Page 5

The door opened and she heard the patter of feet. From her spot at her window, she could see her sister’s dark hair before she rounded her bed.

“Tāī,” Lillian called out.

“Lilli,” Regina replied watching fondly as she trotted up to her.

Lillian was a bright-eyed, eight-year-old bundle of joy who never walked when she could run.

“What are you up to?” she asked in English.

Lillian hadn’t been allowed to learn Marathi beyond the honorifics used within their family.

Yet another casualty of their mother’s mission to conform.

“Are you sad?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Aai and baba said your baron is gone.”

“Were you listening at doors again?” she glared at her playfully.

“Is he dead again?”

It should have been a ridiculous question, but the frequency with which she had been asked it only served to encapsulate the farce her life had become. “Yes Lilli, he is dead. Again.”

She ran her small brown hand over Regina’s arm in an innocent attempt to comfort her. “Are you sad?”

“A little.” It wasn’t a lie exactly. She was sad for herself mostly, for yet another year wasted. She felt some pity for another life cut short. Mostly what she felt was frustration at the reality that her life was once again on hold.

“Did you like him?”

“I never met him.” She’d never managed to meet any of them. She wondered if she would have felt more if she had managed to see their faces at least.

“Who do you have to marry now?”

“His replacement. Whoever he is.”

Lillian reached out and wrapped her arms around Regina in an awkward but heartfelt embrace. “Do you want to be a baroness?”

No. “It would give me a good deal more power.”

“Like a princess?”

“Yes. And then you would be the sister of a baroness. Someday you will be the aunt of a baron. That will give you a blood tie to the nobility which protects you and aai and baba. Does that make sense?” Lillian didn’t need to know the cruel reality of what her marriage would be or bear the weight of her sister’s choice.

“Will you live in a castle?”

“I have no idea. Perhaps I should have checked that before I agreed to marry the man.” She tickled her and Lillian grinned, squirming away from her fingers.

“I would want to live in a castle,” she said taking Regina’s hand.

“I’m sure you will, sweetheart.”

Footsteps sounded in the hallway and they both looked up to see their mother in the doorway.

“Lilli, your governess is looking for you.”

“Yes, aai,” she scampered away, shooting a quick look at Regina.

Lillian’s presence in London during the season was the result of a month’s long campaign involving perfect behavior on Lillian’s part and a two-pronged approach from Regina and her father.

Her ability to stay in London during the season would depend entirely on her capacity to stay in their mother’s good graces.

“Your friend, the wild one, is here with the Viscount.”

“Ellie and her father are here?”

She nodded. “Come down at once.” She cast a sharp eye over Regina’s blue muslin gown before leaving the room with Regina in tow.

“Ellie isn’t so wild, aai,” Regina said taking her mother’s arm as they walked down the stairs. Her mother spared her a sardonic glance but made no reply.

“I believe they mean to invite us to something.”

“That is good is it not?”

“It cannot hurt,” she said with a shrug. A tepid endorsement if ever there was one.

“Have you heard anything about—”

“No, nothing.”

And from that sharp tone, she didn’t want to discuss it.

So, Regina simply patted her arm and continued down the stairs silently, hoping her trepidation didn’t show.

Would they consider letting her out of the engagement?

After so many years with no result, surely they had grown wary of the entire affair.

Not to mention the Barony of Starkley clearly had some sort of curse on it.

How else could they explain such an inexplicable run of bad luck?

As they entered the sitting room, Elodia shot to her feet and headed towards Regina with her hands outstretched. “Gigi!”

Regina took her hands and nodded to her father, the viscount, who was watching his daughter with obvious amusement.

“Good afternoon, Miss Mason.”

“Good afternoon, my lord.”

“My daughter and I have come to issue an invitation to share our box at the opera this Saturday.”

“How wonderful.” A pointed look passed between her and Ellie. Privacy. “Aai, may Ellie and I take a turn about the garden?”

“Ten minutes, the viscount has more business than us today.”

“Yes, aai,” she gave them all a quick curtsy before whisking Elodia out of the room and down the main corridor to the back garden.

“It is the latest by Verdi, based off a book written by Alexandre Dumas. So, feel free to cry without any comments from witnesses.”

