Page 37 of Her Seven Nights with the Duke

He turned to greet Benedict. The men parted, leading Samuel and Benedict to the seats that had been reserved for them.

“Your Grace, I knew you would be coming, so I made certain that we didn’t discuss anything important before you arrived,” Lord Towbridge, ever the suck-up, said, sitting on the next available seat close to Samuel.

Samuel did not like the man. Still, he gave him a smile, albeit plain. “Thank you, Lord Towbridge.”

“Yes, thank you, gentlemen, for having us,” Benedict said. He often preferred to remain silent during meetings like this.However, he always came along with Samuel whenever he attended.

He was quite content with sharing a few drinks with Samuel and entertaining the ladies, which was his true passion.

“I have an interest in a business that I wanted to bring up, Your Grace,” Lord Towbridge said. “I was thinking about importing tea. I believe it will be?—” –”

I wonder what she’s doing right now.

Samuel’s mind drifted back to Nora. He was worried about her. Although their night together had ended on very high notes, there was one thing that worried him. That was the fact that, other than not knowing when she planned to leave, he also did not know why she had suddenly changed her mind and needed to leave quicker than she’d planned.

Had something happened to cause her to want to leave sooner? Even so, did she have to leave so soon?

Why am I suddenly so worried about her leaving? I should be happy to get my seven nights and be glad that we have an inevitable end. Why can’t I stop thinking about you, Lady Nora?

Perhaps I should send her a letter and have her with me tonight.

Samuel frowned. There was something awfully odd about how he continued to entertain the idea of having her with him every time he thought of her.

“Your Grace?”

Samuel looked up, pulled out of his thoughts by a question he didn’t hear. Everyone was staring at him, but the one gaze he did not care to see at that moment was that of Benedict, who was staring at him with raised eyebrows.brows.

Bollocks! I truly am a mess.

Samuel played it off, leveling the Earl with a stare. “I have not deemed fit to give a reply because it was not important enough for me.”

Lord Towbridge balked, the light dimming in his eyes at Samuel’s words.

“The tea business is already oversaturated. If you had wanted to join in, it would have been a good idea to do so last year when it was still a new market and there was more chance of it being a great investment. Now, doing so would only give you a small yield and likely be a bad investment.”

Thankfully, he’d listened enough to know that the man’s business idea was definitely not worth it and there would be no chance for him to make it in the market if he chose to go that route.

The men continued to ask him for advice because he was good at it, reputable in the field. There was also the added fact that they saw him as the epitome of perfection and constantly wished to be near him.

That mask of perfection had, however, begun to slip, and it was only a matter of time before there was a crack and everyone saw a different side of him that he’d kept away.

For the rest of the meeting, Samuel listened to their business ideas, careful to pay full attention to what they had to say and trying his hardest to keep his mind from slipping back to Nora, no matter how much it continued to do so.

He would find a way to fix this no matter what.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“What is this you were speaking of in the letter you sent to us?” Selina asked, sitting in the garden of their estate.

Nora was visiting the girls on their family’s estate. It wasn’t often that they visited each other at home, considering Lord Worlington was not totally welcoming towards guests, no matter how close they were to Nora.

Nora wished that for once, her mother wouldn’t be so blinded by her love for an abusive man and would speak up for her, but she understood. Her mother was a victim of her love and marriage. A marriage that now seemed more like a trap than anything else.

Nora sighed as she sat beside her friends underneath the shade. She took a sip of her tea, closing her eyes for a moment.

“Lord Worlington wishes to have me sent over to his sister, Mathilda. It is my punishment for not heeding his warning to find a husband,” she said.

“Oh my,” Selina gasped, holding her hand to her mouth in shock. “Isn’t there something that can be done about it? Can’t he be convinced to give you some more time?”

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