another.”

Friends do not leave one another.

Except, that was what she and Andrew were, and he’d done just that.

Because you went and mucked up your friendship,a voice taunted.You became his wife when you knew the last thing Andrew ever wanted was a wife.

She found in that moment, with her carriage rolling on to wherever she was bound for, that she’d lied to herself.

She was never going to be content living a life apart from her husband.

She did want the same devoted and loving union known by her parents, one where they would sooner cut a limb off than be separated from each other.

A bond not unlike the one known by Faith’s parents.

Facing the possibility of having her life ended and never seeing him again, she could be honest in acknowledging that she’d married him because she’d wanted to. Because she loved him. More than just the platonic way in which she loved the two women who’d risked their necks for her.

Regardless, she’d never have any of what she wanted if the remainder of this night played out badly.

A surprisingly short while later, the carriage came to a more gradual halt than the previous starts and stops at the hands of their nighttime visitors.

There came the murmur of voices as Mr. Red spoke to the stranger who accompanied him, a man who was still faceless to them.

The door was yanked open, and Marcia and her friends instantly drew back.

“Hoods up,” Mr. Red ordered.

As one, Marcia and her friends brought their hoods firmly up into place.

“That’s better. Now, get a move on,” he said gruffly. Mr. Red caught her at the waist, and he lifted her down with a surprising gentleness. As he helped her friends disembark, Marcia did a study of where they’d arrived… a very familiar place.

“Let’s go,” Mr. Red urged a second time. “Before we’re seen.” And she and her friends, side by side and shoulder to shoulder, started towards the club.