“Please rest them here, Sally,” Mina said, waving toward the worn-out sofa.
Sally hurried over, placed the boxes down, and with a bob left the room. Mina stood and went over to the boxes, aware of her aunt’s silent stare. Colin Fairbanks wanted her at this ball. Mina took a deep breath and slowly exhaled it. It had been over four years since she had attended a grand society event, and she had never anticipated doing so for the foreseeable future. Her fingers prickled, and she curled them into a fist to fight the temptation of opening the long boxes which held the gown he had outrageously ordered.
“I cannot go,” she whispered. Not after that torrid kiss which still haunted her three days later. This felt like more than what their relationship should be. “Nor can I accept these gifts! What was he thinking?”
Aunt Imogen plucked the letter from Mina’s nerveless fingers. She had not heard the approach of her aunt, and she startled slightly.
“Well,” she said after reading the personal note attached to the invitation. “I believe you should go.”
What?“Oh, Aunt Imogen, I must not. I am simply an employee of the earl; what right do I have to attend a fancy ball?”
“You are also my niece, and even if I am a broke church mouse, I am the Dowager Viscountess Stanton,” her aunt said with a touch of arrogance. “It has been quite some time since I have been invited to an outing, and this one might prove to be the very thing we need.”
And in her aunt’s gaze Mina spied a glimmer of excitement.
“Aunt—”
“You are attracted to the earl.”
The shock of hearing those words rendered Mina speechless. “I…”
“You are clearly afraid of giving in to your desire.”
“Aunt Imogen! I have no desires concerning the earl!”
“Don’t you, my dear?”
Wretched tears burned the back of her throat. It was embarrassing that her feelings were so clearly on display. “Aunt—”
“You have spent your youth at my side, shutting yourself away from the world and living within its strict confines because of one simple mistake. One that you were brave to escape unscathed. You were young and reckless, Hermina, when you chose to elope with that blackguard. It does not mean your life ended. My dear, you are four and twenty, an ape leader by society’s account, with little happiness ahead of you.”
It was so painful to hear those words. “Aunt Imogen, I am happy with you!”
Her aunt cupped her cheek. “And without you at my side, I cannot imagine what life would have been like for me these past several years. You are the daughter I never had, Hermina. Even my darling Robert said so, and he worried he did not have enough to leave you with a suitable living.”
Emotions clogged her throat. Her aunt and uncle had become her parents when her family had not been able to live with her shame. “Aunt—”
“I can also see your loneliness, Mina, and how it hurts me to know there is nothing I can do for you.”
“I am perfectly happy with you, Aunt Imogen,” she insisted stubbornly.
“Happy, yes,” her aunt said with a gentle smile, “but not perfectly so.”
Those words pierced Mina, robbing her of breath.
“Your perfect happiness lies with a husband of your own and children, my dear.”
She retreated from her aunt’s embrace. “You know I have little expectations of a husband, Aunt Imogen.”
Something shifted in her aunt’s expression and Mina gaped. “Do not tell me you are hoping the earl has formed a tendre for me.”
“Why do you sound so astonished. You told me he kissed you.”
Mina laughed and, to her ear, it sounded strained. “Aunt Imogen, the man is a blasted rogue. He probably goes around London kissing all the pretty ladies!”
“I am quite certain that is not true. The earl—”
A most unsettling revelation struck Mina. “The earl is preparing himself to find a respectable wife with estimable connections to help his position in society. I…I am not that person, Aunt Imogen; even if he wants to kiss me and I want to kiss him, the only position I might occupy in his life is that of a…mistress.”