Page 86 of Unraveled By the Duke
“Are you happy now?” he snapped. “Am I to be allowed to speak in my own home? In my own study?”
Celia watched the snowflakes fall with utter horror on her face. Her greatest accomplishment as an artist. Gone. Irrevocably destroyed. She did not think she would ever be able to recreate it.
The obscenity that had occupied its back was forgotten. She looked at Alexander with naked pain on her face, her thoughtsin disarray, her emotions skeins of wool toyed with by a thoughtless kitten.
Realization dawned on Alexander. He looked down and stooped to gather the pieces. Celia turned and ran.
CHAPTER 27
“Aurelia! Aurelia! Are you here? Where is she?”
The last question was directed at her mother, who had emerged from the drawing room, perturbed by her sudden and loud appearance at Banfield House.
Celia had run from Cheverton and then along Kensington High Road towards London. By the time she summoned a cab at the western edge of Hyde Park, she was sweating from the exertion.
And she was desperate. At any moment, she had expected Alexander to gallop along the road to snatch her up and force her to marry Phillip Grimaire. Which, of course, she would do if there was any fear in her mind that Aurelia might be forced to do the same.
Now, she stormed into Banfield House, desperate to keep her sister safe.
I pray that I am not too late. This plan has only just been hatched, and they have not yet attempted to coerce Aurelia. Please, God, let it not be so.
“Mother, where is Aurelia?” Celia repeated when greeted with a look of utter stupefaction on Lady Scovell’s face.
“She is upstairs in her rooms, I believe. She had planned to meet with Miss Dunnings later… Oh, Celia, I do wish you wouldn’t go off half-cocked when it comes to the Dunnings!”
That was called out as Celia picked up her skirts and ran up the stairs. It fell on deaf ears. She would not hear a word about Miss Dunnings or how misunderstood she was.
She is part of it. I know it. She introduced Aurelia to that wretch in the first place. Now, she conspires to either steal Alexander for herself or simply take revenge on me. How could I have been so blind?
She wrenched open the door to her sister’s rooms, but they were empty.
For a moment, all she could feel was utter despair, fearing that Aurelia had sneaked out under their mother’s nose. Then, she heard a sound from the room next door—her old bedroom.
Celia burst through the adjoining door and found Aurelia kneeling on the floor. She was surrounded by paper, each bearing sketches and drawings that Celia had made.
Celia watched her take out another sketch, examine it for a moment, and then toss it aside.
At the sound of the door opening, Aurelia looked up in alarm. “Celia!” she exclaimed.
“Aurelia, what are you doing?”
“Looking for that sketch, of course. I have been through the contents of this dratted chest once already, and I cannot find it.”
She sounded frantic. Her hair was disheveled, and she had rolled up her sleeves, wrinkling and creasing them horribly. Both should have been anathema to Aurelia, what with her heightened sense of fashion.
“Aurelia, I… I read some correspondence today. It… It does not matter where. It mentioned the possibility of you marrying Phillip Grimaire. Tell me this hasn’t been a topic of conversation with… anyone.”
Aurelia’s mouth dropped open. “No, it certainly has not. I would not marry that animal. Why would I?”
Celia shook her head, feeling somewhat relieved. “I did, after all. One is prone to do almost anything when the price is sparing one’s family from scandal.”
Aurelia frowned in confusion. “What scandal? Do you mean that word of what happened at Almack’s the other day got out? Is there gossip about me?”
Celia shook her head. “It does not matter. No, I have heard and read nothing about that incident, but that may be because it is being kept under wraps by Phillip Grimaire’s father.”
She sank into an armchair, the last hour’s frantic activity finally catching up to her. It was as though a heavy cloak had settled onto her shoulders, made not of fabric but of lead. She put a hand to her forehead.
“Is he so wealthy that he can pull such strings?” Aurelia asked, still kneeling amid Celia’s sketches.
