The Villainess Offered an Apology, the Duke Wanted the Truth novel · Chapter 3 of 24
Chapter 3: The Wrong Toast
Maerielle tears up her cruel toast and names her lie in front of the ball while Darian's napkin swans look on. She asks Tavrian to dance and he says no.
Darian had folded every napkin into the shape of a swan.
He looked pleased when Maerielle entered the ballroom without the bouquet.
"You're taking a subtler approach," her cousin said.
"I congratulate you."
She stopped beside the table and looked at the folded cloth.
In the life she'd already lived, he'd watched her deliver the cruel toast without objecting.
That hadn't made him its author.
She had chosen every word herself.
"There's no approach," she told him.
Darian turned one swan toward the place where Cyralise would sit.
"Of course."
He said it with the confidence of a man being included in a clever secret.
Maerielle unfolded the napkin.
His smile faded.
"That one was arranged."
"Now it isn't."
He reached for another.
Thessa took it from him and laid it flat.
"For supper," she said.
The companion gave Maerielle a plain glass of water.
She drank half before deciding how to hold it.
That was progress nobody needed to applaud.
Cyralise arrived through the main doors with Tavrian beside her.
People looked at the woman they'd been told was a thief.
Some looked at Maerielle to learn how they should react.
She hated recognizing what she'd taught them to do.
Darian touched her elbow.
"Your toast," he reminded her.
The old paper lay beneath her place setting.
She could see the first line of the insult when he lifted the plate.
She took the paper and folded it with the writing inside.
"I'm changing it," she said.
Her cousin watched her with immediate interest.
He thought a new cruelty would be more entertaining than the old one.
Maerielle stood before he could announce her.
The musicians stopped.
She could hear people moving their chairs to see her better.
Cyralise remained near the door.
Maerielle looked directly at her and kept the words plain.
"I accused Lady Cyralise of stealing my brooch," she said.
"I knew the accusation was false."
A guest laughed uncertainly, expecting the turn to come next.
She let the silence outlast that expectation.
"I wanted her excluded from this ball," she continued.
"She took nothing from me."
Darian rose a little from his chair.
Maerielle didn't give him the floor by looking at him.
"The fault was mine," she said.
"I ask that the accusation not be repeated."
Her face was hot enough to hurt.
She wanted to explain the childhood, the ambition, the frightening return from death.
None of it would give Cyralise back the first unspoiled invitation she'd lost.
Maerielle sat down.
Nobody clapped.
She hadn't wanted applause until she discovered its absence.
Thessa put the flat napkin beside her plate.
The ordinary cloth steadied her more than a congratulation would have.
Maerielle moved a centerpiece in front of her plate.
Thessa moved it back.
"The guests are allowed to see you," the companion said.
"I'm allowing them."
"You're behind a palm."
Maerielle moved the palm aside.
Darian immediately shifted his silver wine cooler into the space instead.
Thessa took that away too and put down the salt.
Maerielle could conceal exactly one finger behind it.
Cyralise crossed the room and took a seat she chose herself.
A woman beside her began speaking without first checking Maerielle's face.
Maerielle watched that small freedom and tried to be glad without making it about herself.
Darian leaned toward her.
"A bold experiment," he murmured.
She took another drink of water instead of answering.
Later, when the dancing began, she found Tavrian near the windows.
She wanted one kind response badly enough to dislike herself for it.
She wanted to dance with him because his attention still made her unsteady.
Both desires belonged to her.
Neither obliged him.
"Will you dance?" she asked.
He looked at her offered hand.
He didn't touch it.
"Not this evening," he said.
Maerielle held her hand still for a moment before lowering it.
The fountain outside the window sounded very near.
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