Page 30 of The Insufferable Duke
“I am indeed.”
“I regret I have no skill. Where do you like to fish?”
Benjamin was so delighted by the question that he began a keen conversation on fishing. Others around the room soon joined in, and a happier feeling descended though there were snide comments every now and then, seconded by sharp looks from Lord Isaac and Gibbs.
When there was a lull, Helena leaned toward the Duke, longing to whisper to him.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “Your toast did the trick.”
“It was your idea.” He smiled a little, and she returned that look. “Yet we need to talk. There is still much work that must be done.” He nodded his head at Gibbs, who was now having a tart conversation with Lord Sheylough about politics. “Meet me in the library later for a discussion.”
Helena swallowed a little of her wine, feeling parched. Meeting alone could be scandalous, but they were soon to be brother and sister-in-law, so that boundary would be taken down.
“As you wish,” she whispered, ignoring the leap of her heart in her chest.
* * *
Helena opened the door of the library and stepped inside. Two candles had been lit, and the room was basked in a soft yellow glow. Beside one of those candles stood the Duke of Bridstone. He’d removed his jacket and leaned on the mantelpiece, apparently muttering to himself.
“Are you unwell?” Helena asked, walking into the room and closing the door behind her. His head jerked in her direction. For a second, he said nothing. That gaze was so intense that Helena hurried across the room. For a moment, she forgot who he was, that he was a Moore and she was a Carter, and she thought only of that look.
Then he jerked in his position, standing straight against the mantelpiece, and she remembered everything. She caught herself a few steps from the fire and stopped in the middle of the rug, looping her hands in front of her.
“I am well, though frustrated, I will admit. Your family members are not making any sort of peace easy, are they?” he asked in a challenging tone.
“Mine? What of yours? Lord Isaac seems intent on hating my family.” She fidgeted, wringing her hands together. “He is currently trying to outfox my uncle and my father in a game of cards and keeps upping his wager, never mind how many times your mother pleads with him not to.”
“My uncle likes a game of cards. It doesn’t make him a monster.”
“You are right though.” Helena sighed and moved her hands to her hips. “We must do better. My sister is happy with your brother, and it pains me to see the sadness our families are causing her.”
The Duke stood straight, folding his arms across his chest. He stared at her with such resolve that she shifted her weight between her feet.
“What is that stare for?” she asked.
“It is just that your dedication to your sister is not unlike my own to my brother.” He nodded in approval then smirked with sudden mischief.
“You’re about to tease me.”
“Oh! You can tell it in a look alone now?” he asked with a laugh.
“Perhaps I am just used to your ways,” she muttered and turned away from him, pacing the room. “Continue, if you must, make the tease you long to give.”
“I was merely going to point out that you are happy for your sister to marry a Moore, yet you speak naught of who you intend to marry yourself someday.” His words reminded her of their ugly conversation outside the modiste where he had reminded her that she would someday be a spinster if she did not marry. “I can’t help but wonder, what man would ever be good enough for Lady Helena?” He laughed openly. “I’m beginning to think you would see no man as good enough.”
“Is that what you think?” She flicked her head round, halting in her pacing. “You make me sound as proud as a princess. I am not so obstinate nor so vain.”
“Then what man would turn your head the way your sister’s head has been turned by a Moore’s?”
“You are causing trouble, that is all.” She waved her hand at him, wishing he would leave her at once.
“I am curious, that is all. No man good enough, eh?”
“Enough, Your Grace.”
“Let me know what man would fit your standards, and I’ll be silenced on this subject forever.” He continued to laugh. “Do you find searching forworthymen hard?”
“Maybe it isn’t as easy as it should be,” she muttered, sitting in an armchair nearby. “When the scandal sheets are full of rakes and dishonest men like you, a lady does not know who to trust.”
