Page 12 of The Duke's Last Dance
Lord Radcliff disagreed, but Miss Juliet walked out before he could continue to protest her decision. Her mother ended up walking the young lady to her carriage in Edward’s place.
Neither her father nor Lord Radcliff asked what had happened to cause her to go so pale, but she was alright with that. It meant that she would be able to tell them nothing, and she didn’t have to worry about giving them a startle.
“Do you need me to fetch a doctor, Catherine?” Her father frowned.
“No, I believe I have simply not had enough rest,” Catherine replied. “If I am able to get more rest tonight, I believe my complexion will return to normal tomorrow.”
“If you believe that, then I will not be the one to stop you from doing what you need,” her father continued. “If you need anything, do not hesitate to ring the bell. I will make sure someone is awake in case you need help in the night.”
“Thank you, Father,” Catherine said.
She did not believe she would need help during the night, but it was good to know it would be supplied, just in case.
Her father and Edward both left the room, and Catherine laid against the pillows on her bed.
Lord Lockhart was in town again, and her heart yearned to make him know the heartache she had known. Though it would be petty and jealous of her to do so, she could not help but think about the ways she could do that. She never would, of course, be party to making him feel that way intentionally.
She fell asleep with the thoughts of what kind of a man she would marry flying through her head. The man she married would never leave her as Lord Lockhart had, without warning or word. He would treat her as though she would disappear if she did not know what was to happen to him or where he had gone, and he would act accordingly.
If he was to leave for Navy service, he would take her with him, and they would live in his station together. That was how marriage worked in the Navy, from what she understood, but she could have been wrong.
Marriage… that thought carried her through the night. A happy one, too.
Chapter Five
“Point, Lord Radcliff.” The referee called the end of the match, and Nicolas put his rapier down. Lord Radcliff had much improved in fencing in the last three years.
“I remember the last time we sparred in fencing, I had you down on the ground with a single touch of my rapier.” Nicolas laughed. “Today, you have proven that you have put the work in. You earned the win, dear man.”
“I had someone to beat,” Lord Radcliff replied with a smile. “I wanted to be ready for when you returned to Town, and I took my fencing lessons more seriously after you left for the Navy.”
“How did you take that?” Nicolas found it interesting that no one had tried to write him while he had been away with the Navy. “At the least, I thought Lady Catherine would have written to me every week.”
“Lord Lockhart, none of us had any contact information for you. Catherine… she was devastated when she realized you had left without saying anything to her. We left for the countryside at the end of the Season, and we came for the next one, you were gone,” Lord Radcliff revealed. “We… we did not know where you had gone, but your mother told us that you had enlisted with the Navy, and that was that.”
“I did not realize…” He frowned. “I thought…”
“Considering the glances that you stole at Catherine last night, I am glad to see that you have returned, though,” Lord Radcliff continued. “I did not fail to see them, though you were trying to be stealthy with them.”
“I suppose it is all in your imagination, then,” Nicolas shrugged.
With the news that Lady Catherine had been devastated, he was surprised that Lord Radcliff had noticed the glances. He felt silly now, realizing that she had wondered where he had gone and why he had left for the Navy all those years ago.
“My dear friend, it is not all in my imagination. My entire family knows of the attraction you and Catherine shared in childhood,” Lord Radcliff said, his eyes wide. “We always believed you would get married eventually, and I had always hoped that we would be brothers.”
The surprise building up in Nicolas’s stomach could not be ignored. Had it been that obvious to everyone?
“Yes, it was obvious, Lord Lockhart, but come on, what man can say he has found the woman he wants to marry so early in life? Consider yourself lucky she did not give you a verbal lashing for leaving her as you did,” Lord Radcliff chided. “You left her broken hearted, Nicolas.”
“I did not mean for that to be the result… I thought that enlisting would… I do not know what I thought,” Nicolas managed to stutter out.
He did not want to reveal that his father had forced him into the Navy, even though that would absolve him of some of the guilt he now felt. It would only make his father look bad, and with his father’s health as it was, that was the last thing he wanted to do to his poor father.
“Well, that is what happened, and I feel sorry for you for having that be the outcome.” Lord Radcliff shook his head. “I do not know what she thinks of you now, but I can tell that there is still a soft spot for you in her heart somewhere. She did not completely ignore you last night.” There was a soft laugh following that sentence.
“Well, I suppose I will just have to make sure that I find a way to get on her good side again, and perhaps find a way to have a chance with her again,” Nicolas said. He smiled a little as he continued, “I will take this chance, and I will not fail this time.”
“Do you want to know what I think would help?” Lord Radcliff raised an eyebrow as he spoke. “I think it would help if you apologized to her for leaving without word.”
