Society's Expectations & Too Many Complications {Finalist}

Chapter 21

I flinched at his lewd suggestion. "He is not my suitor."

"If you believe so," he replied, that laughter in his eyes mocking me. "Now how about that dance?"

"She said-"

"Fine, one dance," I interjected Sebastian, wishing Mr Hartley to leave me in peace already. A scene in the centre of the hall was not quite what I wished for on my twentieth year. "But that is all I wish."

Sebastian deflated slightly, then gave me a curt nod and left us to the beginnings of another dance.

"Do not fool yourself," Mr Hartley supposedly warned me. "He does not wish just for your friendship, milady."

"I do believe it is none of your business," I snapped. "And even if he was courting me, it would still be none of your business."

"I must worry of my sister-in-law," he mocked me.

"I need none of your concern," I said brashly. The dance begun and I almost screamed in frustration. It was the Viennese Waltz, which seemed to haunt me when I was dancing with unwelcome gentlemen. Zachariah laughed and drew me closer to him, which I could not even resist as his grip was like iron upon mine.

"I am enjoying myself already," he commented, a smug smile upon his face.

"I am deploring your very countenance," I sallied back with a tight smile. Together, we moved lightly around the floor, the couples rotating around each other with lovely precision and grace. "Except that must have started around two years ago."

"If you must delude yourself," Zachariah sighed. "I do not deny my own pleasure at your appearance. You are looking exceedingly beautiful tonight, Rosalia."

"You are looking extremely rakish," I hissed at him, though I was perfectly composed to any who might have been watching. "Where is your wife?"

"Josephine is out home, ill," he replied. "Such a pity."

"You sound so sincere," I remarked icily.

"Oh I am," he said. "Yet I feel that I am with the right sister at this moment."

I ripped myself out of his grasp. "How dare you say such a thing?"

"I must always speak the truth," he jested glibly, though those eyes of his infuriated me beyond belief.

"You are wedded," I spat at him. "And I cannot forgive you."

"Wedded because of your mother's devices," he sighed, drawing me back to him, not roughly, but with strength. We began circling again.

"You discovered that, did you?" I looked up at him with sharp eyes. "When were you planning to tell me of her deceit?"

"Your sister related the incident towards me," he recalled coldly. "Only a few days after our marriage. Foolish thing to do, regarding the fact that she was mine after then. I would have told you soon enough, but for my suspicions that you were involved in the plot."

"As at that young and immature age, I wished to marry you," I defended myself with dagger-like grace. "It would be most strange if I threw you out of the house myself and had my sister disgrace herself in such a public manner. It only took my refusal to bring the marriage to pieces. For you, it took your lack of self-control."

"It was a mistake which you have never allowed me to forget," he said to me. "Yet what would happen if you had forgot? If it was wiped clean from your mind?"

"Seeing as this is not possible-"

"Answer the question," he cut me off.

"I would have married you," I replied, though the words were spoke with trembling fury. "I would have married you and had a family. Had a life beside you."