“I must tell you, Lord and Lady Haddington, that when I entered that ballroom and saw Miss Hervey – Charlotte, I may dare to be so bold as to say, now that we are better acquainted – I was quite certain that I had never seen such a beautiful and graceful young lady in all my life.” He squeezed her hand, then released it. “And I may as well add that my friend Lord Miller was quite of the same view as me until he set eyes on the younger Miss Hervey.”
He watched with pleasure as Martha’s eyes widened. He would leave it at that, for now, but he felt sure that he had done enough to stop Lady Margaret’s awful scheming, at least for the rest of the dinner.
The viscount stood up abruptly. “Well, this is all very good, I’m sure,” he said stiffly. “But I feel the need for a brandy. You’ll join me, Seton? It will be marvelous to have the company of a man such as yourself in the library with me for half an hour or so before we rejoin the ladies.”
Luke concurred and rose from the table, bowing to first Charlotte, then the other ladies. “We will rejoin you by and by,” he said. “And perhaps, Charlotte, you might play for me? It would give me more pleasure than you can imagine.”
He thought that Charlotte was about to protest, but he held her gaze, and she gave a little nod.
“Your Grace, I am sorely out of practice, but I shall do my best to play something that will amuse you.”
Luke followed the viscount out of the dining room and along the corridor towards the library, feeling as he did so that he was leaving a little piece of his heart behind.
* * *
“Well!” Lady Margaret exclaimed once the gentlemen had left the room. “I cannot imagine how you have bewitched the Duke, Charlotte. I wonder if I should be searching your room for some evidence of witchcraft, some love potion or something like that? Perhaps your mother taught you such unnatural arts?”
Charlotte sat up straight in her chair. “My lady, I have done nothing of the sort, and I would ask you not to speak of my mother in such tones.”
Alison sniggered. “Mama, see how she speaks so imperiously. I fancy she thinks she is a duchess already and can lord it over us as if we were her inferiors.”
“Indeed,” Lady Margaret said. “It does seem that this strange attention from the Duke has gone to her head.” She stood up suddenly. “Let us retire to the drawing room. Alison, you may take your place at the piano, ready to play when the gentlemen return.”
Charlotte was about to say something, but she held back. It would be more effective, and possibly more amusing, too, to wait for the Duke’s return and see how he managed the situation.
She settled herself in a chair in the corner. She picked up some embroidery that she had discarded the previous day after a pettish hour spent with her stepmother and stepsister waiting to see if anyone called on them during the course of the afternoon.
She sat quietly and pondered the events that had taken place during the dinner. The Duke had been attentive and courteous at all times, and then after they had finished eating and her stepmother had begun her strange tirade, he had really come into his own. Her heart had been pounding fiercely in her chest as Lady Margaret said all those terrible things, but she knew that she could not say anything in her mother’s defense. And she had not needed to, in the end, as the Duke had stepped in and spoken so determinedly. She still could scarcely believe what he had said about her, and about Martha too. It really had been a shock to her to hear the words leaving his mouth.
Her thoughts flew, then, to Lord Harry, with his full mouth and shock of red hair. He was so different from the Duke in every way. She had thought him handsome for many months, although perhaps not in such a stately way as the Duke. And now she was coming to realize that his conduct was very different from the Duke’s, too.
But a thought landed in her heart, then, with a thud. The Duke was dissembling, too. He was only pretending to be courting her. Of course, he did not think she was beautiful or interesting. It was all for show, to free him from the attentions of the matrons of the marriage market.
She felt a twinge of doubt, though, concerning what he had said about Martha and Lord Miller. She felt sure that even if the Duke were dissembling concerning his feelings for her, he would not trifle with her sister’s emotions. She hoped that an opportunity would arise soon when she could speak to him about it and try to find out more about the meaning of his words.
She did not have long to wait for the chance to be in his presence again. Barely twenty minutes had passed before the door opened, and the Duke entered the drawing room.
“Barely had a chance to finish my brandy,” the viscount grumbled good-naturedly. “The Duke here could not bear to be away from Charlotte for a moment longer!” He chuckled and sat down, then gestured to the footman in the corner to bring him some more brandy.
The Duke smiled at Charlotte, then glanced across the room to where Alison was seated at the pianoforte. She had been playing an air in a somewhat desultory manner, but now that the Duke had reappeared, she was sitting up straighter and leafing through the music on top of the instrument. The intention, clearly, was for the Duke to come over and join her and select something for her to play.
“Alison, have you managed to find that duet that we were speaking of earlier?” Lady Margaret called across the room. “I wonder if the Duke would honor us all and consent to play it with you?”
The Duke sat down next to Charlotte and addressed her directly. “I confess, my lady, that I am a poor player,” he said. “My father did not consider music an important accomplishment for gentlemen, and I was too stubborn to submit to the music masters at school. I rather preferred being out of doors.”
Charlotte nodded. He seemed to be adopting the approach of simply ignoring Lady Margaret now. She wondered how long he would be able to hold out. As if reading her mind, he leaned in a little closer.
“This is rather a fine game, is it not?” he whispered, giving her a knowing smile.
“Indeed,” she replied.
A fine game indeed, she thought, trying not to look too deeply into his piercing blue eyes. She had to remember that this was simply sport to him. Nothing more and nothing less.
“You will not play with Miss Jarvis, then, Your Grace?” Lady Margaret asked loudly, interrupting the moment between them.
“No, my lady, I will not. I am sure that her playing would only be hampered by my incompetence. And anyhow, I have spent the last twenty minutes looking forward to hearing Charlotte play, so I must beg Miss Jarvis to step aside, just for a while.”
Lady Margaret’s eyebrows shot up, but even she was not going to argue with a duke or deny him his wishes. “Very well,” she snapped. “Alison, you had better do as the Duke asks, even though we all know that you are much more accomplished than Charlotte in every way.” She turned to the Duke. “I fear you may be disappointed by Charlotte’s rather modest talent, Your Grace.”
