Yes, people noticed.
People always noticed.
It spread quickly, like perfume in the air, lingering on every whisper and glance.
Ivan wasn't at Lydia's ball tonight.
The surprise wasn't that he was absent from a celebration. The surprise was that he had always been there before. The last three balls, he was there. He didn't dance. He didn't mingle. He didn't smile. But he was there. Standing quietly in the shadows, somewhere at the edge of the room, his eyes never leaving Lydia. He never said a word, yet his presence said enough. Everyone saw it. Everyone whispered about it.
But tonight, he wasn't there.
And people noticed.
They gossiped while they sipped wine. They leaned close to one another with lowered voices. "Did you see? He's not here tonight." "Strange, isn't it?" "Perhaps there has been a quarrel." "Perhaps it's over."
The gossip swirled and spun like the music in the ballroom.
But Lydia wasn't thinking about them.
