Page 20 of The Wise Daughter
“They do look rather grim, don’t they? I never understood it until I was forced to sit for a portrait as a child. I sat for hours at a time day after day. I look like the most unhappy eight-year-old in that painting. My portrait will never be painted again.”
Nora frowned. “That’s unfortunate, Your Grace. Won’t your offspring want to see how you were in your younger days?” Without thinking, she ran her fingers along the thin chain that secured her mother’s miniature around her neck.
“What is that?”
“Oh. This is my mother.” She gave him a glimpse before letting the miniature drop to her chest. “She died just over a year ago.”
“I’m sorry, Honora.”
She looked back at the portrait of his great-grandmother, grateful the duke didn’t press her for details.
“I was told my great-grandmother loved Holmrook Castle.” He turned his gaze entirely on her. “I hope you will be comfortable here too.”
“Thank you, Your Grace.”
She began to walk again, pretending to examine the portraits while stealing glances of him from the corner of her eye.
“Why did you not join me for breakfast, Nora?”
His voice was rich and stronger than it had been last night, and somehow, his words carried more weight. Guilt swept through her, though she tried to tell herself she had done nothing wrong this morning.
“I wanted to find fresh air and enjoy a moment alone before I ate.”
“I see. If you are willing to forego being alone, I can help you find fresh air. There is a place I’d like to show you.”
She looked up and down the corridor, unsure what the proper etiquette was when in the company of a stranger one is betrothed to. “But who will chaperone us this morning, Your Grace? Shall I call for Janie or my father?”
“Nora,” his voice grew low, “you are engaged to the Duke of Ravenglass. We don’t need a chaperone.”
Heat rippled up and down her center.What a combination! Those words and his eyes!
What could she do but take the arm he offered her?
Chapter 8
The duke’s arm was just as firm as she remembered from the previous night, but much more steady. At his first step, however, she saw him wince.
“You’re still hurt, aren’t you? Oh, of course you are. After what those men did to you?” Her anger flared at the very thought that the criminals had escaped. “We don’t have to walk, Your Grace. I’m quite content to go to breakfast now.” It was her fault he was putting weight on his injured ankle.
“I promise you, there’s nothing wrong with me.”
She rolled her eyes. “My father says the same thing when he is hurt. Do you expect me to believe you when you speak between grimaces?”
“I won’t let a few bruises stop me from showing you around the castle. Besides which, I don’t want anyone to perceive anything out of the ordinary with me.”
“I’m sure that is already out of the question, Your Grace. You became engaged to me as soon as we met.”
His face pinched with the next few steps, but he swiftly managed a smile. “Not true, Nora. We became engaged at least an hour after we met.”
“One earlier hour that no one else knows about hardly counts for much.”
“But it did count. It counted a great deal.”
He gave her a significant look, the sort that carried with it more meaning than the words he had spoken. She might have felt flattered had his confidence not convinced her that he had given other ladies that look before.
Once they fell into a rhythm, the duke either grew hardened to his discomfort or better at hiding it. Never tiring, he led her up staircases and through corridors that turned her around so much, she would have been helpless to find her own way had she not made note of every distinct feature she could, a beam slightly askew, steps that grew wider or narrow, a unique set of tapestries. All these and more, Nora tucked into her memory to learn her way through the extensive passageways.
The more staircases they climbed, the more convinced she was that they were not heading to the breakfast room. The duke eventually paused before a large, wooden door that matched others Nora had seen throughout the castle, only this one had a set of ornately sculpted sconces on each side.
