Did he feel that jolt too?
“Is that it?” Lord Isaac muttered. “Nothing more to say in his toast?”
“Uncle,” Lord Robert warned, his voice deep.
“I would have thought the man could manage something more.”
“What did he say?” Benjamin looked to Helena for an explanation.
“Nothing, Father. Go on as you were,” she pleaded with him.
“He was being rude, that is all,” Anna answered when Helena refused.
“Going well, isn’t it?” the Duke of Bridstone muttered so quietly that only Helena could hear him.
“Well, I say.” Benjamin stood taller and continued on with his toast. “I was going to toast the union and wish for a happier future for both families. Yet if I have invited you into my house just for your family to snipe at mine…” He pointedly put down the glass again. “…then maybe I will not do it.”
Helena’s jaw dropped. Her family bristled, Anna sat taller with pride, and Gibbs looked ready to applaud his brother’s lack of politeness.
Helena found herself reaching under the table for the Duke. Had such a touch been seen, it would have been highly inappropriate, yet she did not know what else to do. Her hand took his arm, and he flicked his gaze toward her with his eyebrows raised.
“I wonder if I should have sat down at all,” the Dowager Duchess of Bridstone said. “I usually only eat with those who welcome my company.”
“Mother, not tonight, I pray you,” Lord Robert pleaded, leaning across the table.
“A merry party indeed,” Lord Sheylough chuckled though he seemed more amused than anyone else at the table about the potential fallout. Matthew, who sat opposite Helena and the Duke, made faces at him.
“Charming, your brother, isn’t he?” the Duke whispered for her ears only.
“Do something,” she pleaded as an argument began around them.
“What do you wish me to do?”
“Perhaps we should end this dinner here,” Gibbs declared, sitting forward.
“Maybe that is a good idea,” Lord Isaac seconded though he reached for a bread roll as he spoke, hungrily tucking in.
“Make a toast of your own.” Helena nudged the Duke’s arm.
“As you wish,” he whispered close to her ear and stood. He came so near that she felt a tremble pass through her body at his proximity. Hurriedly, she looked around the table, hoping that no one had seen the effect he’d had on her. Everyone was too busy arguing to look their way, apart from Matthew. He’d been staring straight at the Duke, but he was too busy making faces to pay attention to Helena.
The Duke of Bridstone tapped his glass with a knife, making it ring out. The voices immediately fell silent. “Well, I think we can all agree it’s a bumpy start.” His words pulled a chuckle from his cousin and his brother. Even Julia managed a small smile. “As you feel no need to make a toast, Your Grace, I hope you will not object to me making one of my own?”
He waited for Benjamin’s approval, who took a few seconds of thought before he nodded.
“Thank you.” The Duke bowed his thanks then turned round, addressing the table as a whole. His hand found the back of Helena’s chair. She felt strangely near to him. “I could stand here and talk of rifts between families, how old arguments can take a long time to die, many such things which could make the tension here tonight worse.”
A great toast, Your Grace!
Helena’s hand tightened around her glass, fearing where he was going with this.
“Yet I won’t.” He shifted his focus to face his brother down the table. “I wish to concentrate on the good if I may. My brother has found a lady he is devoted to, and from what I know of Lady Julia, she is a fine woman indeed. The two of you are well suited, and no matter what differences there are around this table, I think I speak for us all when I declare that we all wish you both the greatest of happiness. To my brother, Lord Robert, and Lady Julia.” He held his glass high in the air.
Helena smiled and lifted her glass too. It took a few seconds, but eventually everyone around the table did the same thing even though Lord Isaac and Gibbs were the last to raise their glasses. Even Matthew reached for a glass of wine before Benjamin quickly replaced that glass with a lemonade.
As they sat down again, the Duke cleared his throat and started a new conversation.
“Your Grace,” he addressed Benjamin directly. He spoke clearly, plainly making pains to be heard when he knew the man suffered with his hearing. It was a kindness that made Helena smile. “I hear you are a man who is fond of fishing.”
