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“Not a singleI told you soyet, Aurora. You must be worried,” Manuela quipped as her friend helped her out of her now-ruined wedding dress. She knew she was being horrid, lashing out at the one person in Paris who was not judging her. But her misery was absolute.
“If you think I’m falling at your novice attempts at cruelty, you are just confirming what I knew all along,” her friend retorted, seemingly unmoved. “Neither you nor Luz Alana have ever listened to a word I’ve said about what I was put through in medical school.” For some reason Aurora’s loving rebuke seemed to take the last bit of wind out of her sails, and Manuela artlessly dropped onto a settee, still half-dressed, and began to sob. Aurora let out a long-suffering sigh.
“I really wish Luz Alana was here, because I really am desperately bad at the comforting bits.” That was said as she attempted to pull off Manuela’s petticoats and remaining layers even with Manuela sitting down. “Just lift up your nalgas, Manuela, por Dios!” her friend grunted, making quick work of her clothes. Once she was down to her chemise, Aurora quietly passed her a dressing gown, which she seemed to have produced out of thin air.
“You are impressively strong,” Manuela sniffled, as she tied the sash of the silk robe and tried not to think of Cora’s luxurious collection of them. That way lay madness, and she had much to consider for the next few hours, for the next few days—months, really. How long did it take to completely remake one’s life? She recoiled at the mere thought of trying to answer that question in her current state and decided to turn her attention to solving more tenable mysteries.
“Where are we?” Aurora made a face at the question, then busied herself with pouring tea into one of the cups from a tray a maid had brought them earlier. They’d left the church in such a daze that she’d had no clue where the carriage had taken them.
“Apollo’s apartment. I can only assume this is where he stashes the women he’s sleeping with.” Manuela sipped the tea and distracted herself with Aurora’s obvious intense feelings about Luz Alana’s brother-in-law. They had a view of the Champs-Élysées. The apartment wasn’t very large, but it was very well-appointed. Aurora was quite resourceful, but finding a luxurious hideout on such short notice was impressive even for her.
“I think he likes you.” There was no more effective way to detonate Aurora’s temper than to imply there was any kind of romantic entanglement in her life.
“Ithink he’s a cabrón who uses a criminal amount of cologne and has an oversize sense of his own importance,” Aurora fumed, even as she waved a hand as if the Earl of Darnick were nothing more than a bothersome gnat. “But his incredibly infuriating person is not important right now, you are.” Her friend’s eyes softened as she took Manuela’s hand in hers. “And although I am delirious with happiness that you extracted yourself from the clutches of that insipid buffoon and that you did so in quite a spectacularly public way...” they both cringed at the mention of the debacle at the church “...we need to talk about what you’re going to do, Manuela.”
“At least I remain consistent in always making a Greek tragedy out of things when a simpleyesornowould do,” she joked feebly, then closed her eyes and let herself feel the strength in her friend. She didn’t feel strong herself, but maybe she didn’t have to. “I need to talk to Felix. He will be furious with me.”
“Apollo said he advised—”
“Or threatened,” Manuela interjected, to which Aurora nodded in agreement.
“Quite, but in any case, he will not bother you for now, so you can at least get your thoughts in order.” For all that Aurora detested Apollo, she seemed to have a lot of trust in him. After a long pause, she added, “The duchess also seemed intent on having words with him.”
“Cora has nothing to do with this,” Manuela protested, unsettled just by the mention of her name. Aurora, perennially undaunted by her fits of pique, waved the outburst away.
“Manuela, now you are speaking for the sake of it. Cora has everything to do with why you are not currently enjoying a life-depleting wedding breakfast with your so-called guests at Le Café Anglais. She is the reason you could not marry Felix. She is the reason you have finally taken a step to be free of your parents’ hold on you,” Aurora declared with a very satisfied tone in her voice. Manuela in turn clamped her lips together, knowing any protest would just encourage more ranting. “I can’t say I love her methods, or yours, but I appreciate that she was willing to go to extreme measures to tell you how she felt.”
