The standard lie was poised at the tip of her tongue. She'd spent the entirety of her life being taught never to discuss anything beyond a surface emotion with those she wasn't intimately connected to. And even then, she was to use caution with how much she divulged. Julius was, of course, someone she felt confident and safe with, someone she knew would hold her secrets as near and dear as his own, but still Eloise found herself hesitating to confess her extreme disappointment with the situation. She wasn't a desperate debutante, she didn't even need to marry again to keep her station in life.

But she had been so excited to marry Julius.

(And yes, they would still presumably wed at some point in their future. However, the idea of continuing to wait curdled her stomach.)

"I will be." She answered, a compromise between the truth she wished to bury deep and the lie her mother would have saw her speak.

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