“Is Mother still against him as a suitor?”
“That is putting it lightly. She was furious last night after my dance with him. She said, I should have refused him, but I did not know how. I did not want to. It was the first time I had been asked to dance that I actually wanted to.”
“Is that why you were upset?”
Felicity nodded.
“It is my own doing,” she said with a sigh. “I allowed myself to grow attached to a man, the idea of a man really, knowing that it could never be. He is not titled and lives only on a soldier’s income — neither of which are good enough for Mother.”
“This is absurd, Felicity!” Delilah exclaimed, voice growing once more. “It should not be up to you to secure all of our futures. It is not your fault we have no money, so I do not understand why Mother and Father expect you to be the one to save us from destitution.”
“It is all right, Delilah.” Felicity tried to soothe her sister, but Delilah was having none of it.
“It is not all right! I do not want you to throw away your one chance of happiness, sacrificing your own future for ours. I will work if I must. We all will. But I do not want to watch you push him away.”
“Delilah,” Felicity warned.
“You didn’t see it, Felicity,” Delilah sighed. “You didn’t see the way he looked at you.”
“Looked at me? What do you mean?”
“He stared at you like you were the best thing to ever happen to him. Like you were the most magnificent, priceless piece of art, and he was honored just to be in the same room. And it wasn’t just when you two were dancing. He watched you all night as you moved from one spot to another, accepting dances from all the other gentlemen.”
Felicity didn’t know what to say after that. She hadn’t noticed him watching her all night, nor did she think anyone would have really paid attention to the two of them dancing together. She guessed she should have known better.
“He came to get you?” she finally asked.
Delilah nodded, “He found me by the punch and mentioned that you were upset, that you needed my help. He looked so beside himself with worry that I rushed out to the balcony without even asking what was wrong. You are sure he didn’t do anything untoward?”
“He didn’t do anything. I was upset after Mother’s chastisement, and I was consumed with worry over finding the right man to wed. He must have been outside already and saw me leave the ballroom upset. He was only trying…” her voice broke, the sweetest of his compassion overwhelming her. “He was only trying to calm me down, to distract me like he had at the last ball. It worked for a little while, but then…” she trailed off, not sure how to explain what had happened.
“Then what?” Delilah pushed, her eyes teary as well.
“I don’t know. I guess I got in my head. I started to think about what people would say if they took notice of us on the veranda together. I started to worry that I had grown too close, too comfortable with him. And then he said my name.”
“Your… name?” Delilah’s brows furrowed in confusion.
“Yes. He said ‘Felicity’ like it was the most natural thing in the world for him to speak with me so intimately. And I wanted him to. It scared me just how much I wanted him to.”
“I would not be able to live with myself if I was the cause of you throwing that kind of affection away,” Delilah said, her voice tinged with solid resolve.
Felicity cried in earnest then.
“What about Mother and Father? What will they think?”
“I do not know,” Delilah admitted, “but we will figure it out together. I will not let you carry the burden of our family alone.”
Delilah wrapped her arms tightly around Felicity’s neck as the two cried together. When they separated, the matching streams of tears on their faces sent both girls into a fit of giggles. Felicity brushed away the sadness and slipped her hand into her pocket.
“He wrote to me,” she admitted sheepishly.
“What did he say?” Delilah all but squealed, her infectious grin returning.
“I do not know. I didn’t get a chance to finish reading it before you came in. Would you like to read it with me?”
“Yes! What are you waiting for?” Delilah slid closer to her sister, peering over her shoulder as Felicity read aloud.
* * *