Page 62 of A Spinster to Reform the Duke
“You had noticed?” Rebecca said, attempting a smile. “She is being about as subtle as Lord Herberton is in his attentions to you.”
“Oh, Rebecca,” Eliza stepped forward and took Rebecca’s hand, unable to hide her happiness. “I cannot describe to you what it is like. He is the kindest man I know. The most…effervescent! I do believe I will never tire of his conversation, nor his company.”
Rebecca squeezed her sister’s hand, amazed how happy she was for her sister.
“That is as it should be.” She did not have the heart to tell Eliza she had seen the proposal. She was happy for Eliza and Lord Herberton to keep it as their own secret for now. Instead, she merely held onto her sister’s hand, wishing through that touch alone she could show how delighted she was for Eliza.
“I see you are as impatient for their return as I am,” Eliza said with a laugh and gestured across the lawn. “The gentlemen spend a long time with their shooting, do they not?”
“It is a hunting party, after all,” Rebecca said with a laugh, glancing to the ladies that were gathered on the other side of the terrace before she looked back across the lawn as well. On the far side of the estate, small figures were beginning to appear through the trees, and the constant pops and bangs of the guns had stopped, showing the gentlemen were returning to the house.
“Rebecca, may I ask you something?” Eliza asked, looping their arms together and whispering quietly to her.
“You know you can ask me anything.”
Eliza glanced over her shoulder, as if to check the other ladies were far away, beyond the maids attending to the table, before she looked back to Rebecca, parting her lips ready to begin.
“This friendship between you and the Duke of Frampington. Have I been blind, sister? Is itmorethan a friendship?”
Rebecca clamped her teeth together, feeling her body drain of warmth at the words. How could she tell Eliza what was happening? Even the sister she loved so much in this world! How could she confess to being such a great fool that she had fallen in love with a known rake, only to fall for his charms and kiss him the way any of his previous ladies had done, in a darkened room at night away from prying eyes.
Until we were caught.
Rebecca flicked her eyes away toward where Lady Esther stood, only to find Lady Esther was glaring at her once again.
“No, Eliza, it is merely a friendship.”
“Yet the two of you seem so close, and the jests Alex, I mean… the jests Lord Herberton makes, they seem to intimate there could be more between you.”
“Ah, I see you have progressed to calling him Alex now.” Rebecca laughed, keen for their topic of conversation to change.
“Perhaps,” Eliza said and giggled, but clearly she was not so easily going to be distracted, for the giggle faded quickly and she looked to Rebecca with a keen gaze. “Is there truly no more to your friendship? It would explain why the lady who covets his affections glares at you so much?”
They both glanced at Lady Esther before turning away again.
“Rest assured, I believe any friendship that was between the Duke and I is at an end.” It hurt to utter the words aloud, even when Rebecca knew them to be the truth. Now she had become nothing more than another of his long line of ladies, she had to distance herself from him. She had already decided that when she left Lord Herberton’s house at the end of the week, she would separate herself from the Duke.
Our friendship is over, it must be, if I am to end this love I have for him.
Yet even as she thought the words, her lips tingled with the memory of his kiss. It had been beyond anything she could have imagined, far more enthralling and heart fluttering.
“Then I am sorry to hear it.” Eliza patted her hand in comfort before she looked away. Evidently seeing Lord Herberton and the others so close, she smiled at once. “He is back.” She left Rebecca’s hand and hurried to greet him across the terrace.
Rebecca followed her sister’s path with her eyes, seeing that the table was now set for tea behind them, before her eyes fell on the hunting party. Beside Lord Herberton was the Duke, and he was staring at Rebecca, intently. She looked away, as if his gaze had scorched her skin.
Lord Herberton was a good host as he hurried onto the terrace, urging his party to take their seats at the table. Rebecca eagerly sat between her mother and sister, glad to be blocked. She could feel both the Duke’s and Lady Esther’s gazes upon her, but she didn’t return any of those looks.
I must pretend last night didn’t happen. Pretend it was an invention of my mind, that I did not confess my heart to the Duke, and that he did not kiss me in that way…
She was glad to be poured a cup of tea by a maid behind her. She lifted the cup to her lips, preparing to sip when her mother took her attention beside her.
“Do they not look happy, dearest?” Amelia asked in a gleeful whisper. Rebecca lowered the cup again to the saucer and turned to see just what her mother was talking of.
Beside her, Eliza and Lord Herberton were absorbed in each other’s conversation, barely talking to anyone else around them. For the first time, Rebecca indulged in her smile. Without a grain of envy left in her, she was truly thrilled for Eliza.
“I think they will be very happy together, Mama.”
“Let us just hope he proposes before we leave!”
