“You arranged for everyone to go into town?” Lavinia repeated, staggered. “How did you manage that?”
“Well, the Duke of Harbeck is a very good friend of mine,” the Duke of Loxburgh explained. “I simply told him I thought it might be a fine idea for everyone to have an outing—to enjoy the fresh air.”
“An outing to enjoy the fresh air,” Lavinia repeated. “When really your intention in the whole thing was to bring me shopping for gowns?”
“Well, it does create an opportunity,” the duke said. He gestured to a fashionable shop. “Let’s step in here.”
“I haven’t any money for this, though,” Lavinia said. “And my father—I don’t know that he’ll be willing to give us a lot of money for new gowns for me. His stance will be that I already have plenty of fine things to wear. And, after all, he has a plan tomarry me to someone that doesn’t depend on anything new. He won’t see the need.”
“Well, I wasn’t intending to ask him for his thoughts on the subject,” the duke said. “I’ll pay for these things.”
“You’ll pay?” Lavinia frowned. “Why would you do that? I mean…it’s very generous of you, Your Grace, but you don’t have to do it, and I can’t understand why you would.”
“I owe you,” he said simply.
“You don’t owe me anything. I did you a kindness, but it’s not as if I saved your life.”
“In a very real way, it is like that,” the duke said. He looked at her. “I realize I didn’t show my gratitude to you the night you saved me from Lady Genevieve, so let me express it now. She stopped me on the path hoping to do the very thing I feared you hoped to do with me—something I now understand you had no intention of doing, of course. Her plan was to create a scandal between the two of us so that I would have no choice but to marry her.
I heard what you said about wishing to marry for love, Lady Lavinia. Personally, I don’t know if I believe such a thing is possible. I don’t know if I think marriages based on love are real. People tell me they are, but if it’s true, I think they must be so rare that they’re almost impossible to achieve.
I decided, long ago, that I would simply never marry. To be trapped into a marriage by Lady Genevieve would be a terrible fate. You saved me from that.”
“But you wouldn’t have had to marry her,” Lavinia pointed out. “It would be her reputation that was destroyed by the choice she made, not yours.”
“You’re right,” the duke said, “but I couldn’t have brought myself to do that. If it had come down to it—if it was a question of her reputation being ruined—I think I would have had to marry her. I couldn’t have walked away from something like that.”
“Even though it would have been her fault? Even though she would have done it to herself?”
“I suppose you find that pathetic.”
“I find it merciful,” she said quietly. “It’s hard to believe that a gentleman would do such a thing against his own best interests. I don’t know that I’ve ever met anyone like you before, Your Grace.”
“Sometimes the only thing a person can control in their life is who they are,” the duke said. “I may not have as much choice as I would like in the way my future looks, but I can choose to make good and respectful decisions, and to help other people where I can.”
Lavinia was quiet. From the way he had ordered her around and hadn’t hesitated to criticize everything about her, from her clothing to her personality, she had allowed herself to think of him as arrogant and self-important. She still thought those traits applied to him—though she was going along with his advice, it irked her that he was so condescending about the way he gave it out.
That didn’t mean he didn’t have good qualities, though. It was nice to see one of them.
He cleared his throat. “Let’s get you some gowns,” he said. “That’s what we came here for.”
She nodded. “I don’t know what to choose,” she admitted. “I don’t know much about fashion.”
“Let me look at you,” he said. “If you’ll do that, I’ll be able to determine what your best features are, and I’ll know what we should try to show off.”
“I thought we were trying to show off my eyes,” she said.
“To begin with, yes, but if we’re buying something new, we can do better than to showcase just one thing about you,” he said. “You have lovely eyes, but I’m sure you have other attributes as well.”
Lavinia’s heart sank slightly. If this was something he was counting on, he was going to be disappointed. “I don’t have otherattributes,” she said. “Not really. I’ve always been plain, and I don’t think there are any clothes you can put me in that will help with that.”
“Well, let me judge for myself,” the duke suggested. “Turn around so I can get a good look at you from all angles, please.”
Feeling a little shy, Lavinia turned.
It felt strange, almost intimate, to know that he was looking at her—that he was assessing her body the way he was. She longed to know what he was thinking—but at the same time, she had a feeling she might not like it if she did know. It might be too embarrassing. It was probably better to remain in the dark.
Still, there was a part of her that couldn’t help enjoying what was happening. Lavinia had never felt beautiful in the eyes of a gentleman before. She didn’t exactly feel that way now, but she did feel as if he was looking for things to admire.
