FWOEMETAPM Chapter 43

That same morning.

In the reception room of the Florence estate, two countesses — women who had nearly become relations by marriage — met for the first time since their children’s engagement had come undone.

After a long silence, it was Loren Hansworth who spoke first.

“At first, I intended to give Ivelina time to think. I trusted she would make the right decision.”

“…I see.”

In truth, Jane Florence found the whole meeting deeply uncomfortable.

‘What is the point of this, after everything? Why come all this way for something so tiresome.’

The dust from that incident had long settled. The children had dissolved the engagement themselves. What purpose could their mothers meeting possibly serve?

Jane had been tired in a bone-deep way for some time now. A long journey behind her, her only daughter’s sudden broken engagement followed immediately by the arrival of a new man and all the commotion that had brought with it — and now this.

Every minute spent in the company of the Countess Hansworth, a connection she had considered well and truly severed, felt wasted.

‘As if I’m not already exhausted enough.’

She would have much preferred to still be in bed.

‘What a waste of time.’

“The reason it took me so long to see you is precisely that. I believed in Ivelina. I waited for her to come around.”

“And yet?”

“There’s no need to keep up appearances with me. The news has already spread throughout the capital. Did you think I wouldn’t hear about Ivelina’s engagement?”

“So you have heard. As her mother, I consider it a fortunate development.”

‘This wasn’t said in ignorance.’ The rumors had long since spread everywhere. Of course they had — a story about the woman who had caught the eye of Duke Hardeion was not the sort of thing that stayed quiet.

‘And that woman is our Ivelina.’

Jane felt a quiet, deeply satisfying sense of things falling into place.

Was it not infinitely preferable to a daughter who fell to pieces after a broken engagement with a worthless man? And Duke Hardeion had been remarkably handsome, at that. Solid-looking, with the kind of cool, sharp magnetism that was hard to look away from.

‘And then there’s the business about groom lessons. What a thoughtful thing to do.’

She quite liked him.

He and Edwin were in entirely different categories.

Loren Hansworth watched the faint upward movement of Jane’s mouth.

Her eyes, going cold, were flat when she spoke.

“Jane. Don’t you think your daughter’s upbringing was somewhat lacking?”

“What do you mean by that?”

The countess set her teacup down.

“While still engaged to my son, your daughter had another man.”

“…What on earth are you talking about?”

Jane was genuinely baffled.

‘Has this woman lost her mind over her son’s broken engagement?’

She was quite convinced that Loren Hansworth was not operating from a stable state of mind.

“She ended one engagement and was with a duke within days. Does that not strike you as troubling?”

“And what business is that of anyone’s?”

“I beg your pardon?”

Loren’s voice went sharp. It climbed a register.

“One can meet the right person at any time. I don’t see the problem.”

Jane spoke her mind simply and reached for her tea. Silently, she was cataloguing every unpleasant thing about this woman who had come to waste her morning.

“Jane!”

The two women had known each other for quite some years, connected through their husbands’ friendship. In private, they used first names, as intimates do.

But it had always been the familiarity of surface politeness. At heart, they were incompatible — oil and water. Jane, for her part, had never had much interest in Loren at all.

“Your daughter was promised to my son, and she conducted herself improperly with another man. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I believe there may be some misunderstanding. Our Ivelina would not do such a thing.”

Loren Hansworth felt a hot surge of fury at Jane’s serene, unbothered response.

‘That cunning girl — she goes off and does as she pleases, then has the audacity to turn it around on my son? Well. Like mother, like daughter.’

Tch. The countess clicked her tongue and pressed on.

“I wasn’t going to say this — but do you know what humiliation my son suffered when he came to your estate while you and your husband were away?”

“I don’t.”

“He was attacked by the duke. And thrown out. And Ivelina stood by and watched.”

“Did he.”

“My son is the clear victim in all of this. Edwin hasn’t eaten or slept in days. Foolish boy — he’s punishing himself far too much over this.”

“My lady, let us be precise. The one who behaved improperly was Edwin. Surely you haven’t forgotten the reason the children ended their engagement?”

Jane identified the flaw in Hansworth’s account and named it calmly.

“That and Ivelina’s behavior are two entirely separate matters. Edwin acknowledged his actions. He admitted it was a single night’s mistake.”

