“She did want it,” Eleanor corrected. “She might not have wanted it for her own reasons, but it sounds to me as though she was willing to allow it to happen for her father. You’re the only one who’s resisting. And I don’t know if I want to get involved while everything is so uncertain.”
“Nothing is uncertain. I promise you, this marriage won’t happen.”
Eleanor sighed. “Perhaps it won’t,” she agreed. “But I can’t know that. Don’t you see how I can’t know anything about this situation? It feels very uncertain to me, Your Grace, and I can’t help feeling that I shouldn’t be involved in it at all. I shouldn’t have even accepted this dance with you—I wouldn’t have done so if I hadn’t felt that I had no other option. And now here we are, dancing together, and I must allow that to continue or risk gathering the attention of everyone in the room toward us. I won’t do that. But we shouldn’t be spending time together. We’re not going to be courting one another.”
“But does it have to be about that?” the duke asked.
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.”
“I understand—you’re uncertain about my intentions, and I can’t blame you for that, given what’s happened. But what I’m asking you now is, does that mean you can’t dance with me?”
“I shouldn’t dance with you.”
“It doesn’t have to be about courtship,” the duke said. “Not if you’re unsure, or if that isn’t something you want from me. You don’t have to make that decision right now, either.” He turned her slowly as the music played. “We can just talk,” he said, looking deep into her eyes.
Eleanor froze where she stood.
He had said that to her before. The moment she heard the words, she recognized them—that was what he’d said at the masquerade.
She had been hesitant then as well. She hadn’t known whether or not to sit and talk to him. She had worried whether it might be the wrong thing to do. And he had put her at ease with that comment—asking her what the harm was in simply talking.
He was asking her the same thing now. And the answer was the same as it had been at the masquerade.
“Yes,” she said. “We can talk.”
But she was saying so much more, she thought. She wasn’t just saying that they could go on dancing. She was saying that she recognized him. She was acknowledging that shedidknow he was who he claimed to be, that she didn’t question the truth of that claim. She was telling him not only that they could talk together and dance together, but also that they could acknowledge their shared history. It was all right for them to admit that they had met each other before, even if they were only ready to admit that to one another.
The musicians stopped playing, but he held her a moment longer. She didn’t pull away. She had no desire to pull away, and eventually he was the one who broke the embrace.
“Will you excuse me?” he asked. “I think I need to go and have a word with Lord Codfield.”
“Lady Hannah’s father?”
“Yes, I think it’s time we set the record straight once and for all,” the duke said. “And since he doesn’t seem to hear me when we speak privately, I’m going to do this right here, in the ballroom, where everyone can hear us, just as I did with Lady Hannah. Just as I’ve done with you. What I’ve learned, Lady Eleanor, is that trying to keep things a secret and handle them privately doesn’t always work. If Phineas and I had spoken openly from the start, this might all have had a much easier resolution. So I’m going to do what I can to make sure that from now on, everyone knows everything they need to know.”
He turned and walked away from her. Eleanor watched him, stunned, scarcely able to believe that this was really happening. He was really going to confront Lord Codfield.
Lord Codfield was one of the people in the room who hadn’t been paying attention to the goings-on. More and more heads had turned toward the duke, Lady Hannah, and Eleanor as their conversations had progressed, but Lord Codfield was far enough on the periphery that he didn’t appear to have noticed. But now, as the duke walked over to him, he looked up, and the whole room fell silent to watch.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“Lord Codfield,” the duke said, “it’s time you and I settled this business between the two of us once and for all.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.” Lord Codfield’s tone was cold. “You agreed long ago to marry my daughter. To my mind, there is nothing to settle.”
“I agreed to nothing. Your arrangement was with my father. Neither Lady Hannah nor I ever agreed to it. Neither one of us wants it.”
“My daughter is a good girl,” Lord Codfield blustered. “She has always been compliant with my wishes for her!”
“Yes, no one questions her compliance,” the duke agreed. “It’s the reason this has gone on as long as it has, I’d say. But that doesn’t make it all right. You might be willing to see your daughter forced into an arrangement she doesn’t want any part of, but I won’t do that to her. I am not going to marryyour daughter, Lord Codfield, and frankly, that’s something you should know by now. You and I have certainly discussed the matter enough times.”
“What matters to me is the very first discussion,” Lord Codfield said. “The one I had with your father. That was when the agreement was made, and no true gentleman would go back on an agreement. Do you wish to humiliate my daughter?”
“I think you’ve caused her enough humiliation, forcing her to chase around after me and beg for my attention,” the duke said. “You knew that I was resisting this marriage. You and I spoke about it. You knew that I wasn’t going to receive her well if she kept after me about it, and you ordered her to do it anyway, didn’t you? You felt that was the best way to handle the situation.”
“If you had kept to your agreement, I wouldn’t have had to do any such thing,” Lord Codfield said.
“And if you had shown any respect for your daughter’s wishes, or for mine, it would never have been an issue in the first place,” the duke said. “Don’t you know that she has her own desires when it comes to the outcome of her life? Or doesn’t that matter very much to you? I suppose it doesn’t.”
