Page 33 of A Duke to Elude (Sherton Sisters 1)

“I shan’t be doing away with you as long as you cooperate,” he replied in what he hoped was a teasing tone, as he struggled to accommodate his growing feelings for her within his conflicted chest.

Her brief tinkle of laughter was soothing to his troubled spirit.

“You still didn’t tell me where we’re going. Just as a matter of conversation, of course. But if you’d prefer silence, I don’t really mind. I’m quite accomplished at silence these days.”

Her cryptic comment puzzled him. “I knew I recalled that you used to be more expressive, but I know you were never a chatterbox like Miss Perkins.”

Rosabel laughed again. “Oh dear, I thought we agreed not to disparage our peers.”

“I wasn’t disparaging her, but I must say, I was fairly surprised over the reception I received from both her and Miss Bridgestone. Whatever could have possessed you to suggest that I might consider the Bridgestone chit for the position of duchess? She didn’t have a single thing to say to me throughout what seemed an interminable cotillion. And then Miss Perkins made up for the silence during our quadrille. I almost felt as though my ears were bleeding by the time we were finished.”

“Perhaps you make them nervous,” Rosabel surmised. “They spoke normally to me. In fact, I would have considered Miss Bridgestone to be the chatterbox of the two of them.”

“Perhaps she was trying to impress you.”

“Impress me? You are mistaken to be sure. For one thing, why would she wish to do so? And for another, she and her sister seemed quite determined to wed in their first Season, impressing an available duke would be far more prudent.”

“I think I ought to be put out that you seem so determined to marry me off to someone other than yourself.”

As he was still holding her hand, he found he could gauge her reactions far better than watching her face. While her face barely revealed a flicker of emotion, her hand had tensed quite rigidly before she collected herself. He wasn’t quite sure what she was feeling, but he knew she wasn’t as indifferent to his words as she would like him to think.

“Why would that bother you? We already agreed I’m in search of a plain mister to marry and you are searching for a society leader to match with.”

He wasn’t going to answer her question but wanted to keep her talking. “Have you come across many appropriate misters to suit your fancy?”

James was surprised that this resulted in a squeeze of his hand and a soft sigh from her.

“You’d think there would be plenty, wouldn’t you? Any number of younger sons should be roaming the ballrooms of theton. But none seem to have taken any interest in the Shertons, sadly.”

“You never seem to lack for suitors,” he pointed out.

“I think they’re merely amusing themselves. And there are always plenty of young women filling our drawing rooms as well. You wouldn’t believe the number of matches that seem to have been made under our roof. Her ladyship is torn between delight and despair. She would love to think she is a matchmaker, but she would rather the matches be her daughters.”

“The new Countess Crossley was highly successful under your mother’s guidance.”

“True, but surely you do realize that she didn’t mean for that to happen.”

James lifted a shoulder in a negligent shrug. “She hides it well.”

Rosabel’s light laughter rewarded his remark. But then she sighed.

“My poor mother. She is trying not to force any of us, of course. But I think she considers me to be her biggest failure. I should have launched spectacularly in that first Season. There was just me. I’m well connected, and my dowry is far from miserly. But I didn’t. And now I’m in company with a duke, who has no intention of offering for me. She shall have apoplexy if I’m not careful.”

“Perhaps I’d be willing to offer for you if you weren’t forever trying to fob me off onto others.”

Again, James couldn’t interpret the twitches of her hand, but he knew she was reacting anyhow.

“I still think you’d do well with Vicky,” she countered. “And then my mother would have other things to concern herself with.”

James wasn’t going to bother with that comment. “Why didn’t you find a match in your first Season? It surely wasn’t for lack of offers.”

She clearly didn’t appreciate his question. Rosabel did the closest thing to snatching her hand away as someone as inherently graceful as she could manage. The light laugh that followed his question sounded forced, but her face was bland as she looked at him.

“No, we lost track of the number of offers I received. Thankfully, my father was kind enough to decline most of them on my behalf, so I wasn’t put in an awkward position. The earl is such a good man. It must have been uncomfortable for him. Of course, the offers have dwindled somewhat. So far this Season, we’ve only had one.”

“I suppose the gentlemen don’t want to offer a second time,” James tried to sympathize. “Have you run through all the eligible men already?”

“Hardly,” she countered dryly. “Thetonmight be a small Society on one hand, but there are rather a large number of available matches.”

---