Emmeline had never thought that she would once again be standing in the ballroom at Ashton House. The very moment that she walked into it again, she was almost floored by the feelings of fear, panic, and humiliation that she had last felt there so very strongly.
“You are managing very well indeed, Emmeline.” Hunter had almost whispered the words into her ear as they walked side-by-side into the great wedding celebration of the man she had once loved and the woman she had thought as close to her as a sister.
The celebration had been set to take place in the beautiful grounds of Ashton House, but the day had been threatening rain, summer rain, from the moment the sun had come up, so Tristan Lennox and his wife had very quickly ordered their staff to make changes, moving everything that ought to have been outside into the ballroom.
Emmeline had to admit that the organization had not suffered for the change of venue and that everything had been very well set out indeed. It all looked perfect, the food, flowers, but that summed up the Lennox household.
As she thought back on it, Emmeline realized that, despite being extraordinarily wealthy, the Lennox family were always striving for something more. They had a very fine home, Ashton House being several times larger than Tarlton Manor, but it was not an old home, a home with character.
That being said, there was nothing ostentatious about it; it did not strike one as the home of the newly rich. Everything was tasteful, the ballroom included. It was a vast room, although nothing in comparison to the ballroom at Addison Hall. The floor was highly polished wood which gleamed under the light of so many chandeliers which had been hurriedly lit to ward off the gloom of the day.
The walls were off-white and the windows large and arched, giving the room a great feeling of light and space that she had always thought very pleasing.
“Thank you, Hunter,” she said and smiled sadly at him.
“You did very well throughout the ceremony. But do tell me if you want to leave anytime, and I shall have the carriage brought around.” Hunter lightly patted her forearm.
The Earl of Addison had, as she had fully expected, been a great source of comfort to her throughout the entire day. When the invitations had first arrived, Emmeline had been almost floored by the idea of attending the wedding of the two people who had betrayed her more thoroughly than anybody else on earth could possibly have achieved.
She had never expected to receive an invite and, when she discussed it with Hunter, he had put forward the theory that, having realized that the two of them were perhaps embarking on courtship, to have invited the Earl of Addison and not his particular friend would have been most awkward. But of course, to invite the Earl’s particular friend when she was the woman who had been betrayed was likely even more awkward. It seemed as if Christopher Lennox and Clara Lovett had found themselves in an impossible situation, and Emmeline, despite ordinarily being very far from spiteful, allowed herself a moment’s amusement on its account.
“If it would make it easier for you, I can claim to be away from Addison on estate business, or something similar. In truth, after that, I would hardly think that your absence would need explaining.” Hunter had made it very clear that he did not expect her to attend the event at all.
“No, I am sure that I shall manage, and if I do not go, it is as if I have something to be ashamed of. And I would not cast that feeling on my mother and sister; they do not deserve it. What they do deserve, Sir is a chance to hold their heads high, safe in the knowledge that I shall not crumble in front of anybody.”
“I know that you will not crumble, Emmeline. You forget, I was there on that awful night, and I saw how bravely you managed. I hardly think that I could have managed so well myself, and I know, without doubt, that you will manage this dreadful wedding in the same stoic fashion.” They had been, once again, taking tea on the sunlit terrace of Addison Hall when he had broached the subject. They had been alone once more, her mother and sister greatly occupied in watching Algernon Rochester and his immense horse fly over great obstacles that he had set out for himself in the paddock for his own amusement. To have had a little audience was simply an extra he had not been expecting. “But I must say that although I realize that you will manage, I would not wish to see you make yourself manage. If it is going to be extraordinarily painful, then I think it is best avoided. I am not concerned with the outward appearance, you understand, but your own feeling on the matter. I would not have you made unhappy, Emmeline.”
His words had been not only comforting but strangely provocative. He seemed to have become a little protective of her as if she was already his to protect. It was true that they had become friends, finding much in common, much of which she had never found in common with another if she was honest. And perhaps, in the end, that was all it was. It was true that they had decided to proceed with a marriage of convenience, a marriage without love. But there was nothing to say that there could not be like, even fond regard and, if he sought to protect her, Emmeline realized that it was likely that he sought to protect her as a friend.
She had very quickly realized that her reasoning left her little flat. The idea that he had some little passion for her, a desire to protect her feelings and her heart, had quickened her pulse a little more than she would have liked. When she had, by necessity, talked herself out of such folly, she had been entirely deflated and mourned the loss of something that she knew, in truth, she had never had in the first place.
Emmeline had quickly turned her attention to other things, knowing that she ought not to think about the Earl of Addison in such a way. And she knew, really knew, that she had thought of him once too often in a light which could easily have been seen as romantic. It was a light which must be shaded, that much she knew.
In the end, Emmeline had insisted that she would go, citing her mother and sister as the reason. She wanted things to have an air of normality about them, and she told Hunter that surely this was the best way of achieving such a thing.