“It pleases me as much as any appearance. Why do you ask?” Gemma asked innocently.
She could not see how a blind man would know that someone was staring at him. She had been. In fact, she had been struggling to look away. There was a nobility to his features that she had rarely seen, and a beauty that took her breath away.
“There is a curious stillness in someone who is studying one. It is an instinct. On those rare occasions I have engaged in social interactions beyond this house, or entertained guests, I have noticed that peculiar quality at times. Were you studying me?” He smiled as he said it, a smile that spoke of mischief and amusement.
“Yes. I was. I believed it would be simple to do unobserved.”
“I have learned to harness the information provided by my other senses. There is much that can be learned or deduced about one’s environment without sight.”
“It’s like magic,” Gemma said.
The Duke laughed. “I suppose it must seem that way.”
The laughter transformed his face. His smile was wholehearted and genuine. Merriment put a light into his stony features that made them glow.
This man will give someone a remarkable husband. He is simply beautiful.
Gemma reached across the table for a plate of what looked like sweetmeats. As she did, the Duke made the same move. Their fingers touched the rim of the plate, and for a moment, both froze. Gemma was bewitched by the warmth of his skin. Instead of pulling away, she deliberately allowed her fingers to linger on his. After a heartbeat’s stillness, the Duke lifted his fingers away from the plate by a fraction of an inch, pushing them against Gemma’s at the same time.
Then, he reversed his hand and gently took hold of hers. He tilted his head, as though seeing her through his touch. A moment later, he shook himself and withdrew his hand. The touch had lasted for a second or two but felt to Gemma like an hour. She also shook herself, feeling the spell fall from her.
The wine is going to my head. This is not a sensible idea.
“Apologies. That was impertinent of me,” the Duke said.
“Not at all,” Gemma assured him, somewhat breathlessly.
She could think of nothing else to say but found herself desperate to fill the silence. While it stretched, all she could think of was the feel of his touch upon her. Her mind began to wander into realms of imagination in which his touch roamed further than her hand and was unrestricted by the encumbrance of clothing. Heat rose in her cheeks and with it, she knew, would be a deep, rosy color.
Thank goodness he cannot see it!
It was then she realized that a touch of color had risen in the Duke’s cheeks. A wild and fanciful thought raced through her mind. Was he thinking the same thoughts as her?
“Preparations are well underway for the ball in three days’ time. I am confident that there will be an embarrassment of riches present for you to choose from,” he said in a hurried tone, as though also clutching for something to say.
“Choose?” Gemma said without thinking.
She drained the remainder of her wine and no sooner had she replaced the glass on the table than the Duke was raising the decanter from which it had been poured. Gemma laughed again.
“How do you know my glass is empty!” she exclaimed.
“The sound an empty glass makes, the sound of your drinking, and a knowledge of how much was poured to begin with. Elementary,” the Duke replied with a smile. “As to choices. I of course refer to eligible gentlemen who wish to court you.”
Before Gemma could make any reply, there came a long, low moaning sound from near one of the windows. The Duke rose and walked to it, taking up a brass funnel that was connected to a flexible tube attached to the wall, and running down through a hole in the floorboards. He held the funnel to his ear and nodded, then put it to his mouth.
“I shall be down momentarily. Have our new guests accommodated in the Sea Room.”
Then he turned back to Gemma.
“Forgive me, Miss Emily. But, we have two unexpected visitors. Two gentlemen wishing an audience with me. If you will excuse me for a moment?”
“Of course, I do not wish to detain you. I am quite fatigued. Perhaps this would be a good moment to end supper and for me to retire for the evening?” Gemma said.
The Duke hesitated, then smiled. “As you wish. I will escort you.”
Gemma smiled through the fear that flooded her. It was too much of a coincidence.
The two gentlemen callers must be her cousins.
