Page 35 of Nothing Compares to the Duke
He offered her a tender smile. “That book is very important to you.”
“It is, Papa. Before I get lost in the duties of marriage, I need to achieve something for myself.”
“Tenacious girl.”
“Mama would say stubborn.”
“I say you possess the determination to have anything you set your heart on.”
If only that were true.
“I should return to the party.” Bella mustered a smile. “I promised a dance to Lord Hammersley.”
He let her go. There was little more to say.
Out in the hallway, a shadow emerged from a darkened corner and she nearly jumped out of her boots.
“Bella?” Rhys approached hesitantly.
He wasn’t at all sure she’d wish to speak to him. For all he knew Lord Yardley had directed her to see him out altogether, though he couldn’t imagine that from a man who sometimes called himsonas a sign of affection.
“You needn’t sneak up on me.” She’d jolted when he called her name, and now she glanced both ways down the hall, as if to ensure that none would see them speaking alone.
“Forgive me. I was waiting until you’d finished speaking to your father.” He didn’t bloody care who saw them. The party was over as far as he was concerned. “We need to talk.”
Bella was miserable, and there was a great deal she wasn’t telling him. He needed to know what schemes were spinning in her clever head.
She wouldn’t look him in the eye. Even in the dim light of the hall lamps, he could see some mysteryflickering in her gaze. She stared at his jaw, then her gaze trailed down. He’d already untied his cravat and the fabric hung loosely around his neck. His breathing hitched. Bella gazed at the bare skin at the base of his throat as if it fascinated her, and he was shocked to find that being the object of her intense scrutiny was intoxicating.
“I should return to the party,” she said in the least convincing tone he’d ever heard. “Mama will send Louisa to drag me back if I don’t return to the drawing room.”
When he said nothing, she turned.
He reached for her arm. He couldn’t let her walk away. “Bella, wait.”
She glanced down at where he held her.
“Why are you doing this?” He knew he’d broken trust with her years before and might never get it back, but he needed to try.
“The party is in my honor—”
“That’s not what I mean. Tell me why you’re playing along with your mother’s machinations.” He still held her. He knew letting go was the proper choice. The wisest course. Yet he kept holding her. She was soft and warm, and being connected to her felt right and achingly familiar. “I know you’ve always been a dutiful daughter, but this is something more. You’ve refused many men and yet—”
“A few men. Not many.” She tensed her jaw.
The names they called her, the things they’d saidabout her, he’d known it wasn’t true. But he hated that they’d hurt her.
“I trust you know your own mind and had a good reason every time. And yet now you can’t see your way clear to simply telling your mother that this house party is a farce.”
“Mama planned this for months.”
Duty. She’d always bowed to it so much more easily than he had. He’d loved her moments of rebelliousness, the flashes of fire and boldness. But she had the same skill he had. The ability to pretend, to put on a facade of agreeableness or even joviality for the benefit of others.
“I appreciate that your mother put effort into the event, but these men are wasting their time, are they not?”
Bella blinked and her eyes widened in shock. Something snagged in the center of his chest, a flare of fear that she might actually be considering one of the men her mother chose to woo her.
“Your concern is for these men rather than me?”
