Page 37 of The Duke and His Cinderella
“I think I would still want her,” Nicholas said again. But the moment of uncertainty had given him pause. He was searching for this lady on the grounds that she could trust him, that when he found her, he would be able to reassure her it wouldn’t be a mistake to want to be known by him, that she could count on him to respect her and treat her well no matter who she was.
He would never treat anyone badly. But what if she was right to keep her identity to herself? If it really was Lady Eleanor, that was one thing, but he didn’t think it would be. And what if it was someone else under that mask, that cloak? After the conversations they’d had, it was hard to believe, but he had to admit that it was possible?—
What if the mysterious lady turned out to be someone he didn’t want to know?
CHAPTER TWENTY
At first, Eleanor was pleased to see Phineas approaching her—she was happy for the chance to spend time with her friend. Her happiness faded a bit, though, when she saw who was with him—he was being followed by the Duke of Nightingale.
Marina’s advice to her had been good, she knew. She ought to stay away from him. It was unwise of her, but shewasexperiencing feelings for him, especially after their encounter in the garden, and if he was really supposed to marry Lady Hannah, those feelings wouldn’t be a good thing for anyone. And yet, just seeing him again made her heart beat faster and her knees feel weak. She felt loose-lipped and silly, anxious to say something that would impress him or make him laugh, and knowing at the same time how unlikely it was that she would be able to do that and how unwise it would be for her to make the attempt.
He was looking at her strangely, as if he was trying to decide something about her, and she felt a sudden burst of unease. Shehadn’t believed that he had recognized her after their interlude in the garden—but what if he had? What if he knew that it had been her out there? How would he handle that knowledge? Would he confront her about it? One thing was for sure—he didn’t seem content to keep his distance from her. He seemed to want to approach her. What other reason could he have for joining Phineas right now?
“It was a lovely dinner, wasn’t it?” Phineas asked, stopping before her with a smile.
“I think Marina enjoyed it,” Eleanor said. “That’s what’s most important.”
“Did you enjoy it?”
“The food was very good.” It was the closest she could come to telling the truth. In fact, she hadn’t enjoyed dinner much at all. She had felt her father’s eyes on her the whole time, and she had been hard pressed not to make eye contact with the duke. What had Phineas meant by bringing him over here? The two of them must be good friends, she thought, to judge by the fact that they seemed to accompany one another everywhere. She wondered why Phineas had never mentioned this friendship before—but, she supposed, there were all sorts of things she didn’t know about his life, and all sorts of things he didn’t know about hers. She hadn’t told him about her encounter with the duke in the garden. She wasn’t ready to tell anybody about that, even someone she trusted as much as she did Phineas.
“Did you enjoy the meal?” she asked him.
“Very much,” he said. “And I’m glad my brother had such a fine wedding dinner. This will be a week to remember! Marina joining our family and the success of this party—there’s just so much to be glad about, isn’t there?”
“Indeed,” Eleanor said quietly. She regretted the way she’d allowed herself to complain about marriage in front of the duke the first time they had met. Now that they’d had such a good interaction—even though he didn’t know it had been her—she was reluctant to allow him to think badly of her for any reason. She found that she wanted to impress him. She wanted him to like her—and to like her when he could see her face and knew who she was, not just when she was a cloaked figure of mystery in the garden.
She wanted it, and she knew that she shouldn’t.
“Did you enjoy the dinner, Your Grace?” she asked. Surely a question like that couldn’t do any harm.
“Your family’s cook is an artist,” he said. “I feel fortunate to have been invited here for this event.”
He was still looking at her oddly. Was it possible he had recognized her? Eleanor didn’t see how he could have, but all the same, it made her feel nervous. If he somehow figured out who she was, the consequences could be serious for both of them.
“I really ought to move along,” she told Phineas. “I do want to stay and talk to you, of course, but I know Marina will want mewith her this evening. Perhaps you and I can catch up with one another later.”
“Marina is with Jacob,” Phineas said. “The two of them are enjoying each other’s company. Surely you and I can take a few moments to do the same thing before you return to your responsibilities? I don’t think it will trouble Marina to be without you for a few minutes.”
“My parents made it clear to me that I was to be by her side tonight,” Eleanor said.
“Well, this is a different look, I must say,” Phineas said, raising his eyebrows. “I can’t remember the last time I saw you eager to be obedient to your parents! You’re becoming a proper lady right before my eyes. I never thought I would live to see the day, and yet it has arrived.”
Eleanor felt herself blush. It was the kind of gentle teasing the two of them had always indulged in together, and yet, somehow, today it felt different. Today it made her feel embarrassed and unhappy. She wished he wouldn’t say such things about her in front of the duke. It wasn’t the impression she wanted to make on him. She wanted him to believe she had always been proper—perhaps notobedient, for that didn’t feel like a virtue necessarily, but certainlyladylike.
“I don’t think I’ve changed so much,” she told him. “I think I am the same person I’ve always been. Perhaps it’s just that I seem a bit different to you.”
“I think we all change a fair bit as we grow older,” the duke put in. “And I think this season of life, as we become ready for things like marriage and the responsibilities of adulthood, may be when we change most of all. I know that I’m a much different man today than I was when I inherited the dukedom from my father. Having the responsibilities I now hold has given me cause to grow into a new man. I imagine things are much the same for young ladies, and that as you approach the time in your life when you are to marry, you find yourself entering an age of new wisdom and sobriety. Then again,” he added, a twinkle in his eye, “perhaps this is merely the age at which you realize that you despise the idea of marriage altogether.”
“Yes, that sounds much more like the Eleanor I know!” Phineas said with a laugh. “Always contrary. Always determined to do things her own way, no matter what anyone else might think. You don’t know how odd it is, after all the years she and I have known one another, to see her prioritizing what her mother wants from her.”
“How long have you known one another, then?” the duke asked, frowning.
Eleanor wondered why he was put off by the fact that she and Phineas were friends—for it was clear that there was something about it that he didn’t like. Did he simply not want to see another man vie for her attentions? She could believe that of him generally. It was typical of the gentlemen she knew to want to be the most noticed and admired in the room. But why would he take any particular interest in her? He didn’t know they had met in the garden. He didn’t know they shared any common history at all.
Unless he did know.
His presence was now making her very nervous. “I really must go,” she said. “Please excuse me, both of you. I have my responsibilities to think of.”
