Page 30 of A Duke to Undo her
Even Lady Penelope, tonight quietly strumming a harp on the far side of the room, looked across with a glance of perplexity, although she did not pause in her playing. The auburn-haired young woman appeared not to hear or see any of these reactions.
“How kind of you to invite both Lady Madeline and Lady Rose, Your Grace,” Lady Josephine continued, and then paused, finally seeming to notice the mood of her wider audience. “They are both quiet and well-mannered girls, likely far better house guests than me…”
“Come and sit down, Josephine,” coaxed Vera, shooting the dowager duchess an apologetic glance. “Let Duchess Nerissa finish reading her correspondence and listen to Lady Penelope’s playing. You are interrupting.”
“Not at all, my dear,” said Duchess Nerissa, patting Lady Josephine’s arm and smiling back at her. “You forget that I have had only sons and no daughters. The affection of young ladies is therefore rarer and more appreciated by me, especially when it is so unstudied. Do sit down beside me, my dear.”
Cassius smiled approval to his mother. Even if kind and sensible Nerissa Emerton did not wish Lady Josephine to marry Benedict, she would treat her with fairness and compassion. Unstudied? Yes, that was a good word to describe Lady Josephine. All that she did seemed natural and lacking in ill-intent, although that did not necessarily make her behavior any more proper.
He could hardly hold himself up as a model of conventional propriety after what he had done in the study that afternoon, although he felt neither shame nor regret. At least that had not been in public, and he had kept within the bounds of his own principles. Nor was he a young lady, who needed to keep certain rules for her own good.
The duke still partly believed that Lady Josephine’s family should have brought her up more strictly, in order to avert the risks and reactions drawn by her eccentricities and improprieties. This belief was, however, increasingly tempered by both lust and tenderness, as well as his growingunderstanding of her essential nature. It wasn’t so much that she defiantly rejected social norms as that she couldn’t see them.
As their acquaintance deepened, Cassius wanted ever more to defend Lady Josephine rather than correct her. His smile deepened now to see Josephine talking animatedly with the dowager duchess. After a minute or two of watching, he made himself look firmly away. It would be unfortunate indeed if anyone else perceived his interest, piqued even further by the young woman’s sensual responsiveness that afternoon.
The duke knew he had only had himself to blame if Lady Josephine was now harder to ignore than ever.
“Who is joining the steeplechase tomorrow morning?” Benedict asked the room after Lady Penelope had finished her set and taken her bow to polite applause. “It’s a fantastic course across the estate and between four church steeples. I need to let Jeavons, the head groom, know tonight so that we have the right horses saddled in good time.”
“There will be a ladies’ ride too, of course,” Duchess Nerissa added. “Jeavons and I will lead that around the larger of the lakes. Then we will all meet for a picnic lunch with plenty of champagne.”
Nods and murmurs of approval and anticipation travelled around the room with almost everyone keen to partake in the next day’s horseback activities. Benedict began to do a quick headcount and to make notes on a slip of paper with a pencil.
“I do love riding steeplechase,” Lady Josephine declared, her emerald eyes shining brightly once again, as her voice rose above the general hum of conversation. “I can’t wait!”
“It’s a very challenging course, with fences, ditches, streams and rough ground,” Benedict laughed at this unexpected announcement. “Even I take a fall sometimes. I recommend that you join the other ladies, Lady Josephine.”
“But I always ride steeplechases,” Lady Josephine objected, looking to Vera for support. “I’ve ridden them since I was a child. My sisters’ husbands always take me out with them, don’t they Vera?”
“Josephine is a very strong rider,” Lady Elmbridge had to admit. “She has always ridden steeplechases on our family estates without coming to any harm. However, we are not at home now, Josephine, dear. I am sure that Mr. Emerton knows the course around Ashbourne Castle very well and we should be guided by his recommendation.”
At this, Benedict looked thoughtful, weighing up both sides of the situation and perhaps ready to change his advice.
“It is too dangerous a course for a lady,” the Duke of Ashbourne interjected, before his brother could speak again, spurred on by an unwelcome mental image of this spirited young woman lying dead on the ground with a broken neck. “You would be a fool to let Lady Josephine ride it, Benedict.”
He knew immediately that he had said exactly the wrong thing if he wanted to get Benedict on his side.
“If Lady Elmridge agrees, I shall have a horse saddled for Lady Josephine to join us on the steeplechase,” Benedict said instantly, chafing at his older brother’s high-handed words.
Irritated beyond reason at the alliance between Benedict and Lady Josephine against him, and knowing that anything he could say at this point would only make matters worse, Cassius rose and left the room.
The following morning, the riding party gathered in the stable yards where the grooms marched to and fro from the stalls with horses and mounting blocks, matching each rider to their assigned steed.
The steeplechase group were loud and merry, several gentlemen trading bets on which horse and rider would make the first steeple, the last steeple, or take a fall along the way. Among them, Lady Josephine sat pink-cheeked and excited atop one of Benedict’s glossy black geldings, a fine animal which she handled with all the skill her older sister had referenced last night.
Her black riding habit was so form-fitting that the Duke of Ashbourne had to swiftly tear his eyes from the beautifully curving lines of her body, lest he become extremely uncomfortable in his own saddle.
He nudged his own horse across the yard to speak with Benedict.
“I’m going to join Mother’s group,” the duke told his brother. “There are several nervous riders and I think Jeavons would be easier for another gentleman in the party.
“Please yourself, Cassius,” shrugged Benedict.
“He doesn’t like the sight of a lady in the steeplechase party, I believe,” said Lady Josephine, who must have followed him across the yard and was regarding him with a rather teasing look in her emerald eyes. “Your brother the duke disapproves and thinks I should ride with the other ladies.”
The Duke of Ashbourne felt a strong wave of annoyance at this unfair accusation. Could Lady Josephine really believe that? Did she really not understand, even now, either that her very presence tormented him or that he genuinely feared for her life? Part of him wanted to give her a good spanking – another thought that did nothing for his comfort on horseback.
“Make sure you take care of her,” the duke ordered his brother gruffly and trotted over towards their mother, without waiting for the likely negative and undoubtedly juvenile reactions from either of the pair.
