Page 47 of The Duke and His Cinderella
I was right about love. It’s an untrustworthy thing. You can fall in love with anyone.And she would know. She was falling in love with someone she ought not to have looked at twice!
Still, an unwelcome thought entered her mind. Her father was going to marry her off tosomeone. If the duke was so unhappy in his engagement, why couldn’t it be him?
Instantly, she thought better of it. He might not be happy, but the arrangement still existed, and if she was the one to break it up, there would be terrible scandal. She might not be the obedient daughter her parents dreamed of, the obedient lady her sister was, but she still knew better than to flirt with that sort of chaos. She would be blacklisted from society. Everyone would always look down on her as the lady who had dismantled theduke’s engagement, even if he hadn’t wanted it. It would be her sole identity in society from that moment on. And Lady Hannah and her family would likely be vengeful. Nobody neededthat.
She didn’t care for the duke so much that she wanted to invite all that chaos into her life. She was sure she didn’t. It was just that he was here for the week and she was seeing him every day, that was all. Once these festivities came to an end and he went home, he would be off her mind, and she would be able to move on from whatever this thing she was feeling right now was.
At least, she hoped that was true. Without knowing for sure, there was no reason to attempt to draw his attention. There was no reason to daydream about an engagement or a marriage that she couldn’t have said for certain whether she even wanted.
“Flowers don’t sound dull to me,” the duke said. Eleanor wondered whether he was saying it to be kind to Marina, to take an opposing stance against Lady Hannah, or simply because he genuinely did find the subject of flowers to be an engaging one. “What was discussed?”
Marina beamed. “What do you think of daffodils, Your Grace?”
“Oh, I quite like them,” he said. He paused. “Those are the white flowers with the yellow centers, aren’t they?”
Marina laughed warmly. “Sometimes,” she said.
Eleanor beamed to see her sister getting along so easily with the duke. If she was honest with herself, she was just as happy to see the displeased expression on Lady Hannah’s face at the realization that she was once again being ignored by the gentleman whose attention she craved. It wasn’t like Eleanor to take pleasure in the misfortune of another, but Lady Hannah had been unkind to her and had broken Phineas’ heart. Her happiness was not a priority to Eleanor.
They made their way along the winding streets, moving now in a single group instead of in two small ones. Eleanor made a point to keep at least one person between herself and the duke at all times. She found it too stressful to be near him, and she didn’t want to provoke any further ire from Lady Hannah. But even so, he seemed to take up the lion’s share of her attention as they walked along. She found herself paying more attention to the duke than to anyone else, even wishing that his eyes would turn her way. It was unwise, and she shouldn’t want it—but she wanted it, nevertheless.
If he felt the same way, though, he was better at controlling himself than she was. His attention never turned to her. He remained in conversation with Marina and Phineas, and he ignored Eleanor every bit as much as he ignored Lady Hannah.
Did that mean that he disliked Eleanor? Or was there a chance it meant the opposite?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Why don’t we all have lunch here at the inn before we start home?” Phineas asked, a smile on his face.
Nicholas had noticed that his friend seemed in much better spirits as their outing wore on. Perhaps this was exactly what Phineas had needed. If he truly was enamored of a lady who had rejected him, it was likely she had been at the house party—most of the ranking members of society were there. It was probably good for Phineas to get some time away from her, whoever she was.
Certainly it had been good for Nicholas, even though the thorn in his own side had followed him here. She was hurrying along at his side now, even though he had lengthened his stride slightly to try to shake her off. He’d also tried slowing down to see if she would pull ahead, but there seemed to be no hope for it. There was no ridding himself of Lady Hannah.
At this rate, I’m going to have to marry someone else just to convince her that there’s no reason to hope for a future between the two of us!
As he had that thought, his gaze settled on Lady Eleanor. She wasn’t paying attention to him at the moment. She was deep in conversation with her sister, their heads bent together so that no one else could hear them talking. The smile on her face was downright disarming, and for a moment he forgot everything else and thought,she’s really lovely.
“I don’t want to eat at the inn,” Lady Hannah complained. “It’s dirty in there.”
That jerked Nicholas out of his thoughts. “Nonsense,” he said. “It’s perfectly clean. He was telling the truth. He’d been to this inn many times, and it was one of the cleanest establishments he had ever visited, so he couldn’t see what there was for Lady Hannah to complain about.
She didn’t seem to feel that way, though. She made a huffing noise and—at last—walked on ahead of him.
Without intending to, Nicholas caught Lady Eleanor’s eye as she turned to follow Lady Hannah into the inn. She was smiling, and Nicholas found himself smiling as well. It felt as if the two of them were sharing a private joke of some kind, and he knew without needing to ask that she was smiling at the same thing he was. He reached for the door and held it open for her, and she smiled at him and nodded her thanks as she went into the inn.
There was a long table available at the very back. Phineas spotted it first and led them over to it. Lady Hannah was there as well and quickly looked at Nicholas. Nicholas was sure she was trying to figure out how to arrange the seating so that she could sit beside him, which was the very opposite of what he wanted.
Phineas had already claimed a seat, so Nicholas sat beside him, leaving one more chair available on their side of the table. It was the best he could do.
Of course, Lady Hannah spotted her opportunity and began to move toward that seat.
Then a small hand appeared on the back of it and drew it out from underneath the table. “Is this place taken?”
Nicholas looked up into the smiling face of Lady Eleanor. He didn’t know when he had ever been happier to see someone. “Not at all,” he assured her, wondering how aware she was of the little drama that had just played out. Had she claimed this seat by pure happenstance? Had she been trying to keep Lady Hannah from getting it? And if so, why was that something she wanted to do? Could it be that she had inferred the conflict between the two of them—could she have noticed how he kept trying to pull away from Lady Hannah and decided to help him achieve that? It seemed incredible. He couldn’t possibly let himself believe that. No, she’d chosen a seat at random, that was all, and it had just happened to be the one beside his. He was grateful for her presence here, but there couldn’t have been anything calculated about it.
Lady Hannah was left to take one of the seats on the opposite side of the table. She didn’t look happy about it at all, but as Lady Marina sat down beside her, Lady Hannah immediately latched onto her arm as though the two of them were very old friends. “Isn’t this a fun day?” she asked. “I’m so glad that we came out.”
“I thought you said you didn’t like the inn,” Lady Marina said mildly. “Have you changed your mind about it?”
