Nicholas lagged behind, wondering whether he would ever have the answers to all the mysteries that had come up this week.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“The flowers are sure to be lovely,” Marina said happily. She was practically dancing along the walk, and Eleanor smiled with pleasure at the sight of her sister’s happiness. She had never known Marina to be so carefree.
“What sorts of flowers will you have?” Lady Hannah asked. She was walking on Marina’s other side and had so far been behaving as if the two of them had been friends for years. Eleanor couldn’t find it in her to feel jealous about that. She suspected that was the emotion Lady Hannah was trying to provoke in her, but after all, Marina was her sister. Marina and Eleanor were as close as any two ladies could be, and no amount of discussion about flowers was going to change that fact. Lady Hannah was simply upset because she had seen Eleanor talking to the duke.
Eleanor wished she could have told Lady Hannah that there was no cause for concern, but it would have been a lie. Firstly, because if Lady Hannah feared that Eleanor might have feelings for the duke, she would have been correct to think it. Eleanor’s feelings seemed to grow more potent with every passingmoment. She didn’t even feel capable of glancing in the duke’s direction right now, for fear that her expression would give her away.
Lady Hannah also had cause to worry because of the fact that the duke didn’t return her affections. Eleanor wondered whether she was aware of that. She certainly had seemed eager to come along on this little outing, and would that have been the case if she felt confident that her engagement was progressing as it ought to? Eleanor didn’t thinkshewould have come along if not for her own desire to spend more time with the duke…but then, she supposed, it was different for her. She had her over-demanding parents to be worried about. Marina had been quite right when she’d pointed out that their parents wouldn’t like it if they knew Eleanor had left the house. Their greatest wish was to control her and keep her close to home, and they knew that couldn’t be done if she wasn’t always under their thumb.
There would be trouble, no doubt, if they found out she’d gone out today. She supposed she should make the most of it, for who knew when might be the next time she managed to elude them and get out of the house to have a little fun? It would probably be after she was married off to whoever they eventually chose for her—assumingthatgentleman ever let her out of his sight.
Marina, perceiving none of these things, answered Lady Hannah’s question. “Daffodils,” she said. “I know they aren’t the most fashionable things, but they are my favorites, and I think that’s what matters most of all.”
“Of course it is,” Eleanor said encouragingly, knowing that their mother had told Marina to choose a different flower in order to make a better impression upon the wedding guests. She wanted to make sure Marina was happy with her choice. “Daffodils are as beautiful as you are, and your happiness is so much more important that what is fashionable.”
“That sounds like something an unfashionable person would say,” Lady Hannah commented, sneering ever so slightly.
Marina’s eyes widened. She hadn’t picked up on the subtle dig at Eleanor, only on the fact that her flowers had been criticized. “You don’t like daffodils?” she asked.
“Oh, no, it isn’t that,” Lady Hannah said quickly, beaming at Marina. “Daffodils are lovely. They may not be the peak of fashion right now, but I do hear that they might be coming back into style, and perhaps you might be at the forefront of that. Just imagine—in a few years, everyone may have daffodils at their party, and you’ll be able to say that you were the very first to do it.”
“That sounds nice,” Marina said with a polite smile.
Eleanor was hard pressed not to roll her eyes. She knew her sister. Marina didn’t care about being the first to introduce a new trend. She cared about fashions only because they helped her to fit in—she wasn’t interested in standing out.
But Lady Hannah seemed to think she had said something very helpful. She beamed at Marina. “It’s been such a pleasure gettingto know you, Lady Marina,” she said. “I truly do think that you and I are going to be great friends.”
“I’d like that,” Marina said, and Eleanor felt a hot spike of anger. She didn’t know whether Lady Hannah was actually interested in pursuing friendship with her sister or not, but she knew that Lady Hannah was at least partly motivated by a desire to cause Eleanor distress. It made Eleanor angry that Lady Hannah would use her guileless sister in that petty game.
She took Marina by the arm. “Let’s go and look at hats,” she said. “I need a new one.”
Marina stared at her. “You’ve just gotten a new hat,” she pointed out. “Mother and Father aren’t going to buy you another one so soon, you know.”
Eleanor didn’t miss the low chuckle that escaped Lady Hannah—apparently that was very funny.
“Well, someday Iwillhave a new hat,” she said, “and I would like to have some idea of what I want when that day comes!” Without waiting for approval or permission, she pulled Marina away and down the road toward one of the shops.
Lady Hannah did not try to keep up, and for a moment, Eleanor was quite pleased with herself—but then she noticed whathadhappened and felt that she was a fool not to have anticipated it. Lady Hannah had allowed herself to fall several paces backward in order to speak with the two gentlemen.
This isn’t good.
Phineas had just confided his true feelings to her—how pained and envious he was of the fact that Lady Hannah wanted the duke. Lady Hannah, meanwhile, had been stopping at nothing to try to attract the duke’s attention. And now he was going to do that right in front of Phineas, forcing Phineas to watch. It would be awful. It would be agony for everyone involved. And Eleanor realized that she couldn’t let it happen.
She released her sister’s arm and turned back.
“I thought you wanted to look at hats!” Marina protested, hurrying after her. Eleanor did feel remorseful about the way she kept changing her story to her sister—poor Marina must be so confused by her behavior!—but she couldn’t let Phineas suffer through this without a friend by his side.
For that matter, she realized, she didn’t want to let the duke go through this either. If Phineas had told her the truth, the duke had no interest in Lady Hannah, and yet Lady Hannah continued to pursue him. He would be better off if he had more company around him for this.
So she hurried over to join the gentlemen. Lady Hannah looked at her as if she were some sort of pest and didn’t acknowledge her presence otherwise, but the duke and Phineas both smiled.
“I wondered if we would be able to spend any time with you ladies today,” the duke said, and Eleanor thought it was clear that his comment was specifically addressed toward Marina andherself—that Lady Hannah was being excluded. “What have you all been talking about up there?”
“Flowers,” Lady Hannah said. “It was frightfully dull. That’s why I came along to see what you were discussing. I’m sure it’s much more interesting than that conversation was.”
Eleanor shook her head in amazement. How could Lady Hannah so blatantly go from trying to win Marina’s favor to disrespecting her in front of the others? It didn’t make sense. Eleanor might not have as many social graces as her sister, but she knew enough not to treat people likethat.Either Lady Hannah didn’t know or she didn’t care, and either way, Eleanor could see why the duke might not wish to marry her. What she couldn’t understand was why Phineasdid.
