the Villainess they took for granted

By the time Marian finished fastening the last button of her glove, the afternoon was already well underway.

Her invitation to Lady Clara Wiltshire’s tea had arrived two days after she returned to the capital.

It had not been the only one.

There had been invitations to dinners, small luncheons, private musicales, garden gatherings, and several informal visits from families who had apparently decided that eighteen months was long enough for Marian Valmont to remain absent from the capital.

She had found the attention pleasantly surprising.

Not because she had expected to be forgotten.

Marian had grown up in the capital. She had spent most of her life among these people. Her departure had been discussed, of course, and the circumstances surrounding it had hardly been a secret.

Still, she had not expected to return and find that so many people had apparently been waiting for her to come back.

Letters had arrived almost every morning.

Some were from old friends.

Some were from acquaintances she had not spoken to in years.

A few came from families she barely remembered meeting.

She had smiled at most of them.

There was something comforting about it.

The capital had not forgotten her.

And perhaps she had not realized just how much she had missed being part of it until she saw how easily it welcomed her back.

Marian looked at herself once more in the mirror.

The afternoon tea at the Wiltshire residence would be her first social engagement since returning.

She had deliberately chosen it over the other invitations.

Not because it was the most important.

It wasn’t.

There would be no formal introductions.

No ceremony.

No expectation that she spend the afternoon speaking to people she barely knew.

It was simply Clara.

And Clara was someone Marian could be herself around.

That mattered.

After eighteen months away, she had no desire to make her first appearance in society at some grand dinner where every movement might be observed and every conversation remembered.

She wanted something familiar.

Something easy.

Something that would allow her to see people she had known before everything changed.

Marian adjusted one of the earrings at her ear.

She had known Clara for years.

They had attended countless gatherings together.

They had shared afternoons, dinners, shopping trips, gossip, and more than a few complaints about society.

Clara had even been involved in Marian’s wedding preparations.

She had been supposed to stand beside her when Marian married Cassian.

The thought came and went quietly.

Marian did not linger on it.

She had spent too long learning how to remember the past without allowing it to pull her backward.

Today was not about what had been lost.

It was about returning to something she had missed.

She picked up her gloves.

A servant opened the door.

"Your carriage is ready, my lady."

"Thank you."

Marian descended the stairs.

As she passed through the entrance hall, she noticed another small stack of correspondence waiting on the side table.

More invitations.

She smiled.

Apparently, she was going to have very little opportunity to stay home.

That was perfectly fine with her.

She had spent eighteen months at Valmont with very little to do beyond what she chose for herself.

She had enjoyed the quiet.

She had needed it.

But now that she was back, she discovered that she had missed having somewhere to go.

Someone to see.

Something to look forward to.

Marian stepped outside.

The afternoon air was warm, and the capital was busy in the way only the capital could be.

Her carriage waited at the front.

She climbed inside and settled against the seat.

As the carriage pulled away from the residence, Marian glanced through the window.

She had only been back for a few days.

Already, the city felt familiar again.

The streets.

The shops.

The carriages passing one another.

The familiar houses belonging to families she had known all her life.

There was something almost amusing about how quickly she had slipped back into it.

She had spent eighteen months away.

Yet the capital seemed determined to behave as though she had merely been gone for a long holiday.

Marian smiled.

Perhaps that was exactly what she needed.

--

The Wiltshire residence was already lively when Marian’s carriage arrived.

She stepped inside and had barely handed her gloves to a waiting servant when a familiar voice called her name.

"Marian."

She turned.

Clara was already crossing the entrance hall toward her.

Marian smiled.

"Clara."

Clara reached her and immediately pulled her into an embrace.

"I’ve been waiting for you."

"I know. Your letter made that very clear."

Clara laughed as she released her.

"You’re finally back."

"I am."

Clara looked at her for a moment, her expression softening.

"You look well."

"I feel well."

"Good."

There was no need for either of them to say more.

They had known each other too long.

Clara had been one of the people closest to Marian before she left the capital. In fact, she had been chosen as Marian’s maid of honor for her wedding to Cassian.

The wedding had never happened.

But the fact that Marian had wanted Clara standing beside her said enough about their friendship.

Clara slipped her arm through Marian’s.

"Come. They’re all inside."

Marian smiled.

She already knew who they were.

Their friends.

The women she had grown up with.

The same circle she had once seen almost every week before leaving the capital.

Some had married.

Some had remained unmarried.

Some had changed.

Some probably hadn’t changed at all.

Marian was looking forward to finding out which was which.

As Clara led her toward the drawing room, the familiar sound of conversation grew louder.

Then the doors opened.

Several women turned almost immediately.

For one brief moment, there was silence.

Then—

"Marian!"

"Oh, finally!"

"Look at you!"

"I told you she would come."

Marian laughed.

One of the women had already risen from her seat.

Another was waving her over.

Someone else called for her to come closer.

Clara released her arm.

"There. You see? I told you they were waiting."

Marian shook her head, smiling.

"I can see that."

She stepped into the room.

And almost immediately, she was surrounded.

Hands reached for hers.

Questions came from every direction.

How was Valmont?

How long had the journey taken?

Had she settled in?

Had she changed her mind about anything?

Was she staying in the capital for the entire season?

Marian laughed and tried to answer them one at a time.

It was noisy.

Familiar.

Comfortably overwhelming.

And she loved it.

For eighteen months, she had lived in a quieter world.

She had needed that quiet.

But standing there among people she had known for years, Marian realized that she had missed this part of herself too.

The girl who laughed too loudly.

The woman who enjoyed an afternoon spent talking about nothing particularly important.

The daughter of Valmont who had once belonged to this world without having to think about whether she still had a place in it.

She looked around the room.

For the first time since returning to the capital, she didn’t feel like someone who had come back.

She simply felt like Marian again.

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