Page 56 (1/2)

"I saw it once," Eleanor said, putting her hand over his again The one that wasn’t holding the ring "I was terrified for her"

He shuddered "You couldn’t not be Soht, sih she said it wasn’t She was appallingly brave"

Eleanor

"I used to wish that she would just scream at me, or at fate, or someone But she never did" His hands clenched and then he opened his right hand and looked down at the ring as if surprised to find it there

"No," Eleanor said quickly "No"

"It’s the only solution," he said "I love you, and you love me I always loved you, even before you noticed me"

"You did?"

"You can’t have been more than thirteen when I came home with your brother the first ti her eyebrow "You were already laughing in that way you have"

Eleanor couldn’t stop herself "What do you h, it comes out a pinched sound Your mouth is so wide"

He fell silent, to Eleanor’s relief She’d never thought of her e she particularly cared to dwell on

But then he started talking again "I brought this ring with o It was ave it to Ada"

"I don’t think we should have this conversation now," Eleanor said

His eyes were burning again His skin seehtly over his bones, and yet he was still Gideon The sarily at fourteen, had smiled at shyly--and then not so shyly--at fifteen, the boy she had lured to kiss her at sixteen…

"You miss her," she said

"No!" he said, almost violently "I hardly knew her We lived in the house like a brother and sister"

She touched him on the shoulder and it was the way it used to be, finally She , just the way she used to, when she thought they were two hearts beating as one She held out her arht to miss her," she said

He fell forward, head on her shoulder, still protesting that he didn’t miss his wife at all That he hardly knew her

Until he began weeping

Chapter Twenty-one

Eleanor didn’t ht By then her nerves felt like the strings of a violin, pulled too tight and vibrating helplessly She had a bath, disown, and wrapped herself in a dressing gown

But she couldn’t settle down She tried lying on the bed She tried sitting before the fire She tried writing a letter to a friend, and tore up three different drafts

Finally she remembered that there were ar to see if he had a co He had hardly met her eyes all day, just smiled at her coolly and offered his felicitations She had done the same, of course

Lisette had swanned around the house talking about her e to dearest Leopold He was probably in his betrothed’s bedchamber that very moment God knows, Lisette wouldn’t bar the door

She pushed open the tall doors and walked into the velvety darkness The chairs were positioned on Villiers’s side of the balcony, so she walked forward until she buht down

Only to land on a pair of s

"Oof," said a ht, but you’re not"

"I should bounce on you for that," she snapped

There was a moment of silence while they both conteht to mind