Page 41 of The Duke's Last Dance
“No, but I thought a teacake would help best break the ice,” he said. “You look rather beautiful tonight, Lady Catherine.”
She felt her cheeks heating up softly, and she took a bite of her teacake to hide it. Well, to try to hide the blush she felt rising on her cheeks and getting deeper as she struggled to control it.
When she had finished her bite of cake, she replied, “And you look rather dashing today, Lord Burton.” She smiled a little.
They continued to talk as if nothing had happened between when they had last talked earlier and right then. It was a wonderful conversation, and he made sure to give her time to talk about herself. She had always been worried that men would not give her a chance to talk since her voice was a soft one, but he had no problems with it, even in an environment that meant he may not have been able to hear her as easily as he would have liked to.
She appreciated that it was nothing more than business as usual for him to talk to her.
Eventually, though, the conversation had to end as the tea party was finishing up. He bade her farewell. She returned the sentiments, and then headed inside.
That night, as she was sitting in the tub, she again wondered what Nicolas could have wanted to talk to her about. He was not usually one to be so bold with others, but if he was willing to be bold with her – especially with everything going on with Miss Alexia in his life – then perhaps there was something that he had wanted to make sure she knew about.
If that was the case, then she had no idea what it could be about.
She wondered if he was to tell her of his intentions to marry Miss Alexia Balfour. If that was the case, then she did not understand why he felt the need to tell her that. It would be announced in the papers as an engagement when he made that move, and that would be that.
However, she also felt conflicted. She had not treated him as nicely as she could have this afternoon, and she hoped that he was not angry with her. There were better ways to tell him what she told him, and she could have even requested that she be allowed to go get Miss Amelia before he talked to her.
She shook her head, and then grabbed a towel. Her bath water had got cold, and she did not want to catch cold. As she dried off, she remembered that she’d had Miss Amelia put a nightgown on the bed for her.
She walked into the bedroom and began to get ready for bed.
However, as she did that, she continued to have one thought. She hoped that Nicolas had not been angry at her for how she had approached the situation. If anything, she believed that she was the only one with a right to get angry.
She sat on her bed once she was all dressed, her legs dangling off the side of the bed a little more than she thought necessary. As she pulled her legs up underneath her, she again began to play the guessing game of what he had wanted to talk to her about, and what he had thought he would gain by catching her so off-guard and alone.
Had he meant to make her mad, to see how she would react if he wanted to talk to her alone and gave her no choice in the matter?
That is what had upset her the most. She’d had to walk away from him to make her point clear. He either thought it was an incredibly important piece of information he had to tell her or that she would not dare to walk away because she was more ladylike than that.
What he had not counted on was the fact that sometimes being ladylike involved standing up for one’s reputation.
That was certainly the case today, and she had not thought it would be. She had always thought that being ladylike was being able to carry any kind of conversation with anyone, and that she would be able to have that trait no matter what the conversation would have entailed.
Well, that had not been the right train of thought. She had been able to tell him that she wanted to protect her reputation, and that she had to think about that before anything else. She wished she had told him to think the same thing about his own reputation, but that had not been on her mind when she walked away.
She had indeed, however, told him to do it properly next time and ask for her at the front door or bring Miss Amelia with him when he wanted to catch her off-guard.
Next time… would there even be a next time now that she had so rudely and abruptly told him off for what he had done?
She lay back on the bed, her head spinning. This was too much for one person to think about all at once, especially after what had happened.
Eventually, she fell asleep, and she dreamed of Nicolas coming to find her again. This time, he had Miss Amelia with him. However, the information he had to tell her was not at all pleasing to the ear. He had told her that he did indeed want to marry Miss Alexia. He had come to ask for the brooch back, as he did not believe that it was worth allowing her to keep the little token from years ago.
She had argued that she had only worn it twice – once without realizing he would be there at the dinner, and once when Miss Amelia had thought it a good idea to put it on her dress without her saying it would be a good idea. He had not cared. He wanted his brooch back, and he would get it back.
Miss Amelia had not brought the brooch down with her, and he ordered her to get the brooch.
Catherine had stopped Miss Amelia from doing so, and she had even told Nicolas that he would not get the brooch back as it was the only sign she had left of his love for her.
It was at this point that she woke up, gasping for breath.
His love for her… she did not know if that was true any longer. He had only danced two sets with her at Almack House, and though one of them had been their song, she did not believe he would dance with her any longer.
And… it hurt to realize that. It hurt to realize that she would probably never have another dance with Nicolas.
So, in the middle of the night without a candle to light up her room, she sat there, gasping, all alone.
