her mind. Physical compatibility was something that could be conjured with anyone; he had taught her that. Which meant even if her stomach didn’t erupt with butterflies at the sight of Martin, even if her knees didn’t grow weak when he kissed her hand, he could still be everything else she wanted in a husband. He could still make her happy. He could make her forget about salacious whispers and writhing bodies in the dark, and the glittering green eyes of a man who would prove her destruction if she allowed it.
Calliope avoided Dominick for several days following the ball, hoping to recover from the incident on the terrace. She’d spent the rest of the evening dancing, after going into supper with Martin and doing her best to keep her gaze on him and off Dominick. Try as she might, she couldn’t ignore him. He was always in the periphery of her vision, his gaze on her no matter where she stood. The prickling awareness caused by his unguarded perusal set her on edge, making her feel as if what she had done was written all over her face.
She’d been relieved when Diana announced that she wished to leave, the cloistering heat making her feel ill. Her sister had still been feeling poorly this morning, retching into a chamber pot and complaining that every bite of food she consumed came back up with a vengeance.
“She is with child,” Ekta declared while helping Calliope dress. “The signs are there, I witnessed it all when your mother carried you.”
“I am happy for her, even if I hate to see her so ill,” Calliope replied, while secretly reeling with an unexpected moroseness.
She was elated to know she would soon be an aunt, but could not help but think of what it would mean for her to fail at her own mission. Diana would bear this child, and others, creating a growing family with Hastings. If Martin couldn’t be made to come up to scratch, she would never again believe that marriage or a family could be in her future. She would move out of Hastings House, for she knew it would be too difficult to feel as if she were an intruder in the lives of Diana and her family.
Perhaps she would live with her father and his two elderly aunts—who spent their spare time gossiping about those who did not live up to their lofty standards of comportment. Few people ever went unscathed. She would grow old alone, wasting away untouched, unloved, and filled with regret.
The thought distressed her until tears pricked her eyes, and when she blinked, she found Ekta standing before her. The old woman’s wrinkled face was lined with sympathy, her bony hands wiping away Calliope’s tears. Her dark eyes glittered with fierce determination as she took hold of Calliope’s chin.
“Your time will come, my dear Anni. The men who could not see what a jewel you are do not deserve your tears.”
Calliope sniffled and smiled at the woman who had raised her, wondering how she would have survived without Ekta. Hers was the only face she looked upon daily that reflected her own self back to her, the only one that reminded her of a home she remembered little of and a mother whose memory grew hazier with time.
Once her tears were gone, Ekta threw up her hands and bustled back across the room, the moment of tenderness passing as quickly as it had come.
“I still say your father ought to be involved in this. It is best to allow the head male of the family to arrange such unions. This Mr. Lewes could be your betrothed already, had you wrote to him as I suggested.”
Calliope laughed, taking up the shawl laid across the foot of her bed. “Well, you may soon get your wish. I believe Diana has been plotting again, because I received a letter from Father this morning. He has sent for us to visit him and the aunts. They are in Surrey, and he plans to host an intimate house party and invite many of our friends and acquaintances. He made sure to inform me he’d caught wind of the gossip surrounding the two men who have been publicly courting me.”
Ekta murmured a low sound of approval. “Your sister has sent word to him, and now he will bring both men under his roof to take their measure.”
Calliope cringed behind the maid’s turned back at the thought of her father thinking Dominick a serious