It was not as if she wasn’t telling the truth. Cora might not be the only reason she stopped the wedding, but she had been the catalyst for everything that led Manuela to this moment.
“Aftershe attempted to bribe my parents to break the engagement.” Aurora winced at the reminder and without a word stood up from her chair and plucked a decanter of amber liquid from the sideboard. Without asking Manuela if she wanted any, she poured a generous portion into each of their tea cups, before taking a very long sip. Manuela followed her excellent example and drained her own in one gulp. While she coughed, Aurora spoke again.
“This is why I don’t toil with emotions,” she declared and poured more into Manuela’s cup. “Since your parents only associate with gossips, the news of what happened at the wedding will likely spread to every Spanish-speaking person in Paris before sundown.”
“This is not making me feel any better.”
Aurora threw her hands up in exasperation. “This is why we need Luz Alana. She is much better at coddling than I am.” She lifted the cup to her mouth, then thought better of it and picked up a glass of lemonade. “But what I am very good at is stopping the bleeding.” That was said pointedly, which meant her friend had devised a plan of attack. “You are in love with Cora. Cora is in love with you. And given both of your willingness to publicly humiliate yourselves for each other, my assumption is that this isn’t over.”
“It is over,” Manuela insisted, serving herself more rum. “It was over when she tried tobuyme. Not because she wanted me, but because she couldn’t stand Felix having me. I’m not a piece of furniture or a painting.” Aurora made a face at that, but Manuela knew her friend better than to think she was giving up.
“That was a tactical error, yes, and if it was me I’d put her through an extensive groveling period, but in a way I understand her.” That surprised Manuela. Aurora was not one to tolerate high-handedness, which was, of course, one of Cora’s biggest defects. “When you have had to make your way among men who pick apart your vulnerabilities, who leverage your own emotions against you, you can become caustic. The constant slights, the constant need to prove yourself, create this instinct to be on the offensive all the time. What she did was not right, but that woman was utterly undone today.”
And that was the trouble, wasn’t it?
Aurora shook her head, sending Manuela a pitying look. “I’ve seen her look at you, Leona. You make that woman light up inside.” Her friend sighed impatiently at Manuela’s frown. “I’m serious. That duchess is the most impassive woman I have seen in my life, but when her eyes are on you, she unlocks. You are far from her punishment. You set her free.”
Manuela wished that a little warm ember of hope didn’t flutter to life in her chest at her friend’s words. There was no question she loved Cora, but she never again wanted to be in a position where she had to depend on someone else for her security. For her to have any future with Cora, she first had to secure one for herself, independently.
“I never thought I’d say this, but you were right about everything.” She grinned when Aurora pretended to slide off the couch in shock. “Well, almost everything! You were wrong about my decision to sell the land to Cora.” Aurora rolled her eyes but conceded the point with a nod. “It is true that there were likely simpler ways to get into Cora’s bed, but the temptation of getting some leverage for once was hard to resist. It also turned out to be what I needed to finally realize that I deserved more than settling for a life that would make me desperately unhappy. That it was wrong and wasteful to throw myself away only to keep my parents, and myself, in luxuries that we were not entitled to.”
It was so clear to see it all now. Her grandmother had given her the means to seek her own path, and she’d almost thrown it away. But in the end, it had been the key to her finding a place for herself. Baluarte had opened doors, and now it was her choice to walk through them.
She heard a sniffling next to her and turned around to find her stoic friend’s eyes brimming with tears.
“Are you about to cry, Aurora Montalban?” she asked, amused even as her own eyes filled with tears.
“I am most certainly not. It was all that rum,” Aurora lied, even as she wiped her eyes. “I loathe that things had to come to this, but I am glad for you. I’ve always known you were capable of this, of stepping out on your own.”
“I think I believe it now too,” Manuela said, despite the flutter of unease in her belly. She was scared, but for the first time, every decision she made from now on would be about what servedherlife. Not the whims of others.