“Being found with another woman in the garden of a banquet hall — that’s a ‘single night’s mistake’? By that logic, I imagine you’d excuse a man who visited a brothel regularly.”

“Tch — how very inflexible.”

Loren Hansworth clucked her tongue in pointed exasperation.

Jane gazed at her with empty eyes.

‘So this is what happens when a woman’s world is reduced entirely to her son. Thank heavens I’m not like that.’

The logic of Loren Hansworth’s thinking struck Jane as genuinely puzzling.

“Men and women are not the same in this regard. A man taking another woman is hardly the sort of thing that warrants this kind of response. You know this as well as I do — so why are we even having this conversation?”

“Then it seems quite simple. Our children should each go their separate ways, and we can consider the matter closed. Please see yourself out.”

Jane had run out of patience with the woman very quickly. She wanted her gone.

“There is a witness who saw Ivelina leaving a hotel on the outskirts of the capital — on the morning after that particular banquet.”

“…And?”

“Set things right. My son’s reputation and Ivelina’s, both.”

“You’re suggesting we reverse their broken engagement?”

“Yes. If you refuse, you should know what sort of scandal will follow Ivelina. Think carefully, Jane.”

Loren Hansworth finally took her leave.

“Wretched woman. Coming here with that nonsense — and wasting half my morning in the bargain.”

Contrary to what Loren Hansworth had hoped, Jane did not think about it very deeply at all.

‘Am I supposed to hand my daughter to that wretch because I’m afraid of a scandal? Who does she take me for?’

Jane had never, in truth, been particularly fond of Edwin.

She had simply accepted it because her husband had pushed for the match — and in the Florence household, Damian’s word was law. Even Jane, as his wife, had not the power to override what he had decided.

‘Though who could have guessed that the young man her husband had chosen would turn out to be that sort.’

She had thought him merely a little spoiled, perhaps too indulged. Nothing worse than that.

‘Men with no self-control are absolutely contemptible, that’s all.’

And the mother comes storming in with nothing useful to say.

Jane had been irritable more frequently of late. There were stretches of the day when she felt a creeping, formless exhaustion — a hollowness she couldn’t quite explain.

* * *

That afternoon.

In the reception room of the Florence estate.

“What? Groom lessons? Of all the preposterous — tch!”

Damian Florence lowered his newspaper with a snap and scowled.

The more he thought about that day, the more absurd it seemed.

He had barely set foot back in the house when Duke Hardeion had come charging in. Apparently the man intended to marry Ivelina — but before the wedding, he wanted to conduct ‘groom lessons’, and so he had spirited the girl away on the spot.

Damian had had no time to catch his breath, let alone form an objection. He had felt as though he’d been seized by the collar and hauled.

And to cap it all off, his daughter — his ‘only’ daughter, a girl who had never shown any interest in men — had stood there and threatened her own father: ‘if not him, I’d rather die.’

“I really cannot abide the man.”

“What is there to resent? I found the duke perfectly agreeable.”

Jane sat across from him, working at her embroidery.

She had been sitting quietly, listening, but now she tossed the words out without much care.

Damian had been the one who had pushed for Edwin, after all. So why was he suddenly so particular about the duke?

A thought came to her.

‘Surely he isn’t jealous because the duke is better-looking than he is?’

Or perhaps — now that Ivelina had made her feelings plain — he was jealous of that too?

“What do you know! You’re just a woman who keeps house.”

“……”

Jane closed her mouth. Words like these had a reliable tendency to escalate into arguments.

And in those arguments, the outcome was rarely in her favor.

She had lost count of how many times she had stood her ground and been repaid with something unreasonable. He had even withheld her personal allowance on one occasion, as a form of retaliation.

Everyone seemed to think her life as a noble wife was something to envy. Mostly it was a pretty fruit with nothing sweet inside.

“Exactly what kind of upbringing have you been giving that girl? What on earth do you actually ‘do’ in this house, I’d like to know. Tch.”

In that moment, Jane saw Loren Hansworth’s face overlaid on her husband’s.

‘”Jane. Don’t you think your daughter’s upbringing was somewhat lacking?”‘

“Have you said everything you wanted to say?”