So why should it be so distressing to her that he seemed to be doing exactly that?
She glanced over her shoulder. Matthew was walking a respectable distance behind them—far enough away that he wouldn’t hear what they said to one another, though not so far that he couldn’t keep an eye on them.
She turned back to the Duke. “Forgive me, Your Grace,” she said. “Is everything all right?”
He glanced at her. “What do you mean?”
“You don’t seem quite yourself, that’s all,” she observed. “You look as though you have something on your mind.”
He was quiet for a moment, and she thought he might have decided to ignore the question. Perhaps he felt she had been too forward. She wondered whether she ought to be angry with him for refusing to answer—after all, what was the point of spending a day together if he wasn’t going to engage her in conversation?
But then he did answer. He looked up at her. “Forgive me,” he said. “I hadn’t realized you knew me well enough to notice something like that about me.”
“I think I know you better than either of us may have realized,” she observed slowly, surprised to find herself admitting it.”
“I wouldn’t have thought you would want to know me well.”
“Well, I didn’t want to. But I’ve spent enough time with you that you have become familiar to me,” she commented. “You’re quieter than you ordinarily would be today, Your Grace. I can tell that something is on your mind.”
“It isn’t anything much,” he said. “Something my grandmother said to me.”
“Do you want to discuss it?”
“With you?”
“Only if you want to.”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, looking rather surprised. “I didn’t think you would ask me a question like that.”
“I didn’t think I would either, but…if you’d like to tell me, I think I would like to know,” she offered.
He smiled faintly. “Does this mean I’ve succeeded in making you care about me?”
“Don’t spoil it,” she said. “There’s a difference between caring that you’re unhappy and being charmed by you, and a gentleman as clever as you are ought to know that.”
“So, you think I’m clever?”
Edwina groaned. “I see you’re not so unhappy that you’re unable to torment me.”
“Tormenting you cheers me up,” he said with a smile.
“Well, I’m always happy to oblige you in that regard.”
“Sarcasm doesn’t become you.”
“I wasn’t trying to be becoming.”
“Of course, you weren’t. You never are, are you?”
“Not usually, no.”
They walked in silence for a moment.
“So?” Edwina prompted.
“So what?”
“Your grandmother. What did she say?”
