"Esther-" Juliette replied in between grunts. Her hand was rubbing her knees which she must have badly hurt when she fell off the fence. 

"Are you alright?" Esther walked up closer to her but she only backed away. 

"Oh, yes. Absolutely. I was-" 

"Why are you not at the party?" Juliette was fearing Esther would ask her questions she wouldn't be able to answer but fortunately, Esther's first question was much more favourable than the one she had expected.

"Oh. I- I lost my invitation." Juliette replied confidently but the stutter couldn't be avoided.

"Your invitation?" Esther repeated in confusion. 

They had all received invitations but she did not remember being asked for them when she arrived earlier that evening. 

"Yes. The guards won't let me in without seeing it." Juliette added with a chuckle. "I think I dropped it here somewhere. What are you doing here? Outside?" 

Esther parted her lips to answer but stopped midway as a better idea hit her. She couldn't give herself a better excuse to escape the night. "Here," she said, extending her invitation to Juliette, "use my invitation. I was leaving anyway." 

Juliette's eyes flickered at the offer. She seemed to be considering rejecting it but it was perhaps too tempting to say no. She pulled the invitation out of Esther's hand and offered her a smile she had not shown her in ages. 

"Thank you, sister." She said and Esther smiled back in all sincerity and gratefulness.

Esther left the party with a heavy heart as she missed the Duke by the smallest fraction of time. However, as she walked back home alone on that dark night, she had a smile lingering on her face.

Juliette addressed her as 'sister' that evening for the first time in a very long time. The word acted as a source of hope for her. The fact that she still held her as a sister in her heart hinted at a possibility that perhaps nothing had changed between them. Perhaps it was time for all things to go back to their rightful place.

The end of the season seemed to bring with it the end to all dreadful things including her decade-old betrothal and her awful masquerade.

The former was quite doubtful but she liked to live in optimism.

Of course, if the worst were to happen, she would have to live as the Duke's betrothed for another six months. The thought itself was dreadful and she only hoped to see the man just one more time in the next few days before it would all come to an end. The possibility also sparked a curious thought in her head.

From what they had agreed upon, they were to create a misunderstanding for the Duke which would allow the Sherbornes to very honourably break off the engagement from their side. If he were to not return this season, they might have to delay such a scandal to next year as well. If they did continue the betrothal to the coming season, Esther wondered who she would have standing next to her as the Duke. It wasn't clearly so simple for the real Duke to casually take his place back without having the entire ton raising fingers at him. They would need a most convincing explanation.

Perhaps it would be best if he could create a scandal while he is away and never return. That would very peacefully kill all trouble.

With the hopes of the best for herself, she decided to wait for things to unfold. It wasn't like she were to get forced to the aisle with him tomorrow, or the day after. She was at no disadvantage if the betrothal was to go on for another week or season.

Lady Sherborne being the curious mother she was, asked her if she yet had the chance to end the engagement with His Grace.

"I couldn't catch him alone all evening and then he vanished," Esther answered in a complaining tone.

"What are you saying, my dear? You danced a whole dance with him. I saw you talking. You even robbed him of his jacket on such a cold night. It was in fact you who vanished." Lady Sherborne pointed out making Esther realise they were not referring to the same man when they talked of the Duke of Dales.

"Oh, yes." She mumbled under her breath. "We did dance together. But I couldn't tell him such upsetting news while dancing, could I? That would be quite insensitive of me."

Lady Sherborne smiled on a private joke but did not fail to compliment her thoughtfulness. "Will you be telling him this afternoon?" She asked.

"At Leo's lunch, yes. Of course." Esther lied blatantly knowing very well that the Duke is already far from London, attending a royal meeting in Buckingham House, which was too far away from the Radcliffe House for him to possibly return in time for the lunch. Or even for the opera that evening. Unaware of such confidential information, Lady Sherborne nodded thoughtfully at her daughter's promise. 

The mother and daughter stayed silent for a while and did not break the quiet until Mrs Lewis knocked on the door of Esther's bedroom. She walked in with freshly prepared rouge for Esther that was exactly the same colour as her Spanish pink dress that she had put on for the lunch that afternoon. 

She smiled as she put down the bowl in front of Esther while she steamed her hair. Esther smiled back awkwardly. Ever since Mrs Lewis realised the true reason for Florence leaving town, she was a changed woman. The lively side of her was gone, she was timid and kept her eyes to the ground as if she was guilty of treason. 

She stood on her spot for a while, perhaps to ensure the rouge was up to Esther's taste. When she received no response, she turned around slowly and made it back to the door. None of them was fond of the new alienness that had fogged between them however the only way to stir clear was for Esther to somehow get Leo to bring Florence back. And as her bride.

