Page 11 of Seven Swans a Swimming

And here she was. At a table more richly dressed, about to eat food in more complicated recipes, while drinking wine of surely a superior vintage…

Arabella sighed, whilst forcing a smile on her face. She knew where she would rather be.

That was the strange thing about other people’s dinners. They were always so different from what one was accustomed to. Growing up with five sisters, Arabella was accustomed to a dining table full of conversation, usually at least two happening together, with much back and forth, debate, argument, laughter.

So, when the soup arrived and the Cartiers began eating in absolute silence, Arabella thought for a moment they had paused to pray.

But no, they were eating their soup, elegantly of course, with their little fingers sticking out each time they lifted a spoon to their mouths…but they made not a sound.

Arabella tried the soup. It was very good, but it did not make up for the complete lack of conversation.

“What delicious soup,” Arabella said with a bright smile. “You will have to permit me to ask your cook for the recipe to take back for our housekeeper.”

Lady Cartier gave her a smile in response, but said nothing, dropping her gaze to her bowl of soup.

Arabella swallowed. Surely this was not normal! But then, she had little experience of dining out other than with London families, all much like the Fitzroys. Was this what the nobility did? Eat their meals in complete silence, ignoring all opportunities to converse and get to know each other?

For she did wish to know them. Why, this would be her family in a few short months. Her Papa had not been direct about when the wedding would take place, but her Mama had mentioned a June wedding.

June. That meant six months before she would come to live here.

Arabella’s stomach gave a lurch that had nothing to do with the soup.Here.This would be her home; she would learn to love its corridors, she was sure, and the different views from the large windows. She would learn the paths through the woodland, perhaps recognize the deer by their antlers, name all the swans.

But could she be happy? Could anyone be truly happy in the face of such…such silence?

“And what has occupied you today, Lord Nathaniel?” she asked politely.

She did not, however, receive a polite response. In fact, she did not receive any. Despite Arabella looking kindly, and then pointedly at the man opposite her, Nathaniel did nothing but eat his soup.

Well, perhaps she was expecting too much of them, Arabella tried to think charitably, as a knot of tension starting tightening in her stomach. She was a stranger, after all, and not everyone was chatty the moment that they met new people.

Perhaps it would all be different when the main course came out.

But after the footmen gently deposited what looked like grouse on their plates and started serving the family vegetables, Arabella found almost every attempt she made buffeted back to her.

“And are the grounds extensive, Lord Nathaniel?” she asked finally, thinking she would be in dire straits if she was forced to resort to discussing the weather.

Nathaniel glanced at her, his light blue eyes almost crystal as they gazed at her. He appeared to be trying to decide whether or not she was worthy of a response, but after a glare from his mother, he said curtly, “Yes.”

Arabella waited for more, but once again, that appeared to be all he was willing to share. “Yes?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

And that was that. It was so infuriating, Arabella considered rising to her feet and announcing to the entire room, footmen and all, that this entire engagement nonsense was clearly a mistake, and she would be more than happy to call the whole thing off, as he was so clearly not interested in pursuing it.

Just as she opened her mouth, Arabella caught his gaze.

She closed her mouth. There was something there, something deep. Something far more interesting than anything Nathaniel had said, that was for sure.

He looked at her with a longing, a desperation, a heat that made Arabella’s cheeks pink and her heart flutter in her chest. He looked at her as though she was the only woman in the world, the only person in the world.

As though he had been waiting for her all these years and was desperate to be alone with her, at once, so that he could tell her—tell her what?

A secret flittered across his face and then it was gone before Arabella could even guess what it was.

Nathaniel looked away.

Arabella found her breath caught in her throat, and she tried to force herself to breathe naturally as she finished her last mouthful of this course with a fork she had never seen before.

---