Heat bloomed across his face so quickly that even the tips of his ears felt warm.
He dropped the mangled remains of the croissant back onto his plate.
Echo’s smile widened.
“All right.
I will stop.”
Aurelian did not believe her for a moment.
Evelyne, however, had already leaned forward again, apparently unwilling to abandon the subject.
“The possibility is what makes this so fascinating,” she said eagerly.
“Do you think she attended the ball because Lord Aurelian was there?”
“That cannot be,” Varian replied.
He tapped one finger against the side of his cup.
“How would she have known about him when she had not attended any of the previous events?”
Aurelian coughed.
Three heads turned toward him at once.
He quickly reached for his tea.
Evelyne leaned forward farther.
“What?”
Aurelian took an unnecessarily long drink.
It did not help.
“The garden,” he said after swallowing.
“She was there.”
Echo stared at him.
“What do you mean she was there?”
“She told me she had seen what happened.”
Varian’s brows drew together.
He glanced toward the window for a moment before realization crossed his face.
“The greenhouse.”
Echo’s expression changed.
Of course.
The greenhouse at Beaumont’s estate had been reserved for family and particularly high-ranking guests.
Aurelian had barely noticed it beyond admiring the plants inside.
A duchess would have had access without question.
Evelyne’s eyes brightened.
“So she saw you before the ball.”
“Apparently.”
“And then found you alone on the veranda,” Varian said.
Aurelian frowned at the sudden excitement gathering around the table.
Evelyne looked as though she had just reached an especially interesting chapter of a novel.
Echo had stopped drinking entirely.
Even Varian was watching him with far too much interest.
“She wanted fresh air.”
“Perhaps,” Evelyne said.
The word carried enough doubt to make Aurelian narrow his eyes.
Echo placed both hands around her cup.
“I was willing to leave your conversation alone when you insisted nothing important happened.
I am reconsidering that decision.”
“Nothing happened.”
“Tell us.”
Aurelian glanced around the table.
All three were waiting.
Unfortunately, so were several people at the neighboring tables, though they were doing a poor job of pretending otherwise.
One young woman had been holding the same spoon above her cup for nearly half a minute.
A gentleman farther away had turned his chair just enough that one ear was plainly angled toward them.
Aurelian lowered his voice.
“We spoke about the ball,” he said.
“She teased me about the welcome tea.
We were interrupted by a drunk couple.
Then she asked about Bellafonte.”
The three waited, Aurelian shifted beneath their collective stare.
“That was all.”
“Aurelian.”
He sighed and rubbed one hand against his forehead.
“She said Bellafonte sounded peaceful.”
“And?”
Aurelian looked at Echo.
Something about her expression warned him that silence might have been the wiser choice.
Unfortunately, he answered anyway.
“So I told her she should visit.”
Echo’s cup stopped halfway to her mouth.
Aurelian immediately regretted continuing.
The cup slowly lowered.
“You did what?”
“I invited her to visit Bellafonte.”
Echo set the cup down with a soft click.
“Aurelian.”
“What?”
“You invited an unmarried duchess to your family estate?”
“Yes?”
Varian abruptly covered his mouth, though his shoulders gave away the laugh he was attempting to suppress.
Evelyne looked delighted.
Aurelian became suspicious.
Before he questioned them, Echo leaned toward him, lowering her voice even further.
“An unmarried nobleman inviting an unmarried woman to stay at his family estate can be interpreted as an invitation to court.”
His face went blank.
For several seconds, he simply stared at her.
Then he blinked.
“I invited her to see the sunflowers.”
“That does not improve it.”
“It was about agriculture.”
Varian made a strangled sound behind his hand.
Echo pinched the bridge of her nose.
“That makes it stranger, not safer.”
Aurelian stared at her.
He looked genuinely offended now
“This society is ridiculous.”
“Lower your voice.”
Varian glanced toward the neighboring tables.
Then he winced.
“Too late.”
Aurelian slowly followed his gaze.
Nearly every nearby face turned away at once.
Someone suddenly became fascinated with a painting on the wall.
Another woman lifted an empty cup to her lips.
One gentleman began speaking to his companion so loudly that it was obvious he had not been speaking at all a moment before.
Echo closed her eyes “We are having private tea from now on.”
Aurelian looked down at the remains of his croissant.
There was hardly enough of it left to qualify as food.
By sunset, all of Evelina would probably believe he had invited Duchess Seraphina Vaelmont south with marriage in mind.
He was beginning to understand why people in the capital drank so much tea.