Page 24 of The Duke's Last Dance
As the carriage pulled up to the Thames, Nicolas vowed that he would not let his father’s plans ruin tonight.
Chapter Ten
She looked out the window for much of the ride. Though Nicolas was attempting to make his glances at her a secret, she noticed. He gave her side glances as he talked with Edward, half-listening to the things he had asked Edward about. It was not only disrespectful to her brother, but she found it disrespectful to herself.
If he expected her to have the same feelings that she had had when he left three years ago, he was going to be disappointed. Part of her wanted to have those feelings, but the feeling of butterflies in her stomach that she had had with the Duke of Hestina the night before did not come when he looked at her.
She still found him handsome, though. His features had grown to suit the man he had become. His eyes still sparkled, but at times they clouded over with thought, making the brown color of his eyes look more golden-gray than anything else. Especially when the setting sun caught them through the window or when the door of the carriage was open.
The carriage arrived at the Thames after a rather heated debate about how Edward had proposed marriage to Miss Juliet. While Catherine was glad to see that her brother was finally getting married, settling down, she did not agree with the way he did it. He did it all wrong, asking Miss Juliet first instead of her father.
If someone had attempted to propose to her like that, she would not have given him an answer until he had asked her father and had his approval. It was the principal of the thing.
Catherine allowed Nicolas to help her out of the carriage, but she did not know what to do. The butterflies of love – as her mother had once called them when she was younger – had left around him. She used to feel them every time she was around Nicolas…
Nicolas took her hand as they walked through the gardens at Camberton Manor. She blushed and attempted to pull her hand away.
“I did not mean to make you uncomfortable. Is it bad to hold your hand?” Nicolas gave her a smirk as he spoke. “I am a gentleman, after all, and a gentleman should always ask first. I apologize.”
“You are a gentleman, yes, but I am a lady, and a lady should not pull away when a man holds her hand.” She managed to say something. “A lady apologizes when she upsets a man.”
“A lady should never have to apologize for upsetting a man, but I fear that is an unpopular opinion on the matter.” Nicolas’s eyes sparkled with mischief.
He had always been a mischievous child. He had wanted to get away with everything he could, even when his father said that it would not behoove him to do so. Whatever that meant.
“Yes, that is an unpopular opinion…” Catherine did not know what else to do.
He suddenly gave her a stare that sent butterflies flying through her stomach. She wondered what it could mean, but she had felt these around him so often now that they were almost second nature. It meant she liked him, or so her mother had once told her when she had talked about meeting her father.
“May I hold your hand on the boat, Lady Catherine?”
“Lady Catherine?” The flashback was abruptly interrupted.
She looked towards Nicolas, who now had his hand outstretched to her.
“Yes, you may.” She took his hand as she spoke, but she was not sure what he hoped to accomplish with this.
Holding his hand on the boat, around so many people, it wasn’t proper. They were not courting, but for old times, she was willing to let him hold her hand. It didn’t give her the same kind of shivers and butterflies that it had when she was younger. Instead, it gave her no feelings. Nothing.
She did not pull her hand away.
She was not the same woman that had done so when she was younger. It was impolite, especially after she had given him permission to do so. There was nothing more she wanted to do.
The boat docked, and Catherine realized she had been thinking the entire ride. She usually liked to watch the river as she went by boat or walked beside it, but today that had not happened. Wherever her mind had gone, it had gone there without hesitation.
She stepped off the boat with Nicolas’s help. Edward and Miss Juliet followed right behind, and they walked up to the entrance of Vauxhall Gardens. The line was long.
Catherine had not expected the gardens to be so popular, but with the snow melting away in the last few days, it made sense that the gardens would be a destination popular with other couples.
“Three shillings, please, per person.” An older gentleman stopped them at the gates.
“Here. I shall pay for everyone. I insist.” Nicolas spoke up before even Edward could, and he offered up the combined twelve shillings for the four people.
Catherine watched as he counted out twelve shillings, three for each of them, and then paid the older gentleman as he hit three for each person. Nicolas had always shared with others, especially when they were children.
She remembered one incident in particular where he had been gifted a small pastry for his birthday. He must have been ten or eleven, and she was maybe seven or eight. He had insisted she have some of it, even though it had been a gift to him and not to her.
She had appreciated it, and she appreciated the offer to pay for her to enter Vauxhall Gardens today. As he escorted her into the gardens, she could not help but wonder why his offer to pay her three shillings – which she had had plenty of money to pay herself in her reticule – made her think of the incident with the cake.
