"Elmore will be arriving soon," Father said. He poked his head up from the desk to send Aurora a warm smile. "Would you mind making tea? I bought pastries in town earlier."
It gave her something to do at least, so she was happy to comply. Aurora wandered from the study, across the hall, and into their small kitchen. There, she set a kettle to boil over the stove, and went about hunting down Father's pastries.
She was just bringing the tray into the sitting room as father greeted Elmore by the door. She offered him a wave with her one free hand; only to gasp as the tray nearly tumbled from her grasp.
"That's why you shouldn't hold a tray one handed," Elmore said with a laugh. He hung his coat by the door, as well as his hat, and wandered inside. "How are you, by the way?"
He had been especially worried since the day at the ball. Acting as if Aurora was something frail, someone who needed his protection. The coughing had been worse recently, and Aurora was starting to consider the fact that perhaps shewasgetting frailer.
She shoved that thought away though, and instead beckoned Elmore into the sitting room.
They each settled into familiar seats; Father had his armchair and Aurora preferred the settee. Even Elmore had 'his' chair, the one nearest the window where he could watch the garden.
It was strange how easily Elmore had fit into their lives. It hadn't been long since he and Aurora met — less than a year, in fact — but it felt as if he had been in her life forever.
Yes, they had their arguments, but now Aurora simply couldn't imagine life without him.
"I came to discuss Lord Foley," Elmore said grimly. His smile dimmed, and taking a sip of tea didn't appear to help. "It's two weeks now to the day, and he hasn't answered. I sent him a letter yesterday, but he won't have received it yet. Saying that, I think we have to consider that he isn't going to back our project."
Aurora felt herself stiffen, cheeks turning red with embarrassment.This is my fault.
Elmore was still talking, oblivious to the turmoil within her. As far as he or Father knew, Lord Foley had simply changed his mind about the entire thing, nothing more.
"It's a terrible shame, but I'm afraid that I saw it coming," Elmore admitted, "he said something strange though, if you remember? I'm paraphrasing, but...it all depended on Aurora's behavior?"
Ah, there it was. She had been waiting for somebody to ask; Father had already suggested that he was worried about Aurora, and had once asked what Lord Foley said while they danced together.
Now he and Lord Elmore were both watching her expectantly.
"Do you have any idea what it means?" Father asked.
She wanted to say no. It was a terrible lie, and an unfair one at that. Except, Aurora physically couldn't seem to get the words out.
Elmore must have seen something in her eyes, however. Or perhaps Aurora was just as dreadful at keeping secrets as she thought she was. He folded his arms sternly and spun in his chair to ask, "Aurora, do you know something?"
And no matter how much she wanted to say no, no matter how much she wanted to pretend that everything was okay...shecouldn't.
"Lord Foley wants to marry me," she blurted without meaning to. It all sort of tumbled out without meaning, the thoughts still half formed. "He asked me to marry him and he was sohorridabout it, smiling like he knew I had no choice — because he gave me a choice. My hand in marriage for his money. What kind of man gives an offer like that?"
Silence filtered across the room. Nobody dared speak, not even Aurora herself.
That was, until Elmore’s hands balled into fists and he parted his lips, expression dark.
Father stood from his seat, cutting in before Elmore could speak. He crossed the sitting room to perch by her side, a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"I know this is difficult," he said, "but could you tell me everything?"
Now that she had started, there seemed no sense in refusing to tell the entire story. It wasn't as if there was much to it, anyway. So she told it all.
"Lord Foley invited me to dance, and I assumed he wanted to discuss the angel's trumpet with me since I'm the project leader. It was foolish to assume that he cared aboutthat,he didn't see me as anything more than a pretty, hopeless young woman."
Lord Foley was exactly the kind of man that she had once feared Elmore was. He was crude and cruel, he cared little for the comfort of others, and he assumed Aurora incapable because she was a woman.
And Aurora had been naïve enough to think that he actually cared.
"He never said," she continued softly, "but I think, when he saw our presentation at the library, he saw an opportunity. Perhaps he planned to ask me to marry him since he saw me in the presentation room, I can't know for sure. I didn't stay to ask — he made me this horrible offer, smiling the whole time like he already knew he'd won, and I just... I left."
Father waited patiently for her to finish her story, his supportive hand never leaving her. His grip did tighten a touch when Aurora paused to take a breath, but he remained the very definition of calm.