The Heir

Chapter Thirty-four

Sabrina stared out her bedroom window at the coach sitting in front of the manor. She wasn't really surprised that she cried each time she saw it there. Not much, just a few more tears to add to all the others she had shed over the last days. And the coach still came every day and waited several hours before it returned to Summers Glade, even though the driver had been told not to bother.

The party hadn't wound down apparently, was going to continue right up to the wedding, which had been scheduled for the middle of next week. Supposedly Neville felt that since he already had a house full of guests, why bother sending out invitations to a wedding when they could just have it while they already had the guests for it?

That was the prevailing thought in the neighborhood, of those gossiping about it. Sabrina didn't hear any of this firsthand, but her aunts kept her apprised, since they were still receiving visitors even if she wasn't. She in fact kept to her room, refusing to leave it. She wouldn't come down to speak with Duncan when he showed up the day after The Announcement. She wouldn't see him yesterday either, when he came again. And she certainly refused to receive Ophelia when she came to visit, and no doubt gloat, later in the afternoon.

But after three days of tears and misery, and agonizing over what could have happened to so thoroughly topple her brief happiness, Sabrina had reached a point of being numb. This was a blessing of sorts. Dead feelings didn't hurt. She supposed eventually she would manage to put it all behind her and get back to being herself, to just acknowledge the heartache occasionally with a sigh. But right now, the numbness at least let her come out of hiding.

It was rotten timing, however, that her first foray downstairs should lead her to the drawing room where she expected to find at least one of her aunts. She found Ophelia there instead, alone, having just been let in by the maid, who'd gone off to let someone know she was there.

Incredibly, Sabrina felt nothing, not even dread that common courtesy demanded she at least acknowledge Ophelia. Her numbness was holding up splendidly.

"Feeling better?" Ophelia asked with feigned concern when she saw her standing there in the doorway. "Better?"

"When I came to call yesterday, Lady Alice said you were under the weather and had taken to your bed. I would have visited you in your room, offered to even, but she was sure you were sleeping."

"Oh, that," Sabrina replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Nothing that a bit of rest didn't fix up. And what brings you to our door? Isn't the party still in progress at Summers Glade?"

"Yes indeed, though the amount of guests have thinned out considerably," Ophelia said with a touch of annoyance. "I suppose a lot of the other ladies felt they would be wasting their time to stay any longer."

Sabrina wasn't surprised. Most of the young women who had been invited were on the marriage block this Season, and with the bachelor they had come there to win now taken, they would need to get on with the search, which would take them back to London and the round of parties there.

An uncomfortable silence followed. This stilted courtesy just didn't go over well after such bilious feelings had been raised at their last meeting. Neither of them liked each other. That had been made abundantly clear.

Ophelia broke the silence with a long sigh. "I'd like to apologize," she said with a slight blush and a lowering of her eyes. "I realize I was a bit spiteful the other night at the party, and that's what caused you to, well, to lose your temper with me. I'd like to explain why—"

"Don't bother," Sabrina interrupted blandly. "It really doesn't matter."

"Perhaps not to you, but I have been regretting the harsh words that passed between us," Ophelia insisted. "We are friends, after all."

Sabrina might have snorted if she weren't protected by her numbness. But in point of fact, they had never been friends of any sort.

Ophelia had introduced Sabrina to her own acquaintances, but what choice did she have when Sabrina had been a guest in her house? None. Ophelia had done so grudgingly, Sabrina realized now, not because she wanted to, but because she had to. And the only time she had called upon their supposed "friendship" was when she had wanted something from Sabrina and felt it owed to her.

But Ophelia, typically, ignored Sabrina's lack of interest and got on with what she intended to say. "You see, I wasn't as confident as I pretended to be that night. I don't know why—actually, it was probably that Duncan's campaign to try to make me jealous was working. But whatever the reason, I was starting to have doubts, and that made me a bit cross, which unfortunately I took out on you. I'm not used to doubting myself, after all, and then to find how silly it was of me to do so. I should have known better. Why, just after that was when he gave up the pretense himself and we got engaged again."

That particular remark caused a definite crack in Sabrina's numbness, just after? Before he happened upon Sabrina on the road?

"When was this?" she asked.

"What does it matter—?"

"When!?"

Ophelia blinked at the sharpness of Sabrina's tone, but after a moment of thought, replied, "Why, right after you left. I was upset and retired. Duncan must have seen me go upstairs, because he followed and insisted—insisted, mind you— that we get engaged again. So forceful, those Scots. I suppose he simply

couldn't stand the pretense anymore, but more likely he ran out of patience. The sooner we get engaged again, the sooner we can marry, was probably what he had finally come to realize. And he's so passionate," she added with a slight blush. "I have the feeling he would have bedded me right then and there if we weren't interrupted."

Sabrina had to sit down after hearing that. The shock she was experiencing was as bad as the morning when she'd found out about The Announcement—actually, it was worse. If Ophelia could be believed, then Duncan's passions had been aroused by her, and unable to satisfy them due to an interruption, he'd then found Sabrina alone, before his passion had abated, and took advantage of the convenience that gave him. It had had nothing to do with her personally. As dark as it was in that coach that night, he could easily have pretended to himself that she was the one he really wanted.

Unfortunately, all things considered, Sabrina did believe Ophelia. If she were a little prettier, or Ophelia a little less so, then she might have had doubts. But she couldn't deceive herself on this particular point. Ophelia would win hands down as a matter of choice for any man.

The question was, could she blame Duncan for taking what she so freely gave, when he was already engaged to another? Wouldn't any man do as he had done? No, she couldn't blame him. Besides, she still loved him. She wished she didn't, but that was something that just wouldn't go away. Not that whether she blamed him was going to make a difference to anything. He was still going to marry Ophelia. Her heart was still going to break a little bit more the day he did.

Ophelia was going on as if her words hadn't caused any damage. "I'm so glad we got this straightened out and are friends again. Edith and Jane have deserted me, you know. They've promised to return for the wedding next week, but I really doubt they will find the time once they get back into the London whirl—I know I wouldn't. But without them there, it's so boring. You really must come again to Summers Glade, Sabrina, if just to keep me company."

Fortunately, Sabrina was saved from having to explain why that was out of the question when Alice finally arrived, took one look at her pale, drawn expression, and ushered her off to bed again, as if that really was where she had spent the last three days.

"Relapse" and "Shouldn't have come down yet" were muttered by Alice for Ophelia's benefit, not that Sabrina needed an excuse to head back to her room. Ophelia could think whatever she liked, as far as she was concerned. But hopefully the London girl had said all she had wanted to say and wouldn't come calling again.