Page 42 of The Duke's Last Dance
Chapter Eighteen
The afternoon had not gone the way he thought it would. He had thought he would be able to talk to Catherine and not have to worry about what she would think about the way he approached her. He had been wrong.
She had been right to tell him that it was not proper for them to be alone now that they were no longer children. He should have gone and found Miss Amelia first or found her mother, perhaps. Though…he did not want to have this conversation in front of her mother. That would only make sure that word got back to his father faster than he wanted to allow it to do so.
Now, he sat at the dining room table, over dinner. The conversation around him was not important to him. He only wanted to think about how he could have been better at making sure that Catherine had felt comfortable enough to talk to him. He had wanted to tell her about the ultimatum.
He did not want to marry Miss Alexia Balfour. She was too self-centered for him, and he wanted to be able to have balanced conversations. He could barely remember the conversations she had with him because he was never part of the conversations. They were always abouther, and she talked at him, not to him.
Lady Catherine deserved to know this. He had wanted to marry her since he had been a child, and he wanted to make sure that he lived up to his promises of marrying her when he was younger. He had always hoped it as a child, dreamt of it as a teen, and then he had been denied that opportunity when he had first debuted into society because he had gone into the Navy.
“Nicolas.” His father interrupted his thoughts. “I understand that Lord Radcliff is getting married soon. Is this so?”
“Yes, Father. The man is going to be married soon, and his fiancée is quite a lovely lady,” Nicolas replied. This was not necessarily the best conversation to have with his father, but he knew that it was going to take a turn soon. This was his father he was talking to, after all.
“I would like you to take Miss Alexia as your companion for the upcoming wedding,” his father said. “There is nothing I would like to see more than you and Miss Alexia getting along in public.”
He swore his father’s eyes also added that he wanted Lady Catherine to see him with Miss Alexia more publicly. What event was better than her brother’s wedding to make sure that she knew he was going with Miss Alexia, and that he was even supposed to court her?
Nicolas felt his stomach twisting in all directions, writhing at the possibility of having to sit through endless ‘conversations’ with Alexia and not knowing when he would get an escape from it. Not knowing when he would be able to have a proper conversation again.
He looked over at Miss Alexia – whom his father had again invited for dinner because he was supposed to be cementing a courtship with her soon – and found that she was simply beaming at him.
“I will have to find the best dress in all of Town, then,” she said.
How could she say that? A wedding was supposed to be the bride’s day. While a guest could wear a good dress, it was not supposed to upstage the bride’s dress. White was not a good color for a guest, and many shades that were close to white were also off limits to the guests. It would not do, not at all, for Miss Alexia to try and upstage Miss Juliet.
“I suppose so,” his mother stated.
“Yes, I suppose so. You will look radiant in whatever you wear, surely,” Nicolas added, though he knew it was only going to inflame her ego. He could not stand the thought of having to take her as his partner to the wedding.
It would not go well for anyone, and he knew that there was nothing more he could do about it than try to find a way to tell his father that he had not made a good match for Nicolas. There was nothing about Miss Alexia that he necessarily liked, nor anything about her that he thought would make a good wife for him.
His ideal wife was a woman who knew what she wanted, but she knew how to get it without overshadowing anyone else or making anyone feel as though they were useless in her presence. Really, he only wanted to marry Lady Catherine. He could have married her by now if his father had not insisted he go into the Navy the day he had turned eighteen.
His remark had the effect he thought it would; Miss Alexia started to go on about what kind of dresses she thought were best to wear as a guest to the wedding. Thankfully, she said nothing of wanting to wear ivory, beige, cream, or white to the wedding. That would have been too much, and he wanted to believe that even his father would have recognized how bad that would have been.
As soon as Nicolas could politely excuse himself for the night, he did so. Miss Alexia took no notice as his parents were giving her all the attention she wanted right then. He was giving her none, and he was of no consequence to her then.
He walked out of his parents’ house and headed towards Lockebel. He was to meet Lord Radcliff there later that evening, and he was already running late. As he hurried into town, he wondered what he was going to do. Catherine probably wouldn’t give him the time of day now that he had tried to talk to her alone like that.
What had he been thinking? Or had he been thinking at all?
He did not believe he had been thinking about the consequences when he walked up to her at the tea party like that. He should have done. He may have completely missed his chance to talk to her and tell her what was going on now that he had done that.
He took in a deep breath, and as Nicolas arrived at Lockebel, he smiled. Lord Radcliff would know what to do, and even if Lord Radcliff wasn’t sure what to do, he would have a piece of advice that might make sense. It was all Nicolas could hope for now as he walked into the club, looking around for Lord Radcliff.
Lord Radcliff had seated himself at one of the bars, and Nicolas sat down beside him.
“I was starting to wonder if you would ever show up, Lord Lockhart,” Lord Radcliff teased, smiling. “You took your time getting here. Is something wrong?”
“My father insists I take Miss Alexia as my partner to your wedding, and she has insisted she is going to find the best gown in all of Town. I am worried she may be intending to upstage Miss Juliet in some small manner.” Nicolas pursed his lips. “I am stuck, Lord Radcliff. Stuck as a deer shot by a hunter.”
“Were you able to tell Catherine about this?” Lord Radcliff furrowed his eyebrows. “Or is she still unaware of the situation behind why she has seen you with Miss Alexia so much as of late?”
“I tried to talk to her, I promise I did, but… she would not listen,” Nicolas replied. “I tried to talk to her at the tea party, when she went off for a walk alone.”
“That would be your problem, Lord Lockhart. She wants to keep her reputation as an honest lady, and that could easily be destroyed if someone saw you talking to her, even if you were far enough away from her that you could not touch her.” Lord Radcliff shook his head. “Did you try to find Miss Amelia first?”
