“Your hand is shaking,” the Duke commented as he handed her down from the carriage upon arriving.
“Oh,” she said faintly. “Is it, sir?”
“Why are you so alarmed?”
“I am not alarmed as such.”
“I told you that you must do me credit as my wife.”
She held her chin up high. “And indeed I shall do my best, Your Grace.”
“Ravenscroft,” he said irritably. “Or better still,Sebastian. I defy any of the gossip-mongers to say we enjoy no intimacy, or that I had no wish to marry you when we employ such informality with one another.”
Eleanor’s heart raced.Sebastian. She had known his Christian name, of course, before they had married. He was not just a Duke; he was also a man. And yet, the prospect of addressing him thus had never occurred to her.
“You give me great honor,” she said faintly.
“Indeed I do. So perhaps you might endeavor to try looking like it.” His voice was curt, but he rested his hand on hers as they entered the great house, and that gentle contact did a great deal to calm her nerves. She was not alone, however much sometimes it felt like it. The Duke was on her side, and he would protect her. Some small instinct told her that. If anyone dared insult or belittle her, he would defend her right to be in the position she had, even if he merely did it to preserve his own reputation.
The thought soothed her still further, and by the time they were introduced at the edge of the ballroom, she felt equal to raising her head and smiling and meeting theton’sinterested gaze with equanimity.
Beside her, the Duke played his part, transforming from the grouch that had sat opposite her in the carriage to a charmingyoung man who knew just what he ought to say. Still, as they made the rounds—everyone seemed keen to speak to the Duke and his new wife—she could not help noticing that none amongst his closest friends appeared to be in attendance.
Come to think of it, she did not know ofanyclose friends.
Interesting.
She glanced into his face, but he steered her into yet another small group of ladies and gentlemen. To her relief, she had not encountered her stepmother yet, although that time would come soon, she was sure.
“The Duchess of Ravenscroft,” he flaunted, presenting her, and she smiled and blushed.
“I say, Your Grace,” one gentleman said to her once the party had split. The Duke had found himself engaged in conversation with a rotund older gentleman, and Eleanor had been accosted by this young buck. Several years younger than the Duke, she estimated, and probably not out in London all that long. Perhaps he had not long graduated university at all. “You are remarkably pretty,” he smiled. “Ravenscroft is dashed lucky to have you, and that’s a fact. But I do not believe we have met before? I am Lord Sinclair.”
Eleanor curtsied. “A pleasure to meet you, Lord Sinclair.”
“And the man speaking to the Duke now is m’father.Curstboring affair this, but I don’t suppose there’s much to be done about it now. Say, Your Grace, I don’t suppose you’d like to dance? There’s little else to be done, and the Duke can’t steal you away all night.”
Eleanor glanced across at the Duke to find he was still deep in conversation with Lord Sinclair’s father. He had never said anything to her about dancing with other gentlemen, and while she did not find Lord Sinclair especially appealing as a romantic prospect, she may as well enjoy herself where she could, and his open admiration of her personwasflattering. Far better than being stuck in a conversation she had no part in, or wished to take part in.
“Of course,” she smiled, putting her hand in Lord Sinclair’s. “Thank you. I should be delighted to dance with you.”
As she stepped out into the center of the room where the other couples were gathering, she could not help but feel the Duke’s hot, heavy gaze on her back.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The devil take it. Sebastian scowled as he accepted a glass of wine and tried to look as though he did not wish to be anywhere but here. His wife, dancing the first two dances with a young buck, set on flirtation. Of course, she likely did not know it, but she ought to have known better than to dance with another man.
The first two sets as well, dash it all.
You ought to have asked her, a small voice said in the back of his head.
Of course, he knew that well enough, but he had not expected her to accept the hand of the first gentleman who had requested it.
In truth, he had not expected anyone to ask her at all. A fool’s error. He had presented her in a way to make her appealing to all the young men in the room. A wife, a new Duchess, lookingespecially well. It was like dangling bait in front of them and expecting them not to snap.
Now he would be forced to watch her dance for half an hour, and no doubt when he came to collect her and impress upon her the importance of her duty to him, she would fix him with an innocent gaze and inform him that she did not know he had ever intended to dance with her.
Until this moment, he had not.
