He grinned at her and winked.
His grandmother’s restored good mood was explained as soon as they had sat down at table and begun to eat.“Barthorpe and his countess called this afternoon,” shesaid. “It was very civil of them, Tenby.”
“Yes, indeed,” he said, sipping his soup and wondering what his grandmother had said to them in his absence.
“They brought an invitation with them,” she said, smiling almost benevolently at him.
“Oh?” he said politely and waited for her to repeat what she had said to his aunt. His grandmother had always likedto milk a particularly good story. It must be a ball, hethought. It must be something more than a dinner to havebrought that expression to the duchess’s face. Damnation.And he was going to be expected to lead Lady Phyllis intothe first set in full view of the gatheredton. Well, he supposed the inevitable could not be postponed much longer.Not when his grandmother was at work on his behalf, anyway.
“We have been invited to spend a few days at Barthorpe Hall in the country,” the duchess said, “with a few other select guests. From Friday to Tuesday, in fact. It will be asplendid opportunity for you to fix your interest with LadyPhyllis, Tenby, and even perhaps to make your offer. Thereis no point in postponing the matter longer, is there?Barthorpe has certainly made his interest clear.”
The duke set his spoon down quietly. “You accepted theinvitation on my behalf, I suppose, Grandmama?” he said. His first thought had been that he would be away on Monday. He would have to go a whole week, from this comingThursday to next, without Harriet. And if a formal betrothalwas effected during his visit to the country, perhaps she would not be willing to continue their liaison even until theend of July. Somehow he feared that Harriet would be strictabout such matters.
“Eh?” Lady Sophia asked. “What was that, Archibald? You are mumbling, dear.”
He repeated his question.
“Of course I accepted,” the duchess said, a trace of impatience in her voice. “It is rather short notice, but I am sure you do not have any engagement that you cannot politelywithdraw from, Tenby. Everyone will understand. Everything is proceeding wonderfully well.”
“Yes,” he said. “It seems I will have to have a talk with the earl sometime during our visit.”
“At last,” his grandmother said in some triumph. “I was beginning to fear that you were never going to commityourself, Tenby.”
“That gel is going to be a handful, if you ask me,” Lady Sophia said. “No one can tell me that she has been on thetown for two years because no one will have her. She is astubborn little piece, I would not doubt.”
“I am sure she knows where her duty lies, Sophie,” the duchess said stiffly.
“I’ll have my little pet with me,” Lady Sophia said. “She will enjoy a few days in the country.”
The duchess looked at her blankly. “I beg your pardon, Sophie?” she said.
“Eh?” Sometimes, the duke thought, looking at his aunt shrewdly, he believed she pretended to be harder of hearingthan she actually was. “Oh, it was all arranged while youwere in the garden showing the countess the rosebushes,Sadie. Barthorpe would insist on talking in a whisper andturned somewhat purple in the face when he had to repeateverything he said. Sometimes twice.” She rumbled. “I toldhim that I can only ever hear my dear little Lady Winghamclearly.”
The duke would perhaps have been amused if he had not felt aghast at what he knew was coming. His grandmotherknew it too, he could see from a glance at her taut expression.
“What are you saying, Sophie?” she asked. “What did you force Barthorpe into?”
“Force, Sadie?” A look of wide-eyed innocence did not at all suit his aunt, the duke thought, amused despite himself. “Barthorpe is a gentleman, I’ll give him that, even ifhe does whisper. He was most civil. He promised to invitethe child into the country for my greater comfort.”
“She will feel remarkably out of place,” the duchess said coldly.
Lady Sophia chose to be deaf, and addressed herself to her roast beef. His grandmother had misplaced her goodmood, the duke saw in one hasty glance at her. She lookeddecidedly grim, in fact. And he? Part of him rejoiced. Hewould not be entirely without her, after all. Another part ofhim cringed. It seemed that both his grandmother andBarthorpe would expect some sort of declaration duringthose few days, and he could not see how it was to beavoided. Or whether it was desirable to avoid it. But Harrietwould be there. Perhaps she would be present for the announcement of his betrothal.
He remembered that only a few short weeks before he had been prepared to throw caution to the winds and offerHarriet marriage. He seemed a long way now from such agesture of freedom and defiance. He had backed himselfinto that corner he had so dreaded.
“Perhaps,” his grandmother said distinctly, “Lady Wingham will have the good sense to refuse her invitation.”
“Oh, I think not, Sadie,” his aunt said. “Not when she reads my letter. She is such a tender-hearted child.”
The Duke of Tenby was at Mrs. Robertson’s rout that evening. Harriet, in conversation with Mr. Hammond andLady Forbes, was relieved when she saw him arrive.Though it was not really relief she felt. Her heart beatpainfully and she knew that color was flooding her cheeks.She fanned herself and smiled at what Mr. Hammond was saying.
The Duke of Tenby usually wore dark colors, which always looked striking with his very blond hair. Yet he looked equally distinguished in this evening’s ice-blue coatand silver knee breeches with sparkling white linen andlace. Harriet turned away from him so that she would notstare.
And then the Marquess of Yarborough was bowing over her hand and kissing it—on the palm—and gazing into hereyes and complimenting her lavishly on her gown and onher eyes. And yet all the time his own eyes were insolentlyseeing, not her gown, but her body beneath it. It wasstrange, she thought, how quickly one could lose one’snaiveté—and one’s innocence—when one ventured out intosociety.
The duke kept his distance, as she had expected he would. He would not have danced with her the previousevening, she knew, if Lady Sophia had not trapped both ofthem into it. He kept his distance because he wished toguard both of their reputations, especially hers, she liked tobelieve. Or perhaps it was because he no longer felt theneed for social intercourse when he had what he wantedfrom her in private twice a week. She chastised herself withsuch thoughts as punishment for dreaming of love in hisarms when it was merely sex.
Although there were several opportunities to put herself in his way, she left it so late that she began to fear that perhaps he would leave early, as he often did. She finally contrived to be alone approaching a doorway as he camethrough it in the opposite direction. He saw her, bowedstiffly, and would have passed on. But she caught at hissleeve.
