Awaken the Heart (Society of Swans Book 1) by Penny Fairbanks

Author:Penny Fairbanks [Fairbanks, Penny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2024-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Lydia’s heart danced, her stomach wound unbearably tight, as the driver helped her down from the carriage outside the Reeve family’s townhouse. For once, it was not an unpleasant sensation. Not entirely, at least.

She had had to work quickly and craftily, deploying the most trusted staff in her household to fly to her friends’ homes in the early hours of the morning, while the rest of the ton—and most importantly, their parents—slept soundly. Still, Lydia knew she could only count on the discretion of footmen and maids so much. Eventually, Mother would catch wind of Lydia’s early adventure.

After Lydia’s shameful outburst at Lord and Lady Hammonton’s ball the night before, her mother had locked Father and Edmund out of her sitting room to give Lydia a tongue-lashing like she had never received before. In fact, Mother had yelled and criticized for so long—including entirely plausible threats to keep Lydia within sight at all times for the rest of her life, whether she married or not—that the sun had just barely begun to tinge the London fog in silver by the time she had worn herself down. That left Lydia with just enough time to frantically write her letters. She gave the footmen a signal the moment Mother had retreated to her quarters to finally sleep.

Felicity and Mercy’s home, being most central to them all, had long since become their meeting place or point of origin for other activities. As she followed the seemingly unfazed butler to Lord and Lady Eldmar’s drawing room, Lydia prayed the others had already arrived. Time was not her companion today.

“Here she is!”

“Shh!” Mercy hissed at her sister, forcibly lowering Felicity’s arm that had stretched toward the door, pointing at Lydia accusingly. “Do you wish to awaken the entire house?”

“Lydia, what on Earth is this all about?” Ellen asked, eyes wide with worry as she snatched a candle away from the dangling sleeve of Felicity’s robe.

Lydia held up her hands for silence. She suddenly needed to catch her breath, to steady her spinning mind. Her complete lack of sleep was only one small factor.

Most of it, of course, was all Sebastian’s fault. And she could not have been more grateful.

A smile cracked on her lips. It spread across her face, from cheek to cheek, a truly unladylike grin.

Isabel gasped, inching to the very edge of her chair, a hand over her mouth. “Lydia…something has happened. What has happened?” she cried in a quiet whisper.

The other girls all watched her with bated breath, Felicity and Mercy squeezing hands, Ellen fanning herself, and Clara biting down hard on her bottom lip. They looked as though they expected Lydia to announce that by some strange legal mishap, she suddenly found herself in line to be the next Queen of England.

Laughter bubbled from somewhere deep in her chest. Only someone who had gone well and truly mad would find that scenario of secondary preference to the incredible reality that had swept her off her feet the night before. No, Lydia thought as she let the sound spill into the anticipating silence of the drawing room.

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