Page 12 of Duke of Chaos
“Well, then, that would explain a lot of things,” Owen grumbled, letting the hand holding Ezra’s card slowly fall to his side. “Tomorrow evening, though, I must be elsewhere. You will need to keep a sharp eye on your sister, understand? Do not let her nervousness destroy this opportunity.”
He paused, scoffing as he shook his head.
“Absolute little bird of a thing. Nervous as a newborn mouse.”
Only around certain men,Lydia thought, but replied confidently, “I shall see that everything goes perfectly, Papa.”
His business concluded, Owen merely nodded before turning and walking away, already mumbling to himself about something else he had to do. Once he’d turned the corner at the end of the hall, Lydia let herself into the room, burned the missive from Ezra, and flew to her closet. She would have to be brilliant and elegant tomorrow evening. Her shine would have to cancel out all of Ezra’s darkness, and that would be a difficult task indeed.
Lydia’s hands paused on her dresses as her mind jumped from formulating a plan to something she had avoided thinking about all night and day for more than a few moments at a time: Ezra’s touch. The sensations she’d experienced the night before bloomed inside her, making her heart throb and her skin tingle with longing.
Lydia did not realize her hand had slipped from the array of dresses to her own neck until she felt her fingertips slide directly over where Ezra’s had been. Something strange had happened to her when he’d touched her. Where had it come from? She squeezed her neck slightly, trying to make it reappear, and disappointment welled in her as she felt nothing.
She should be afraid, she knew, that a man, Ezra, of all men, had held her throat and yet here she was, trying to recreate the sensation he’d awoken in her.
“What am I doing?” she whispered aloud to herself as she flung her hand away from her neck.
“Gather yourself, woman!” she continued to scold aloud to herself as she returned to her tasks. “This isnotwhat we need to be thinking about. Juliet. Juliet is what matters.”
CHAPTER FOUR
The Ball
“Every time you join my table you speak of the Duke of Frampton, Lady Lydia? Why?” Poppy, a soft, plump countess bedecked in a heavy, brightly dyed dress of multiple colors looked at Lydia quizzically.
Jeweled rings covered every finger, and a silver necklace of precious stones clung tightly to her neck. Her earlobes, which now looked painfully red and drawn down, also dripped with large pendant jewels.
She was the earl’s second wife, the first having died two years earlier from a stillbirth. The babe had been a late-in-life pregnancy for the previous countess and had left the earl saddled with two young daughters who were only a couple of years shy from coming out. Now Poppy, barely older than the oldest daughter, had become their stepmother.
“Well, it is just that I find him fascinating, you know?” Lydia asked with a polite laugh, “And with his penchant for rare gems, I feel as if he would make a good friend to you and your family.”
“Perhaps,” Poppy mused, sounding a bit bored, “But he is quite…terrifying, is he not? I hear he is…well, never mind, I do not wish to discuss such gruesome things. What I would prefer at the moment, however, is to discuss your beautiful dress. What a bright, lovely color and so refreshing yet natural! Normally I prefer jewel tones, you know, now that I am married, but your gown is just so…so…”
Lydia stopped hearing Poppy’s words as her eyes scanned the crowd to locate Juliet in the throng.
“Countess…”
“Oh, do call me Poppy, darling, as we were friends once. You are too polite for comfort!” Poppy gushed.
Lydia let out another laugh, this time more forced, and gave her a small curtsy as she stood up.
“Poppy, please do forgive me, I seem to have lost sight of my little sister again.”
Poppy frowned a little at this, but then nodded and made a shooing motion with her hand.
“You should get a bell for her,” Poppy scoffed, clearly annoyed at yet another interruption. “Very well, then. Hurry though, for I may not be able to hold your seat.”
Although Lydia felt sweat begin to bead at her temples, she smiled back calmly and promised she would return quickly, before heading toward her friends.
“This is not going at all as I’d planned,” Lydia hissed, fanning herself as Helena, Barbara, and Alice shuffled her away from the crowd. “Where in the world has Juliet gone now?!”
She had instructed her younger sister to keep away from suitors, yes, but not to disappear. She’d instructed her to stay with herself, Helena, Alice, or Barbara at all times, but for the third time that evening, they had lost her again. Her disappearance act always seemed to occur right at the moment when Poppy was letting down her guard.
“I am sure she is just as nervous as we all are with this predicament,” Helena stated quietly once they’d reached a private space along the wall. “What on earth is Ezra thinking?”
“He is not,” Alice scoffed, throwing a glare toward the general crowd as if knowing he was somewhere within it. “He cannot be thinking at all. I nearly had to tie Duncan to the bed to get him to stop going after Ezra, and that role is rarely reversed.
Though stressed, Lydia let out a laugh at her sister’s wicked commentary. She had given up trying to teach Alice and Barbaramanners, and since they were now both happily married, it seemed all for the better that she had.
