Page 41 of Yours Until Dawn

Eugenia nudged her with her elbow. “I think I see an attachment forming.”

Aurora could care less about other romances and didn’t pay her cousin any attention at first. She was too excited by her own secret affair. Once Sullivan had given up trying to make her his bride, they had certainly gotten along better.

He was a lot more interesting than she’d originally given him credit for. They talked about everything now, including his asking her opinion on plans for improvements to his new investment property where they met. No longer were their conversations plagued with mentions of his late wife and child, or his quest for a bride but the rest of his life he talked freely about.

He’d traveled, taken an extensive grand tour in his youth, and one afternoon he’d brought a book of maps to their tryst and shown her all the places he’d gone. She’d been in awe of his knowledge of the world ever since.

She craned her neck in search of him.

“Definitely wedding bells,” Eugenia murmured. “What do you think, Aurora? Is our most troublesome client about to finally put the past behind him and announce he’s to tie the knot with a deserving lady soon?”

She finally turned her glance toward a distant corner her cousin pointed her to—and froze. She’d found Drew. He was the former client her cousin was speaking of with so much barely concealed excitement.

Drew stood not too far away with the beautiful Miss Lavinia Hayes hanging on his arm, and his every word it seemed, as well. The young woman was sister-in-law to Drew’s best friend, Lord Wade. The viscount and his wife watched on with an indulgent smile beside them.

Eugenia fluttered her fan before her face as she spoke. “They make a handsome couple, don’t they?”

Aurora pressed her lips together tightly. They did. She’d thought that already. They were laughing together, and Miss Hayes crooked her dainty finger and urged Drew down to hear whatever confidence she wanted to share. Drew smiled, clearly besotted.

That smile was the one she’d started to think was reserved for just her. Usually, Drew was much more sober-faced at tonnish events.

The Duke of Northport joined them, and he kissed Miss Lavinia’s outstretched hand, gazing at her fondly. Not the way he had done with Aurora. The duke liked the young woman being presented to him.

Aurora gulped as she reached a conclusion that turned her stomach into unwelcome knots. Given such obvious happiness of all those gathered around Miss Lavinia Hayes, she could imagine they appeared a couple to so many others in the room, too.

Expectations had been raised. Drew likely needed no help from a matchmaker now, if he ever had. She tore her eyes away from his smiling face, cheeks becoming hot with a flush of embarrassment. “You think he’s chosen her?”

Eugenia nodded. “I’ve seen them together quite a lot of late,” Eugenia whispered. “You know Sullivan and Wade are close. They’ve dined together almost every week this season, I hear.”

Aurora looked at her cousin, stomach knotting further. “How do you know who Lord Sullivan dines with?”

Eugenia smiled. “I still have an interest in our former clients. Sullivan, of course, more than most.”

Aurora had not heard anything about Drew spending so much time with Lord Wade, or with Miss Lavinia Hayes, either. In the weeks of their affair, she felt Drew ought to have said something about the close connection. Especially if he was considering another lady. One who just might say yes to becoming his countess and eventually his duchess.

Lavinia Hayes was popular and lovely. Aurora liked her and believed she’d make a good wife for Drew. Clearly Northport approved of the potential match, given his continued smiles for the young lady. For the couple.

“It’s only a matter of time before a match is announced, I suspect,” Eugenia confided. “She’s the right age and possesses a good fortune to bring to the marriage. He’s known her for quite some time, too. I think it’s a match made in heaven.”

Aurora slowly lifted her eyes to look at Drew again, and at Miss Hayes. The young woman was regarding Aurora’s secret lover with unabashed affection.

They were good friends.

Fond of each other.

Could they be more? Was she looking at the woman who would take Drew away from her?

She winced at the possessive thoughts filling her with dread. As Drew and Miss Hayes laughed together again and turned in unison to speak with someone else, those thoughts turned into a wail of despair. He was having a wonderful night, and he wasn’t with her. Aurora shrank a little inside.

She was always the last to know when she was no longer needed, but this was the moment.

She shouldn’t have come tonight to see this, but she had. And now Aurora would do the right thing. Now she could again do something good for him.

Eugenia moved off and, instead of joining her, Aurora turned on her heel and headed directly for the front door.

She would not stay. She didn’t need to. It was never meant to be her who had caught Drew’s eye, after all.

She fled outside and asked a footman to hail her a hack to take her home immediately. Unfortunately, the fellow was too slow to prevent anyone seeing her leaving the ball alone. Scarsdale’s carriage deposited him right at her very feet.

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