Page 14 of Nothing Compares to the Duke
“Your mother has truly outdone herself,” Louisa whispered as she leaned closer to Bella on the settee they shared. She was a frenetic young woman, always on the move, and tonight she was virtually vibrating on the cushion next to Bella’s.
“She certainly outwitted me.” Bella smiled. Or rather she continued smiling. The truth was she’d been smiling so long, she feared her face would soon freeze in an expression of unconvincing mirth.
“Lady Yardley isn’t usually the scheming sort. You’ve made her desperate, Bell. She’s organized the next fortnight like a military maneuver.”
“Oh, I’m well aware.” She was also aware that she should be working on her book and drafting letters to publishers, but instead she found herself seated in her family’s best drawing room with several pairs of masculine eyes turned her way.
She had agreed to try, but three days into the house party and she knew nothing for certain except that none of the men her mother had invited made her want to change her mind about matrimony.
“Two are missing,” Louisa noted.
“Perhaps they don’t care for musical evenings.” Her mother had provided for entertainment on each night of the house party. Tonight, one of the gentlemen visitors was doing an admirable job performing Schumann on the room’s grand piano. “They departed as soon as the music started. They’ll be back.”
Bella suspected her mother had informed each suitor bluntly that their only purpose during the fortnight was to vie for her affection. Some had already begun the onslaught. Lord Wentworth had the temerity to burst into song when he’d come across her in the hall, apparently trying to win her heart with an exceedingly long aria. Another had presented her with flowers this morning. Roses that she’d planted and preferred on the stem where she could look at them during her walks rather than watching them wilt in a vase.
Over the sounds of the piano, Bella could almost hear the gears in the gentlemen’s minds spinning, trying to find the chink in her armor. The way into her heart, as her mother would put it. Lady Yardley was nothing if not a hopeless romantic.
When her mother approached, Louisa stood. “I’ll go and see what the missing bachelors are up to.”
“Mr. Nix isn’t titled, but he may be the handsomest of them all,” Bella’s mother whispered as she settled next to her on the settee.
“Handsome men have proposed marriage to me before, Mama.”
“I know.” Her mother patted her arm. “And I understand you prefer a man of wit and intelligence. So do I. Why do you think I married your father?”
“Papaishandsome.”
Her mother’s mouth curved into a mischievous smile. “Indeed, he is. But he isn’t perfect. No man is.”
“I don’t seek perfection.” What she desperately wanted to add is that she wasn’t seeking a husband at all. But they’d had the conversation so many times her mother could probably recite the arguments from memory.
As if she could sense the turn of Bella’s thoughts, her mother changed tack. “Seek kindness, my dear. A kind man will bring you contentment and a home and family of your own.”
The old Bella had been just the sort to build those dreams up in her mind. She’d even sketched pictures of the home she wished to have, the children. One boy and two girls. Of course all of them would have Rhys’s blond locks. Recalling how naive she’d been, how thoroughly she’d let her fancies run away with her, all of it stung.
New Bella would never give in to such romantic nonsense again.
“Lord Hammersley is a viscount, of course. I did try for a duke.” Bella’s mother had been speaking, reviewing the merits of the various gentlemen she’d wrangled into spending two weeks in Essex. “But I thought it best not to invite the Duke of Claremont.”
“No,” Bella said sharply. She needed to get used to hearing the title and realizing it was Rhys’s now. But she wasn’t there yet. “We shouldn’t invite him.”
“You were such close friends once.” Her mother’s gaze was steady, too inquisitive.
Bella had never divulged the details of that day to anyone, but it wasn’t difficult for her perceptive mama to note her tears and Rhys’s hasty departure. But to Bella’s relief, she’d never pressed for more. She’d made overtures about inviting the duke or Rhys to a dinner event now and then, but those stopped too when word of Rhys’s reputation got back to Essex and spread through the families in the village.
“Wewerefriends. Once. Not anymore.”
Louisa slid to a stop at the edge of the settee, her cheeks flushed, as if she’d dashed the whole way back from wherever she’d gone. “Forgive me, Aunt Gwendoline. I must speak to Bella.”
Her mother narrowed her eyes but offered them both a tiny nod of approval. Bella stood and followed Louisa to the edge of the drawing room.
“I found them,” she said in an agitated whisper.
“I had no doubt you would. In the billiard room? I hope they aren’t in their cups this early in the evening. And if they’re smoking in that room, Mama will have—”
“No, none of that. Well, they may be drinking, but what’s important is what they said. You need to know what I overheard.”
Bella arched a brow when Louisa said no more.