"Uh, Mrs Lewis," Lady Sherborne said, breaking the chilling silence in the room. "why don't you help dear Esther with her hair? I am afraid she might burn half her head if she were to keep up with it herself." It wasn't really that bad. Lady Sherbourne was only trying to break some ice. 

Mrs Lewis nodded obediently and walked over to Esther. Their eyes met very briefly before she again resolved to her lost timid self. Esther had to do something about the sudden gloom that had begun clouding her happy life. And she had to do it today.

With the Duke gone from the city, all her focus was directed toward Leonardo. She was certain he would have spent his night thinking about what she had told him. It wasn't something he did not know he could do, of course, however, sometimes all one needs to do the most obvious is a slight push. She was the happiest to provide that and as many times as it would need for him to take action. 

He would not marry Rebecca. Esther was sure of it. Marrying someone when your heart belongs to another person is easier said than done. He was not a man strong enough to bear such torment. 

Esther was still lost in her wishful thoughts when Lady Sherborne placed a light hand on her shoulder pulling her attention back to the room. "Then I shall go prepare myself for the lunch as well, alright my dear?" she asked and smiled before turning around in her steps. Esther only smiled back faintly as she was still lost in her thoughts of making Leo make the right decision today, no later. 

"Oh, and Esther, do not go around calling the young man Leo now," Lady Sherborne said, stopping at the door of her room, "he is now the new Lord of the Radcliffe Estate." 

Esther jumped to her toes the moment her words seeped into her head. "When?"

"When what?" Lady Sherborne asked. 

"When did they make him the Lord?" Esther's words came out with impatient urgency.

"Last night my dear, after you decided to leave unannounced." Lady Sherborne replied with a faint chuckle and disappeared past the door leaving Esther more impatient than she ever was. 

Soon she found herself standing at the flower-hoarded dining hall at the Radcliffe's. The air was full of an unbearable fusion of multiple aromas so much that she could hardly make out any of them. Or perhaps the fact that she was too distracted searching the hall for Leo was keeping her from giving anything else any appropriate attention. 

The crowd was anything but scarce. It was a festival. A feast like no other. The tempting aroma of all kinds of devour-worthy foods dominated the rest of the hall. And there was chattering, a whole lot of it in fact. It was as if time had turned back to the beginning of the season when there's nothing better for the young debutantes to do than to exchange gossip and titter. It seemed as if the ton had come to know of a most vibrant scandal that Esther was absolutely unaware of, but she couldn't care less.

She had not realised what was the purpose of the lunch until her mother told her about the announcement from yesternight. Of course, it was a gathering to observe the Lordship of Leonardo Radcliffe which begged the question, where was the man of the day? 

Esther walked ahead careful enough to not cross paths with the fake duke or pull the attention of any of the tittering ladies. She had no time for gossip. 

After a while of searching cautiously, she got tired of being on her toes. There was no Leo nor the Fake Duke in her sight no matter how far she stretched her gaze.

Rebecca was easily noticeable in her trademark purple dress and a suppressed scowl that she very finely tried to hide with a faux smile. Reuben was not next to her, again, not even far in fact. He too was nowhere to be seen. Esther assumed he must have also left town for the royal meeting, being the Marquess of Rosevale however, it certainly was getting extremely irritating now.

Rebecca seemed to be exchanging pleasantries with the older ladies. Not one young lady near her. Although many were suspiciously stealing glances at her before whispering things into each other's ears.

It was a weird sight. If Esther could care to notice at all, she would realise she was being glared at just as much as Rebecca. Perhaps, even more. However, she was absolutely oblivious of the unsettlingly absurd state of the gathering. Her eyes were only looking for one face, Leonardo Radcliffe, and the more the time passed of her not meeting him the tighter did her jaws grind against each other.

When her frustration overcame her control, she strode out into the front garden to catch a breath. She was sweaty and felt like letting the strings of her corset lose at once.

In one swift motion, she pulled one of her gloves off. She was only working on the second when her eyes caught the one face she was not expecting to see there at all.

The Duke. The real one.

The Buckingham House was home for another feast, only much bigger and royal than the one Radcliffes were hosting in London.

Edward had no appetite for delicacies. He had had a hard face on ever since he left London. That however was no oddity for the attendees of the Royal assembly, he was notorious for his bad temper and disagreeable disposition. The men around him would rather be stunned if he weren't scowling as he normally should.

He was standing in one small circle of a few men. Dukes and Lords mostly. The Duke of Tevas was explaining his marvellous experience of getting the perfect wife. She was French he was saying. Or a Russian perhaps. Edward was hardly paying attention.

This wasn't why he had decided to visit Buckingham. He had better things to do soon as he was done with this lunch.

However, the feast was far from over and the fact that Reuben was walking up to him with a motive of what looked like a most infuriating conversation, was definitely about to make his scowl worse.