A Season of Masks and Masquerades

Chapter 28: The Royal Treachery

"Amazing, I express my delight at your presence and this is your response?" Edward taunted in a dense voice making Esther stop in her steps.

She sighed heavily before turning around to face him.

"There certainly is no reason for me to stay. I don't want to be seen spending late hours of an evening with a man, alone in a dark garden." She grumbled paying no heed to her tone.

"If that truly is your only concern, be assured, there is no one to witness our deeds here." Esther's forehead flinched at his response.

"That among other things." She answered looking into his eyes.

Edward exhaled heavily and walked up closer to her. "Miss Sherborne," he started in a serious voice, "I understand what Cornelius told you must have changed the way you look at things, however-"

"Well of course it did," Esther exclaimed cutting him off, "God bless the man for showing me the most obvious truth in time. I never wish to be the person standing in the way of someone else's love!"

Edward's eyebrows coiled into the messiest forehead Esther had ever seen. He flinched his eyes and tilted his forehead as he voiced his confusion. "Love, did you say?" He asked.

"So I did." Esther replied, failing to understand his reaction, "Don't tell me you still are ignorant about Lady Valentine's feelings towards you." 

Edward stayed silent for quite some time, squinting his eyes at Esther trying to understand what exactly should he say that would not blow up whatever last remains were left intact of his feeble masquerade. For he knew if he was to say one wrong thing, it was all going to explode. 

"I am aware she is affectionate of me, just like Cornelius is, merely in the capacity of an old friend. I don't see how-"

"She is in love with you, for goodness sake, why are men so clueless?" Esther exclaimed losing her calm. Her hands went up to clutch her head. 

"Miss Sherborne, I-"

"She is deeply in love with you, alright? And not as an old friend, not like Cornelius or anyone else, and honestly, this solves so many problems. You can simply have her next to you during this season while you play the role of the Duke. You two clearly make a beautiful couple unlike the two of us who only argue and breathe fire around each other." She kept blabbering while Edward stood amazed at the extent of thinking she'd done on the subject. "Besides, watching you so in love with another woman my family will certainly not want to exercise the engagement and by the time-"

"Uh- Pardon my Interruptions Miss Sherborne, but this is what Cornelius told you in his garden that day?" Edward asked to clear any last dust of doubt.

"Yes, and more importantly, this is what I can see. I don't merely believe hearsay."

"And this is also why you rejected my dinner invite, if I may ask?"

Esther hesitated under his sharp gaze, for admitting such an accusation would be extremely controversial. "I rejected your dinner invite because I was unwell." She replied trying her best to not succumb to his interrogative gaze.

Edward scoffed at her response. "Clearly, that is a lie."

"A lie?" Esther asked in an offended tone. "You think my illness was a lie? Is that why you did not visit me"

"I did not visit you because you did not wish to see me." 

"And whoever in the world told you that?" 

"I could see that in your actions. I do not merely believe hearsay." Edward replied mocking her with her own argument leaving Esther speechless. She stood there with her jaw dropped, waiting for her mind to form a comeback to his almost smart argument but her head was emptier than the dark garden.