Read The Shadows for Free Online

invitation as I was. She gave me a little push, and I went over to sit beside Patrick’s mother, who asked, “Cream or sugar?”
    “Both, please. One lump.” I folded my hands in my lap as demurely as I could, squeezing my fingers together to hide the stain on my gloves.
    She said, “You must tell me what you think of my son.”
    I glanced around the room—no one was watching us but Rose.
    “I think him very nice, ma’am,” I said.
    “He’s a good boy. He’s done a fine job taking over the business, you know. He’s inherited his father’s eye. There was never a clever idea passed Mr. Devlin by, and Patrick’s just the same.”
    I sipped the tea. It was too hot, burning my lip so I jerked the cup away, too fast. Tea sloshed against the rim, but thankfully I didn’t spill it.
    She went on, “Your own family . . . well, so unfortunate. Your poor father . . . We all feel terribly for you and your mother.”
    I noted that she didn’t mention Aidan, though she must have known about him as well. It made me like her even better.
    “You know that your father and my husband had always hoped for a match between you and Patrick.”
    If I’d been drinking my tea, I would have choked. “No, ma’am. I had no idea.”
    “A sound business idea. The Knox ready-made shop with our tailoring business. A single location for all a man’s needs. Well, you can see how it would have been.”
    I could. A pity there was no longer a Knox Emporium. I didn’t know what to say. I settled for “It would have been nice.”
    “The world seems to be falling apart before our eyes, doesn’t it? This depression and . . . well, you know I hold you blameless for your family’s misfortunes. The decisions men make . . . as women we’ve not much choice but to accept them.You’re a good girl, the way you take care of your mama and your grandmother. A good, solid girl, as I said to Patrick. And Lucy likes you as well. I would welcome you into our family.”
    It took a moment before I realized that she was giving me her blessing. She was telling me that she wanted me to marry Patrick.
    This was all too fast and too strange. I’d only agreed to a debut yesterday, and now suddenly Mrs. Devlin was talking to me about her son as if everything was already decided. I felt my mother’s hand in this, and I was unsure and . . . angry. Though Patrick would be perfect—too perfect—everything was moving too quickly, everyone scheming to manage my life. Was I to have no say in it at all?
    I wondered if Patrick was just as caught. Was he forced into this too? It had to be the reason for his attention. Why else would someone like him even look at me?
    When the men rejoined us, I couldn’t remember a word of the rest of the conversation I’d had with Mrs. Devlin, and I could not look at Patrick. I wanted only to go home. But Aidan ignored my pointed glances, and when everyone sat to hear Lucy sing some silly ballad, I slipped out the French doors, which were open to let in the warm spring air. I heard the tinkling strains of the pianoforte, Lucy’s light and trilling soprano, and I stepped farther away from the house and toward the rose-twined trellis separating the yard from the bordering park. I stood just at the edge, watching the strollers, the couple in the gazebo beyond who seemed oblivious to everything around them. In love.
    There was no other way for me, and what somehow made it worse was that I liked Patrick. He was the perfect solution. Rich, young, and handsome. I should be happy for his attention, whether it was real or not.
    But not if he felt as trapped as I did.
    I heard the footsteps behind me. “Miss Knox, are you well?”
    Patrick. No doubt his mother had noticed me sneaking away and sent him after me. Sharply, I said, “I’m quite well, thank you. You should go back inside.”
    He came up close. He smelled of something citrusy and clean—a good smell among the others that never quite left the air, no matter what part