Here was someone he would be correct to be embarrassed of. He sighed and stepped away from Lady Eleanor, moving to intercept his mother. He positioned himself in between the twoof them in order to force her aggressively to keep whatever conversation she meant to have strictly between the two of them.
But she circumvented him and went straight to Lady Eleanor. “I saw you,” she snapped. “I saw you walking alongside my son, trying to charm him—don’t you know that he is promised in marriage, Lady Eleanor? Does it not shame you to throw yourself at the attentions of a gentleman who belongs to another, and her standing right there watching you? I don’t know how you can stand to be the way you are. You ought to be embarrassed, and I amdisgusted.”
“Mother, howdareyou speak that way?” Nicholas demanded furiously.
Lady Eleanor looked shocked at the words that had been hurled at her. She glanced at Nicholas. He opened his mouth, about to defend her, but she turned and ran away before he could utter a word.
Lady Hannah smirked. “Someone had to tell her,” she said. “It’s a pity she didn’t realize for herself what a fool she’s been. But at least now she knows, and perhaps she will change her errant ways.”
“I’d better go see to her,” Lady Marina said, obviously distressed. She hurried after her sister.
As the others began to file into the house, Nicholas’ mother started to turn to follow them. But Nicholas grabbed her armand pulled her back. She stared at him. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Me?” he demanded. “That was an appalling thing you just said, Mother. I amshockedat you. How could you?”
“You defend her?” She laughed. “Of course you do. I should have known. You’ve been behaving badly since we arrived at this party—since you assumed the title of duke, really.”
“That’s enough,” Nicholas said firmly. “I’ve put up with your unkind comments and your judgment, Mother, because I know that I am your son and I know how you must wish to guide my steps, even now that it’s no longer proper for you to do anything of the sort. I’ve tolerated it. But when your desire to control me extends to being rude to other people—and in their own homes—I can no longer put up with it. You have overstepped your bounds egregiously, continuing to act as if my engagement to Lady Hannah were a going concern when I’ve told you dozens of times that I won’t be following through on Father’s arrangement. You’ve given that poor girl false hopes—not to mention the fact that she’s become a pestilence on my life because she won’t hear me when I tell her to go away! And now you’ve insulted our host’s daughter, who did nothing wrong whatsoever.”
“Don’t make me laugh. She was throwing herself at you.”
“She did nothing of the sort. We were having a conversation, that’s all. Is it your intention to lash out at every lady who speaks to me for the remainder of my days? Will I never havea conversation with a lady other than Lady Hannah again? I won’t permit that, Mother. You are simply going to have to come to terms with the fact that I won’t be marrying Lady Hannah, and that’s all there is to it. I have nothing more to say on this subject.”
“Your father wished this marriage. Have you really so little regard for him?”
“No, I won’t hear that,” Nicholas said. “You know perfectly well that I’ve spent my life doing everything Father wished me to do. He raised me to take over the dukedom. He told me, always, how important it was to be perfect in this role in society, and I’ve done my best to meet that expectation. I’ve done everything he could have asked. He wanted a perfect son and heir, and I’ve been that in every way I could. But this is one thing I simply will not give him! He won’t reach out from beyond the grave and force me into a marriage that is only going to make me unhappy. And I won’t let you make me feel as if I’ve done something wrong here either, Mother, because this is my decision to make. That’s the way it’s going to be.”
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing, Nicholas.”
“You’d better find a way to believe it. You’ve disgraced me by acting this way! Just imagine if Lady Eleanor tells her parents that the dowager duchess spoke to her with such contempt! We would never be able to show our faces in polite society again.”
“You forget that we outrank them,” his mother said. “We may speak how we like.”
“That doesn’t mean you have the right to abandon courtesy and manners. Just because wecanspeak to them however we’d like doesn’t mean that we ought to! Do you think Father would agree withthatidea, Mother? Do you think he would say it makes sense to treat people the way you’re doing? It’s clear to me thatyouare the one of us my father would be ashamed of! Because what he always reinforced to me, over and over, was that a part of the responsibility of being a duke was to handle myself with dignity and treat others with respect. Do you not remember him speaking those words?”
“He didn’t mean situations like this one.”
“Of course that’s what he meant. And even if he hadn’t, I am the Duke of Nightingale now. I take the lessons my father taught me seriously, but I also decide what’s right for myself. And one thing I can tell you is that I will never tolerate anyone in our family treating anyone else the way you just did Lady Eleanor. It’s beyond unmannerly. It’s cruel. I cannot associate myself with needless cruelty. I am better than that. The dukedom is better than that. And so are you, Mother.”
She was quiet for a moment.
“This doesn’t sound like you,” she said at last.
“It sounds exactly like me. I’ve swallowed my words on this subject for too long, not wishing to cause an argument with you, but now you’ve pushed the matter beyond what I can ignore.”
“Why today?” she asked him.
He was confused. “What do you mean?”
“If it’s as you say—if you’ve always felt these things, and I’ve been such a disagreeable figure to you—why are you choosing today to speak about it? Why have you altered your past behavior now? You say you never wanted to cause conflict. I believe that about you, for you’ve always been the sort to confront people only when you feel you must. I would have anticipated that even if you felt you and I needed to discuss this matter, you would have waited until we returned home to do so rather than saying something right here in front of the home of our hosts, where we might be overheard by anyone. If you truly don’t wish to make a scene, why are you doing this now?”
She didn’t seem upset or angry with him. It didn’t even seem as though she was trying to correct him for having done what he had. It was more as though she genuinely wanted to know the answer to the question she was asking. And Nicholas thought—whyhadhe chosen right now to make this point to her?
“We’re going to be here for a while,” he said. “We’re going to be guests in this house for several days yet. And I can’t have you continuing to speak to Lady Eleanor the way you just did. I won’t allow that to happen again. If I thought it could wait until we got home, I might have waited, but I’m afraid that if I don’t say something now itwillhappen again.”
She nodded slowly, saying nothing.
He wondered what she had heard in that answer, for it seemed as if shehadtaken something more than what he had said fromit. But he didn’t want to ask. She was right. They were at risk of creating a scene. The longer they stood out here arguing, the more likely it was that someone would come upon them, and he really didn’t want to be overheard. This conversation was no one else’s business. Besides, he knew that his mother had been humbled by the things he was saying, and he didn’t want to make that worse for her by allowing anyone else to hear what he’d said. She was still his mother, and his instinct was to protect her against shame.
