The Spinster Strikes Back: A Slow Burn Regency Romance by Devlin Ava

Author:Devlin, Ava
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-29T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

Dot had always assumed when a person went mad, that it was a slow process; the sort of thing that comes upon one slowly, day by day, without much fanfare, and chips away at you until you’ve lost your mind.

She didn’t think that anymore. In fact, she was utterly convinced that one could simply trip on a crack in the garden path and spill all her good sense in the grass before she’d regained her footing.

After all, it had only been about a day since she’d agreed to marry Silas Cain, and she was fairly certain she was now fit for Bedlam.

She had sat in a cafe yesterday afternoon, nursing a cup of tea, and spent an hour stealing glances at the only other woman in the establishment, a curly-haired, freckled lady of a similar age to Dot herself, whose husband had come to greet her with two scones on a plate and a kiss on the cheek, interrupting the woman’s focus on the day’s gossip sheets.

They had chatted with smiles and made one another laugh. When she touched his hand, he did not freeze in horrified bafflement like Silas Cain. When she laughed, he laughed too.

Dot had watched with fascination, wondering how long this woman, who clearly had played the marriage game well, had been married to her handsome gentleman. She wondered if she had come to her marriage with the sparkling gems that caught the light at her fingers and throat or if, enchanted by her allure, the man had bought them for her.

She wondered who had made whom laugh first.

When the husband walked back to the counter to order more tea, Dot’s eyes remained on the wife. She fantasized about approaching her, quickly, while she was still alone and sitting in the empty seat across from where the lady had returned to lingering over the stories in her circular. Might such a woman offer Dot a nugget of wisdom? Might she share a spot of reassurance about marriage, if asked? Did she know the secrets of romantic bliss?

She’d watched with an untoward intensity, gripping the teacup in her hands so tightly, it might have cracked between her fingers until, inevitably, the other woman had glanced up and caught her looking. Dot had forced a smile, heat flaming in her cheeks, and briefly seen the woman give a quizzical smile in return as she hurriedly redirected her attention out the window.

She’d left a mostly full, cold cup of tea on the table and fled the cafe not long after that, and was certain in the hours since that she’d seen the same curly-haired, freckled lady just on her periphery, lingering near streetlamps and park benches, everywhere she’d walked in Bloomsbury, like a haunting of her embarrassment.

Whether it was a relief or a climax of her anxiety when she received a card from Mr. Cain the following morning, asking her to meet him in Covent Garden in the early afternoon, she could not say, but either way it was an interruption to her madness, and for that, she was grateful.

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