He held out his hand.
She looked at him. “People will talk.”
“People are going to talk anyway. I just told Lady Deborah and Lady Cecily that we were going to be married, and those ladies are two of the biggest gossips I’ve ever met in all my life. They’re going to tell everyone. With that news going around, a little bit of hand-holding is nothing. But if you don’t wish to take my hand, you mustn’t feel as if you have to.”
Madeleine found, to her surprise, that she did want to take his hand. She reached out and let him close his fingers around hers.
Having her hand held by him felt wonderful. His grip was strong, and his hand was warm and dry. There was something reassuring about it as if he was reminding her that he was on her side and would always take care of her.
“Remember,” he said quietly, “youare going to be the Duchess, and they’re only a couple of gossips. It doesn’t matter what they say about you. Nothing they say can harm you. Right?”
Madeleine nodded. When he put it in those terms, it was easy enough to believe that he was right. After all, whatcouldLady Cecily do to her? Even before, her words had been nothing but a pathetic attempt to wound Madeleine. Madeleine had always known that there was worse pain out there than anything a cruel young lady could say to her out of spite.
And now…well, what difference did it make what Lady Cecily thought when she was so clearly wrong? Let her say that Madeleine was trying to ensnare Thomas into a marriage he despised. It wasn’t the truth, so why should she care?
Madeleine couldn’t resist glancing over her shoulder as she and Thomas started to walk down the street. Lady Cecily and Lady Deborah weren’t even trying to disguise the fact that they had been gossiping. They were staring, their eyes wide, and as Madeleine watched, they bent their heads close together and began to whisper, not taking their eyes off of Madeleine.
Good. Go ahead and stare. Tell everyone what you saw here today. Thomas is right. It doesn’t affect me at all, and I won’t allow your words to bother me ever again.
‘Shall we go and catch up with Rachel and your mother?” she asked Thomas.
“I think that’s a fine idea,” Thomas agreed. “Let’s go.”
They made their way to the milliner’s shop. They could see Rachel and Henrietta through the window, clearly arguing over a hat, and Thomas laughed. “I knew this would happen,” he said. “Every time we come into town, they have the same argument. And every time, Rachel walks away with a new hat. I don’t know why Mother bothers.”
“Rachel seems as if she’s accustomed to getting what she wants,” Madeleine said. Then she glanced up at Thomas, worried that the comment might have caused offense.
But he was still smiling. “I’d say that’s true,” he said. “She often does get her way. I think it’s because she’s so young, of course, and Father was so rarely around when she was growing up. Mother and I both dote upon her. We can’t seem to help ourselves. She’s still a baby in my eyes sometimes.”
“I’ve often wished I had the chance to see my sisters and brother grow up,” Madeleine said quietly.
He looked at her. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to make you sad.”
“No, you didn’t. I feel this way all the time. It has nothing to do with anything you said, I assure you.”
“That’s a very difficult thing to feel all the time.”
“It is, but I’d rather miss them than not miss them,” she said. “It’s a way of thinking about them. Do you ever feel that way about your father?”
She wondered if he had nightmares like hers and if he liked revisiting them because it was the best way to keep the memory of his father alive. It would be a relief, in a way, to find that there was someone else who felt the way she did about such things.
But Thomas shook his head. “I’ve always been happy to forget about my father,” he said. “The two of us were never close.”
Madeleine nodded. “Would you prefer that I didn’t bring him up?”
“I suppose it doesn’t matter,” Thomas said. “Everyone knows what kind of man he was.”
“I don’t. I don’t know anything about him.”
He looked at her. “You haven’t heard the gossip about him?”
“I avoid gossip. I don’t think it does anyone any good.”
“I suppose I can understand why you would feel that way. And I happen to agree,” he said. “The world would be a better place if more people simply kept their opinions to themselves.”
Madeleine smiled at him. It was the first thing she had ever heard him say that completely matched her own opinions, and it pleased her to hear it. But she was surprised, too. “I thought you felt there was no reason to worry about gossip,” she said. “I thought you felt it made the most sense to simply let people say what they want to say and to be confident enough to ignore it.”
“Well, I did say that,” Thomas said. “And that is what I believe. But it would be much easier if people would just refrain from saying unkind things altogether.”
