Estelle inhaled sharply at that, because she couldn’t help herself – it was the last thing she had expected to hear. Called off the courtship. (Were their family cursed? Torie had been the one actually making progress, and here she was, all her progress quite embarrassingly undone.)
Estelle caught a glimpse of her sister wiping her eye, and she decided that the best and most empathetic route here, rather than offering a handkerchief or Merlin, an embrace, was probably to pretend she hadn’t seen anything, and continue on. Leave Victoire her dignity, and whatnot. “Called it off?” she questioned, brow furrowed, because something in the phrasing did not add up to her. “Do you mean he did, or did you?” One of them must have prompted it, somehow – and it was difficult to gloat or to say good riddance to him, if she didn’t know who had been to blame.
Estelle caught a glimpse of her sister wiping her eye, and she decided that the best and most empathetic route here, rather than offering a handkerchief or Merlin, an embrace, was probably to pretend she hadn’t seen anything, and continue on. Leave Victoire her dignity, and whatnot. “Called it off?” she questioned, brow furrowed, because something in the phrasing did not add up to her. “Do you mean he did, or did you?” One of them must have prompted it, somehow – and it was difficult to gloat or to say good riddance to him, if she didn’t know who had been to blame.
