Page 7 of The Mistress (Foxgloves #1)
AMELIA
“ T his is going to be an interesting few months,” Lydia commented as she and Amelia jostled in the moving carriage.
It had been four days since she’d met the Duke of Birmingham, and in that time, Thomas had been relentless in his scheming. He’d also brought Lydia up to speed, and as far as Amelia could tell, her sister had been only too happy to assist him. So, Thomas and his staff left the day before for his Townhouse, Coventry House, and today, Amelia and Lydia were packed and following.
“I imagine so,” Amelia replied.
“We haven’t had much time to talk about everything, Amelia,” Lydia began. “How are you feeling?”
“Truthfully, I’m not sure,” Amelia confided in her. “A week ago, life was normal. I was tending the garden, bringing you soup, stitching a new design on an old dress, and now we’re off to London to buy a new wardrobe, twitter about Society, and catch a duke. It’s all a lot to think about when I do pause to do so. The absurdity of it all.”
Lydia scowled at her. “You’re not out to ‘catch’ anything, Amelia. You and I both know you are not a scheming fortune-hunter or title-hunter.”
“Thomas is scheming,” Amelia muttered.
Lydia rolled her eyes. “Because that’s Thomas. He wants you to be happy. And he’s not scheming for you to marry a duke. He’s scheming for you to get to know and marry the only man you’ve ever shown an interest in. Who, from what he tells me, showed a similar interest in you. That man just also happens to be a duke.”
Amelia made a noncommittal noise in the back of her throat and stared out of the carriage window. So, Lydia continued.
“And why should it be absurd?”
Amelia turned back to her sister with a small, resigned sigh. “Oh, Lydia, you know it’s absurd for me to marry a duke. I know Thomas doesn’t think so, but you and I have better sense than that.”
Amelia had wavered the past few days. Whenever she thought of seeing Gideon Edwards again and spending more time with him, she was filled with a new kind of excitement. But there was always that pernicious voice in the back of her mind that remembered this man was a peer of the realm and well outside her station. Thomas’s confidence would run through her mind, as well, but it could never quite silence that little voice’s incessant whispering.
“I don’t see why, my darling,” Lydia said soothingly, reaching out to squeeze Amelia’s hand in her lap. “Would it be absurd for me to marry a titled man?”
Amelia pursed her lips and looked out at the passing countryside again, unable to meet her sister’s eye as she knew exactly what Lydia was implying. And Lydia knew her response, too. Of course, it wasn’t absurd for Lydia to marry a man with a title. She would marry a man with a title, and soon, if Amelia had anything to say about it.
Lydia, sensing her point had landed, let go of her hand, sitting back against the cushioned seat once more. Moving on, she said, “So, tell me about him. You’ve yet to tell me anything about the Duke of Birmingham. What’s he like?”
“I don’t know him,” Amelia admitted with a shrug, face still turned away.
“I know,” Lydia soothed. “But what was it like when you met him? From what Thomas tells me, you clearly felt something.”
Amelia thought for a moment, pulling her gaze back into the carriage as she tried to find the words. “It’s more than I can explain,” she told her sister, the person she trusted most in all the world. “From the moment I saw him, I was drawn to him. I’ve never felt anything like it before. It felt like an immediate and undeniable connection between us, and I didn’t even know his name yet. More than that,” she met her sister’s nonjudgemental blue eyes, finally saying the words out loud, “I feel as though…as though there was a whole part of me I had never known existed, which came to life upon meeting him and just feels right. So right that I don’t know how I made sense before without it. And I had only been waiting to meet him for it to awaken. Like something in him fits with this part of me.”
She shook her head, looking down, still trying to make sense when she knew she couldn’t. How could she explain something so profound, so astonishing, so… true .
“I know,” she continued, staring at her fidgeting hands in her lap. “I know it’s nonsensical. I don’t know him. I can’t tell you the first thing about him. I spent barely an evening with him. It’s absolutely foolish, but I can only describe it as… he feels like the other part of me.” She felt her face heat at the ridiculousness of what she just said, but that was exactly what it felt like.
“It doesn’t sound foolish in the least,” Lydia said quietly, a hint of wonder in her voice. “It sounds beautiful.”
Amelia looked up to meet her sister’s accepting gaze, and she agreed wholeheartedly. What she felt with the Duke of Birmingham…it was beautiful.