TWENTY THREE

                                    

                                          
AN AFFAIR OF HONOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE - PERHAPS ALL IS NOT LOST
(07/04/2021)
"Forgotten!" She exclaimed as she threw the gossip sheet down upon the table she was situated at, making her tea spill, her cup smashed on the floor with anger. With a sigh, she quickly stood up and attempt to clean such mess without cutting her finger. She stopped and called her help,
"Bloody forgotten, who does that Whistledown think she is, calling me forgotten. I'll show her forgotten." She mumbled to herself as she sulked on the sofa.
"Are you mumbling to yourself, my Lista?" Violet rushed through with a maid at her side ready to clean up Calista's mess.
She shook her head and reached for the sweeping brush and cloth, taking them off the maid and cleaning the mess up herself. Her mother stood there, not knowing what to do. 
"Am I really forgettable?" She sighed, tidying up.
"Not at all, my love. You know fine well you aren't." 
"What happened between the two of you?" Violet importantly asked the most wondered question within the Ton, asking about the most wonderful couple which was sadly no longer. The maid took this as her place to leave the room, not wanting to listen into a conversation which was above her wages.
"Nothing happened." She wiped her brow, in utter frustration.
"I know my daughter. I know it was not nothing between you."
"You do not know anything." She scoffed at her mother, storming away to her bedroom before her mother could say another word. She sat in front of her vanity mirror, deep in thought about him. 
"Calista, I know what I saw!" The voice of her mother reappeared behind her and she quickly whipped her body around to see eye to eye to the woman who had raised her well.
"What you saw was a lie. It was all one big lie. It was a ruse. The duke and I, we were pretending, all so Lord Ramsey would get the message that I didn't want to marry him. He got what he wanted, no more mammas swarmed him at events because his eyes were only set on me. It was an agreement. It was an act, and it worked. We got what we wanted." She rehearsed to her mother, tears welling up in her eyes as she let a. Few slide down her porcelain cheeks. 
"Calista."
"It wasn't real. Not for him, anyway." She cried and soon, her mother held her in her arms amd let her daughter weep over the man that she could not have.
"I never thought I would actually fall for the man, I planned to be a spinster all my days to avoid complications." She wiped her nose, slowly calming herself down.
"Though this author cannot dismiss the Duke of Hastings quite so soon. He may have let the angel slip through his fingers for now, but I shall wager he is not a man to ever hide from a fight." 
"Calista, you are not coming to watch the boxing." Anthony demanded his sister who had begged him to let him go.
"I most certainly am accompanying my sister and brothers. Benedict said I could. I value him more than you, you know." She wickedly smiled and he huffed as she dragged him into the carriage along beside her other two brothers and Daphne.