“What makes you speak to me so harshly?” Nicholas wanted to know. “Have I done something to offend you?”
“This lady—you don’t even know who she is, and yet you’re so sure that she would welcome your company and your presence in her life. How can you feel confident about that when you’ve never had a real conversation with her?”
“We’ve had a real conversation,” Nicholas protested. “The conversation between the two of us was one of the most real of my life, Phineas. I don’t understand what’s causing you to be so critical about something that I’ve told you matters to me—and I don’t understand how you can sit here and drink with me while at the same time saying such critical things. I chose toconfide in you about what happened at the masquerade because I consider you a trusted friend—I never would have believed that you would be cruel to me about it.”
He got to his feet.
“Where are you going?” Phineas asked.
Nicholas thought he heard guilt in his friend’s voice. Perhaps Phineas realized that he had caused offense, and maybe he even regretted it. And Nicholas knew that he ought to stay and try to resolve the matter. The two of them were close, after all. He didn’t want there to be tension between them, especially not this week.
But he couldn’t quiet the resentment in his heart. Had Phineas really intended to suggest that Nicholas couldn’t understand what it was like to want something he couldn’t have, just because of his title? The incident at the masquerade was the perfect example, for Nicholas, of wanting what you couldn’t have. He couldn’t seem to get the lady he had met there out of his mind, and yet he knew she would never be his. There was no hope in it. And it didn’t matter whether he was a duke or a servant. He would never be able to find her again, and all other ladies would always pale in comparison to what he had experienced with her that night.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Nicholas walked outside, still feeling bad about the way things had gone with Phineas. Phineas was his best friend, and the two of them had always been able to serve as a comfort to one another. It made him sad to realize that that wasn’t the case right now. He also felt a sense of guilt. How could he have walked away when it was obvious that Phineas was upset about something?
But on the other hand, he had tried to compel his friend to open up to him. Whatever was bothering Phineas, it seemed clear that he hadn’t wished to talk about it—not to Nicholas, anyway. That was as hurtful as anything else. Didn’t Phineas trust him anymore? Phineas was one of the only people in the world Nicholas would have dreamed of confiding in about what had happened at the masquerade, and he had assumed that feeling was mutual—that they were each other’s primary confidante. Now it seemed that wasn’t so. Maybe he had been wrong to trust Phineas with his own secret.
Well,clearlyhe had been wrong to do so, since Phineas seemed to be responding with anger and judgment rather than empathy.
It was quiet out on the grounds. Nicholas wasn’t surprised. The party seemed to be most focused on what was going on indoors. It was a chilly night, and it didn’t seem the type of evening to lure people out under the stars. Nicholas wouldn’t have been here himself if he hadn’t been so caught up in his thoughts, so anxious to separate himself from everyone else at the party so that he could have a bit of peace to sort things out.
He walked toward the garden, thinking that perhaps he would find a nice bench where he could sit for a while and lose himself in thought, when suddenly he spotted a figure moving through the shadows.
He frowned and followed quickly in the same direction. What could this be? Was there a thief about? Who would have cause to sneak in shadows on an occasion such as this one?
The figure paused, looked around, and stole into the hedges. Nicholas followed. He was moving more quickly than the person ahead of him was, and that was a good thing—he would be able to catch up. But what would he find when he did?
The answer came sooner than he had expected it would. The mysterious figure had stopped after rounding the corner, and when Nicholas followed, they came face to face.
Or perhaps face to face wasn’t an apt way of describing it, for he couldn’t see his quarry’s face—it was obscured by the hoodshe wore. It was a woman—he could tell that immediately. She was slight of stature, with narrow shoulders, and if it wasn’t a woman, it would have had to be a young boy. But then she gasped, and the tone of her voice gave her away.
“You startled me, sir,” she said.
“My apologies.” He frowned. “What is a lady doing alone out here in the dark?”
“I came out to get a moment’s peace, that’s all,” she said.
“Won’t you show me your face?”
She hesitated, then shook her head. “I ought not to be out here on my own.”
“I won’t tell anyone.”
“Perhaps not, but I can’t know that for certain,” she said. “It’s better for me to keep my identity to myself. I hope that doesn’t offend you, Your Grace.”
He couldn’t help smiling. “You have me at a disadvantage, then, for clearly you know whoIam.”
“I suppose everyone does,” she pointed out. “Who doesn’t know the Duke of Nightingale?”
“That’s fair,” he agreed.
“What brings you out here tonight, Your Grace?”
“The same thing as you,” he said. “The desire to be on my own for a few moments.”
“In that case, perhaps I had better be on my way,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to intrude on your solitude.”
