“In public, you may call me Ravenscroft. Let us pretend we enjoy a modicum of intimacy.” He gave a thin smile. “Practice the notion at dinner.”
Dinner, where his request for silence went almost unacknowledged. “Yes, Y—Ravenscroft.”
“Good.” He glanced down at the paper before him, frowning. “One more thing. If you wish to retain your maid, you will have to approach her yourself. I will next change the staff in two weeks. If she still pleases you by then, I suppose you may keep her around longer.” He scratched another note on the parchment and said, as though an afterthought, “If you have not displeased me in that time.”
Eleanor almost asked whether, by coming in here, she had displeased him—or even asked why he chose to change his staff every two weeks when it was surely more of a hassle than anything. But she already knew the Duke—no,Ravenscroft—well enough to know such a question would not be received well. So, she bobbed a curtsy he didn’t see and closed the door after her.
Once she was alone in the corridor, she pressed a hand to her stomach. Heavens, what had that been? Why did she still feel hot all over, and as though she needed something but did not know what? Her body was not her own, or at least, it was not any version of herself that she recognized.
But at least she had Olivia’s friendship. And if she could retrieve Abigail, that would be two people on her side; two more thanshe’d ever had before. With their help, she was certain she could find a way of winning the Duke over and making him hers once and for all.
CHAPTER NINE
Eleanor did not usually delight in misbehaving, or misinterpreting instructions, but when Ravenscroft had forbidden any of her friends or family from visiting them, he had not explicitly stated that she could not visit them in turn. Thus, the day after she had located Abigail and brought her back to the manor house—with the promise of compensation she would pay through her pin money if necessary—she left to visit Olivia.
If nothing else, she wished for a friend to confide in about this entire situation—and the mess that she had made of it all.
“Ella!” Olivia’s face beamed past her butler’s arm as Eleanor was admitted to the house. “May I still call you Ella? It is such a delightful name, and so easy on the tongue. I’m so glad you have come! Mama said it was awfully audacious of me to write to you on so little an acquaintance, but I justknewyou were like me and wishful of a friend. That will do, Gregory,” she added to the butler. “I will take Her Grace to the drawing room.”
“Of course, Miss.” The butler inclined his head and creaked away to do his duties elsewhere.
“He’s an old bore, but he’s been in the family forever,” Olivia whispered. “While we were in America, he took care of the house here, and I believe he came to half believe it was his, although you may be sure he would never admit to such a thing on the rack. But enough about me! You must tell me a little more about yourself. You are now a Duchess!”
“…Yes,” Eleanor said after a second where she tried to order her thoughts. They entered a well-appointed, bright drawing room. To her relief, she found no one else there. “I am very fortunate in a great many ways.”
“You should justhearthe way your stepmother talks about you now.” Olivia plonked herself on the sofa with a decided lack of grace. “If she is to be believed, you have been close ever since she married your father, and she is expecting an invitation to the Duke’s house the moment you have emerged from your wedded bliss.” Olivia grinned as she poured them both some tea. “Of course,Ididn’t believe a word of it. The Duke picked you, so he cannot have terrible taste, and I simply cannot imagine he wants that woman hanging around him. No doubt she has already decided which parts of his fortune she will use for herself.”
Eleanor allowed herself a grim smile. That wasjustlike Margaret. And something about Olivia’s bright prattling made her feel more at ease than she had almost anywhere else in the world. She could not confide about the alarming desires she hadexperienced with the Duke during their recent encounters, but she could confide some things, she decided.
“Ravenscroft has said he will not allow her to visit,” she said. “Or anyone, in fact.”
“The brute!”
“No, I believe it is common in marriages of this sort. We did not know each other before we married, you know. It was entirely a match made for convenience. I believe he was under some obligation to marry one of my father’s daughters.”
“Well, at least he showed some good sense choosing you, but Ella, you must not believe that cutting a wife off from her friends is acceptable behavior for any man.”
“Is it not?” Eleanor raised her brows. “I thought it was perfectly normal for gentlemen to have very particular notions about what they want from their wives.”
“Oh, perhaps in terms of temperament. And no doubt he would not want a scandalous wife—I suppose I should never marry a Duke, for I believe I am born for scandal.” She waved a dismissive hand. “But that is neither here nor there. Are you telling me he has been laying down the law?”
“Why does this surprise you?”
“Why, merely because no wife should put up with such a thing! And you, too, should not. Do you wish to be trapped in a miserable marriage for the rest of your life? I know many a lady in that situation, and be assured, it is not very pleasant.” Olivia put her teacup back on her saucer with deliberation. “If he does not already like you, and I cannot see why he could not—but let us follow the thought to its conclusion—then you must make him fall in love with you.”
Eleanor laughed, despite herself. “What a ridiculous thing to say! As though I have the power for that.”
“Of course you do! All you need do is seduce him.”
“Oh?” She raised her brows, uncomfortably aware of the warmth in her body at the prospect. “You say that as though you have experience in this matter.”
“Things are different in America.”
“Notthatdifferent, I fancy.”
“No,” Olivia admitted with a dimpled smile. “Not that different. And perhaps I do not havepersonalexperience, but can any lady say she has gone through a London Season without being witness to at least one assignation?”
Eleanor glanced down at her hands. “My experience with thetonis not that extensive, I’m afraid,” she said, neglecting to mention that the only assignation she had been even partially witness tohad been her own. And that one she had been decidedly more than witness to.
