Page 95 of Song of the Caged Duchess

It can’t be.

She started to rise, but her father was on his feet first. “Stay where you are, Esther,” he said. “I’ll see about this.”

Esther sank back into her seat as her father went out into the foyer.

And then, suddenly, she stood again.

“Esther,” her mother murmured.

But Esther was already on her way out the door. She wasn’t going to be confined to the sitting room. She had no way of knowing what was going on out there—whether Hugh would be interested in seeing her, whether her father would allow it now that he had an offer of marriage from Lord Walton.

I have to speak to him myself.

She froze in her tracks, though, at the sight of him.

He was somehow even more handsome than she had remembered. How could she have put those piercing eyes from her mind? How could she have forgotten the shape of his hands? She longed to feel them on her shoulders now, as they had been when they’d kissed.

She hurried toward him.

Eugenia stepped out from behind his back.

“Esther,” she said.

Esther was brought up short again.

Eugenia.

She betrayed me. She stole Hugh away from me.

Is that why she’s here? To flaunt him before me? To show me that she got what I wanted?

Esther looked at Hugh, waiting, unsure of what to say.

“He knows everything,” Eugenia said, tripping over her own words. “He knows you still love him, Esther. He knows your feelings were true. He believes the truth now. And he wants to marry you, not me. He and I never wanted one another. It was all my mother.”

“You were helping her,” Esther said. “You must have been. No one else could have told her what happened the night Hugh and I met.”

Eugenia’s eyes filled with tears. “I did tell her,” she admitted. “She got it out of me. But I didn’twantto tell her, Esther. I didn’t want to help her hurt you. I’m so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?”

Looking into her cousin’s eyes, Esther suddenly found that no forgiveness was necessary.

“Of course you never meant to hurt me,” she said. “I know that. I don’t know how I could have thought otherwise. I’m the one who must askyoufor forgiveness, Eugenia. I should never have believed you would do anything to cause me pain.”

“Eugenia is the one who convinced me to come and find you,” Hugh spoke up. “She reminded me of what I never should have forgotten—my own feelings for you, Lady Esther.”

“Did you really agree to marry her?” Esther asked Hugh.

“I agreed to it,” Hugh said. “I agreed out of despair, because I had given up on love. Because I thought I could never have the kind of marriage I had always wanted, and so marriage to a lady I found pleasant company seemed the best possible solution. But Esther—”

“He never felt for me what he feels for you,” Eugenia assured her. She didn’t seem jealous at all. She was glowing. “He still loves you, Esther.”

Hugh glanced down at Eugenia.

“Oh,” Eugenia said. “I’m sorry, Your Grace. You should tell her.”

Hugh’s lips twitched. “Your cousin is right,” he said. “I still love you, Esther. And I hope you’ll forgive me for forgetting that fact. I hope you’ll consider letting me back into your life. If you will, I promise not to let anything come between us ever again.”

Esther looked up at her father.