Seductive Deception

Chapter 31

Allegra managed to ruin everyone's lives single-handedly. And as she gaped at her trunk box and pondered what life would be like in some foreign village, she realized it would be the best for all of them. For Morgan. For Louisa. Even for Ginny and Barrett.

Four weeks passed, and she'd tried her best to stop ruminating, to stop obsessing over how much she'd hated the way things ended with Morgan, hated that they ended. Period.

She stared at the tin of ribbon candies she'd bought days earlier at Gunter's for him, vacillating about what to do with them. At one moment, she thought she'd give them to him in person before deciding to leave. And in the second, she considered paying someone to bring them to him for her; the idea of seeing his face again as she said goodbye was like a punch to the gut.

There was a bright spot in her days; customers were pouring in with great things to say about their ensembles, pleased with the confidence the clothing inspired.

She hadn't taken on any new customers as Madam Cerise. She hadn't returned to the dower house at all and put her masks, veil, and black gown away and only seldom wore her red boots. What was the point?

A rap at the door broke her from her reverie.

"May I come in?"

She sighed as Louisa peeked through a crack in the door. "I know I've been exiled to the far ends of the earth," she mumbled, "You needn't come to visit me."

Allegra and Louisa reconciled, but the weight of the incident hung like a dark cloud over her. Allegra had only done what she thought best for her sister. She'd only tried to give her what she understood she was owed. The problem was that she didn't consider that Louisa didn't want any of it either. She didn't want to marry a gentleman or live in an obtusely large manor house any more than Allegra did.

"Dear Heavens, would you please stop being so histrionic?"

Louisa sat on the edge of her bed, and Allegra could feel her glare. She looked the part of a lady, even if she may never be one. Allegra's stomach knotted.

She looked every bit the lady in her aubergine dress with flounces of black lace. Her hair was done in silky smooth ringlets, the color of mahogany, parted in the middle with a black silk ribbon.

"Histrionic?"

Louisa flung her hands out— "Yes, histrionic—dramatic, theatrical."

"You read too many books," Allegra grumbled and threw her pillow over her head

again.

"And you," she said as she pulled the pillow out, "don't read enough."

Allegra pressed her face into the quilt, ignoring her, biting her lip hard, attempting to stifle the burning sensation in the back of her throat.

"What are...what is this?"

Allegra sighed; she left the carpet bag on the bed and walked to her sister, gathering her courage. "I've decided it would be a good idea for me to start fresh somewhere," she said as self-assured as she could muster.

Louisa let out a barely audible throat noise. "You want to leave...the place you said you wanted to stay and the people you promised to help?"

Allegra flung her head back on her pillow. "I'm only causing everyone grief. Don't you see that? That's all I've ever done."

Louisa gave her a dead-eyed stare. "Again, stop being histrionic. Did I fall apart when Barrett left?"

Allegra took too long to answer.