“How very kind of you to take my current emotional state into account.”

“I am nothing if not the soul of consideration,” Elodia joked. “How are you, truly?”

“A bit annoyed. He is the third one to die before completing his end of the bargain and I’m on to the fourth with no real assurance history will not repeat itself. I can neither move forward nor reverse course. It’s all a mess.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t suppose they are doing it on purpose?”

Elodia pursed her lips and shook her head, her eyes sparkling with repressed laughter.

“It’s that or the sins of their ancestors are catching up with them.” The idea of it being pure happenstance was too ridiculous to contemplate.

“I like the idea of our ancestors protecting you from the progeny of their enemies.”

“Mmm.”

“What was Mr. Kingston doing at the ball?” Elodia asked.

“Working. He was tracking down the gentleman who was on the ground.”

“Who was he, Gigi?”

“I have no idea.”

“I forgot how handsome he was,” Elodia said wrinkling her nose.

“Oh?” Regina hadn’t, that was for damn certain.

“Oh, please, Gigi. I know you are engaged but you can’t have missed how attractive he is.”

It was true. Leo Kingston was a man worthy of the name.

A gentleman of such capability and intelligence with eyes like her father’s whiskey and the most beautifully proportioned face Regina had ever seen.

A man with a tall frame and powerful body who knew when to be still and how to act. It was impossible not to notice him.

The only man she’d ever met who could compare was perhaps Ada’s brother, Mr. Thornfield. But while Mr. Thornfield had always been kind and personable with them, there was a detachment in his very nature which Regina had always found intimidating, as if all the warmth in him was reserved for Ada.

Mr. Kingston was discreet to be sure and poised with the bearing of a warrior prince, but instead of detachment, there was awareness.

It made his gaze almost too direct, too focused, but to Regina it made her feel seen.

From the first time she met him at King’s Cross, Regina had been struck by how different it felt to have his gaze on her.

When that slow appreciative smile slipped over his face, lighting his eyes from within, she hadn’t felt leered at or objectified.

A giddy rush had swept through her, and her heart began to thump strangely in her chest. It wasn’t faster but deeper somehow, or louder.

“Gigi?”

She looked at Ellie with wide eyes as she noted the expectant look on her face.

“Were you not listening to me?”

Oh, hell. What had she been saying? “I’m sorry. I haven’t been able to concentrate lately.” It was dangerous to think of him considering the effect he had on her. It was pointless torture to allow her mind to dwell on the impossible when she did not have the luxury of romance.

“Because of your fiancé?”

She wasn’t going to admit to where her mind had drifted. Elodia would never let it go. “Yes, it is an uncomfortable position.” She took her hand and turned to Elodia. “I’m sorry, what were you saying?”

Elodia blinked at her silently. “It feels a bit silly now. I was of a mind to distract you but now I wonder if you would rather I listened.”

It was always jarring when Elodia was silent and somber. She was usually so animated and charming. With her thoughts going every which way, Regina didn’t need her friend observing her that closely.

“There’s not much to say really. I’d much rather hear what you were telling me.”

“I was saying I’d received a letter from Headmistress Pollitt.”

“Oh, how lovely! How is she?” The headmistress of their school had stayed in touch with them long after they had left, always writing to give them encouragement.

“She said she was thinking of retiring as headmistress and passing it along to one of the other teachers.”

“That would be the end of an era. How soon would she be leaving?”

“A few years perhaps.”

“That is disappointing. I’d rather hoped Lillian would be able to benefit from her supervision when she was old enough for school.”

“Well, perhaps she can be there as a family friend. It cannot hurt to be the friend of a baroness.”

“I wonder if my mother would let me invite her to my wedding.”

“What if I invite her to something first?”

“Would your father object to that?”

“I doubt it. It’s not as if she is unknown to him.

” In honesty, Regina wasn’t worried about her mother so much as her mother-in-law.

When it came to her wedding, her mother-in-law would be the one determining Regina’s role and duties, beginning with her wedding.

She could likely dictate it all according to her wishes leaving Regina as a means to an end for the baron and his legacy.

The beginning of her erasure into the role she had been marked for.