“Will,” she began. “I know what this looks like . . .”
Will’s gaze flicked to her before returning with burning intensity to Max. “Do you? Good, then. I’m glad you understand the magnitude of how this looks.”
“No,” she quickly corrected. That’s not what she meant . . . “It’s not what it looks like.”
“Indeed?” her brother asked with alarming calm. “Is that true, Max? What do you think? Is this not what it looks like?”
Max replied in a maddeningly calm voice, as though they had not just been caught in a compromising position. “No, Will. It’s precisely what it looks like.”
She swung a horrified gaze to Max. “What are you doing?” she hissed. This was the moment they should try minimizing their actions.
“Then I expect you know what needs to be done,” Will returned.
Horror seeped through her. She shook her head, hair tossing freely around her shoulders.
“Yes,” Max replied.
Aurelia swung her gaze between the two of them. “No! Nothing needs to be done. Nothing happened . . . no one knows—”
Violet stepped forward and wrapped an arm around Aurelia’s shoulders, guiding her to the center of the room. “Come. Let’s go repair your hair . . .”
Aurelia dug in her heels. “No. I’m not leaving while the two of them discuss me as though I have no say over my life—”
“Aurelia.” Will pronounced her name in a way that brought forth memories of a stern tutor she once had. Ms. Turner never smiled and only ever bit out her name like it was something foul-tasting in her mouth. “Go with Violet. I need a word with Max.”
“About me. You need a word with him about me.”
Will frowned at her. “About the both of you.”
“Then I stay.” She crossed her arms.
Her brother sighed. “Aurelia, it isn’t done this way—”
“Considering we’ve gone about things differently, it might as well continue that way,” Max announced, a humorless smile playing about his lips.
She shot her brother a satisfied look.
With a snort of disgust, he settled his gaze on Max. “I suppose it was too much too hope that you would have kept your hands off my sister. I should have listened to Violet. She said months ago there was something between the two of you.”
Aurelia swung an incredulous gaze to her sister-in-law, who smiled mildly and shrugged. “You seemed to enjoy arguing too much.”
“How long has this been going on?” Will asked.
“Not months,” Aurelia said hotly.
“Long enough,” Max responded.
She looked at him in exasperation again. He was not helping defuse the situation.
Then he went on to add, “I’d recommend a hasty wedding.”
She gasped.
Will’s jaw clenched, but he nodded.
“Wedding?” Aurelia said. “Who said anything about a wedding? I think we might be overreacting here.” She didn’t think. She knew it. They were gravely, vastly overreacting.
Will looked at her, and in his gaze she recognized that older brother who had always looked after her. When her father had been distant and not overly concerned with her, Will was the one to care, to visit her in the nursery. It had even been Will who saw to it that Ms. Turner found a different position. “What did you think the outcome of this could possibly be, Aurelia?”