To Defend A Duke

Chapter 39

The next day Evelyn wakes up in her room in 104 and she lies there for a long time, just looking at the ceiling. The other bed in the room is empty so she alone with her thoughts. The sun is barely visible behind the clouds. She sits up in bed and opens the window. She pulls the flowerbox towards her and digs into the earth until she touches the wool of her scarf. She lifts out the bundle and shakes it to remove most the of dirt before bringing inside and unfolding it. The fateful pistol stares back at her, the metal gleaming in the low light. She picks it up, feeling the weight in her hand and aims it directly at door. She closes one eye and she looks down the barrel.

The door bang open and she blinks. Henrietta waltzes in but stops dead when she sees the pistol pointing at her chest.

"What are you doing?" She asks, skipping over to her bed and flopping onto to it. "Put it away."

Evelyn complies, wrapping the pistol up and shoving to the end of her bed. She crosses her legs on the bed and watches her cousin roll around on her mattress.

"Did you sleep well?" She asks.

Henrietta laughs and brushes the hair from her face. "Shouldn't I be asking you these questions?"

"What do you mean?"

"You are the focus of today, no one else," Henrietta says. Evelyn snorts and gets off her bed. 

"I don't need it." She says, taking a pale lavender dress out of her wardrobe and starting to dress. Henrietta moves on bed to keep her in view.

"After what you have been through you should."

"Well you can save your concern, I am fine," Evelyn reassures, buttoning up her dress and moving towards the vanity.

Henrietta rolls her eyes, "Even if I believed that there is the still small matter of Nathanial Blackmoore."

Evelyn pauses as she ties and pins her hair into a sleek simple bun. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Don't play coy with me," Henrietta says, getting up and prancing over to her cousin, she places her hands on her shoulders. "It's obvious he has feelings for you." She pins one of Evelyn's loose hairs into the bun and adds a white ivory comb to the hairstyle, "As do you."

"I don't know what you mean," Evelyn says, looking at her in the mirror. "And neither do you."

"Oh, don't your head ruin this." Henrietta pleads as Evelyn moves from the table to her bed, picking up a pair of ivory slippers on the way.

"It's alright to be scared of what you're feeling, but you have no excuse to not tell him how you feel."

"It's not alright!" Evelyn explodes, spinning round and dropping the shoes in her hand. "I wasn't scared when we lost our money, I wasn't afraid when I was shot at, I didn't even feel scared yesterday, nervous? Yes, but not scared."

"How can you be fine with a gun being held to your head, but telling a man who is in love with you, you love him, is scary?" Henrietta frowns, not following.

"Because in some way I had control of those other situations, they were logical. There is no logic with.... feelings and love." Evelyn picks up her shoes and slips them on.

"How can you expect things to be logical and normal after what you have gone through?" Henrietta sits down and takes Evelyn's hand. "You have beaten everyone's expectations of you. You were never just the girl who lost her money but now everyone knows that."

"Except for your mother-in-law," Evelyn adds ruefully.

"Yes but she's a cow." Henrietta states. Evelyn laughs and nods.