Page 35 of A Duke to Undo her
“Never mind. I’ll make Cassius play, if he’s not doing anything more important,” said Benedict Emerton cheerfully as they strolled down the garden path. “He does like a good competition, doesn't he, Lady Josephine? You should have seen how Lady Josephine thrashed Cassius at cards the other night, Lady Madeline. He thought it quite wonderful and is champing at the bit for a rematch.”
Madeline looked to her friend and smiled, finding it all to easy to imagine this scenario, whether or not she approved of ladies competing with gentlemen.
“Actually, why don’t you go and ask Cassius to play, Lady Josephine? I’m still in his bad books for losing you in the forest. He was in the library with Mother and the butler last time I saw him, finalizing the logistics for tonight’s musical evening.”
Josephine bit her lip and flushed, wary of seeking out the Duke of Ashbourne anywhere in the house, both wanting and fearing that she would find him alone. In her dreams last night, they had even met in her bedroom and he had stripped her completely naked, covering her entire body with kisses. Was that what would happen next?
“Oh look, there’s Lord Carbury,” she exclaimed, with undue enthusiasm for that rather silly gentleman. “He can make up a six. Lord Carbury, will you play pall mall?”
Flattered to be one of the only two gentlemen in the group, and smitten by the rather lovely Lady Rose, Lord Carbury accepted at once. The game commenced without any need for Josephine to seek out the man whose presence she both longed for and dreaded.
“We shall all move around for the second half,” announced the Dowager Duchess of Ashbourne gaily as the party filed back into the large drawing room which had been set up to view and listento the chamber orchestra assembled in the ante-room beyond. “We shall then all have fresh perspectives and views to share after the concert.”
Josephine fiddled with her glove, accidentally pinging off a button which Madeline discreetly bent and retrieved from the floor for her. While the music was beautiful, she had found it hard to sit still through the first half of the performance and was dreading the second.
If only she could sit outside on the grass and listen to the music from there. Or stand up, close her eyes and twirl around to it in an empty room. Sitting perfectly still and silent for so long was a challenge for her in a way it was not for someone like Madeline, Vera, or Lady Belinda. Josephine felt as though she might go mad, or her head explode.
“Lady Madeline and Lady Rose, you will sit with Mr. Tewkes and Lord Carbury.”
Patting Josephine’s arm, Madeline moved across placidly to join these two gentlemen who seemed delighted by their luck. Josephine edged towards Benedict Emerton, hoping that she might be permitted to at least sit with him. His easy smiles could make anything tolerable and he would not judge her fidgeting or expect her to keep a perfect glassy countenance like Lady Belinda’s.
“Lady Elmridge, do take those seats over there with the Carmichaels and Lady Sudbury. Miss Tewkes, if you would join Lord Sudbury and his son Lord Weston…”
The guests all showed perfect manners in accepting their hostess’s edicts and sat where they were assigned, laughing and smiling happily. Only Josephine seemed to be wishing herself away from the room.
“…Benedict, you must sit with Lady Belinda and Lady Penelope tonight…”
With a hint of a regretful smile, Mr. Emerton walked away from Josephine and she felt rather alone and abandoned.
“You must sit with me and my friend, Mrs. Halford, in the front row here, Lady Josephine,” the dowager duchess finished with an instruction that would be particularly impossible for Josephine to disobey or ignore, especially since it was kindly intended and Josephine did actually like her hostess.
Josephine gave a small curtsy, lowering her eyes to hide her expression and then sitting down where Dowager Duchess Nerissa had indicated, on a small two-person sofa at the front of the room, with two comfortable chairs alongside it.
“Oh, and Cassius, of course,” said Duchess Nerissa finally, as though the duke himself was a mere afterthought. “There’s one more seat there, beside Lady Josephine, Cassius. You must sit there… There, now everyone is settled. Maestro, when you are ready.”
Smiling at Josephine briefly, the dowager duchess immediately turned away to exchange a few more words with Mrs. Sudbury on her other side. When the Duke of Ashbourne took his seat,she felt his weight shifting the sofa they shared and smelled the now familiar faint scent of cologne on his skin, sending the usual butterflies fluttering through her already nervous stomach.
She could not bring herself to even look at the duke yet, for fear of what expression her face might show. The sound of instruments tuning grated on her ears.
“I don’t see why she gets to sit next to the duke and the dowager duchess,” groused the voice of Lady Penelope somewhere behind Josephine. “I don’t believe she appreciates music at all from the way she was fidgeting and messing about during the first section.”
“It’s likely because the duke is the only person who can keep her in order. They don’t want her going missing again like yesterday,” suggested Lady Belinda with a note of malice.
Josephine felt tears come into her eyes, tempted now to jump up and run from the room, upsetting all of Duchess Nerissa’s careful plans. She tried so hard and yet she could never please these people.
“Did I hear you mention me, Lady Belinda?” rumbled the voice of Cassius Emerton unexpectedly and Josephine realized he had also heard her tormentors and turned to confront them. “No? I thought I did.”
The voices of the two ladies fell silent and the music began.
“Ignore them,” Cassius Emerton whispered in her ear and Josephine nodded blindly.
Still, as the music proceeded, stately at first, but with swelling undertones of agitation and melancholy, Josephine’s own nervous excitement grew. It was entirely untrue that she did not care for music, as Lady Penelope had accused her. If anything, she felt it too much.
Without realizing it, she had been nervously picking again at her glove and another button pinged off, landing audibly on the wooden floor. She saw the duke glance in her direction and bit her lip in distress, knowing there was no way to keep the music from her ears.
She shifted uneasily in her seat and then had to stop her toe tapping on the floor. Josephine wished there was a way to shrink herself down or tie herself in a knot to endure this without attracting attention. She could already feel the duke looking at her again and miserably imagined him judging her for childish fidgeting, or thinking her unappreciative of the entertainment.
Then, unexpectedly, a strong hand took her hers and held it firmly, preventing any further fidgeting with her damaged glove. The gesture shocked her into stillness. What if someone saw this? The lights were dim and their hands were down low on the sofa cushions but the duke’s mother might easily look across, or someone behind them might stand up.
