If she wore a green dress, as he’d asked her to, that would mean she was listening to his advice. That would mean she had decided to accept his help.
If she wore anything else, it would be a rejection.
Seth knew he shouldn’t care as much as he did about what choice she would make, especially since he had no intention of forming any sort of long term relationship with her, but he found he couldn’t help it. He had taken an interest in her, and it seemed as if there was no going back now.
CHAPTER 5
Lavinia regarded herself for a long moment in the looking glass.
She wasn’t sure about the green gown. She never had been. It never looked good hanging up in her wardrobe, and she felt as if the neckline was strange on her. It exposed more than some of her other gowns did. Was she really going to wear this for no other reason than that the Duke of Loxburgh had asked her to do so? It was such a strange thing for her to choose to do. She had never been the sort of lady who would do something she didn’t wish to do just to please a gentleman.
She sighed. What was the harm? It was one night. It was one gown. She would likely have worn it at some point during these next two weeks anyway, and she would have thought nothing of it. It only felt strange to do it now because someone had asked her to.
Resolutely, she turned away from the looking glass. She would wear the gown. She would let His Grace know that she had accepted his advice. She couldn’t say whether it would impact anything, but even if nothing at all came of it tonight, at least he would stop feeling as if he owed her anything. Her life could go back to normal.
It reallyhadn’tbeen a very significant thing. So she had pulled him off the path—what of that? Wouldn’t anyone have done the same thing? She might have done it for anyone else. It hadn’t seemed important at the time. But he seemed to feel that it was. Even more maddening, he didn’t seem able to decide whether he thought she had done it out of kindness or manipulation.
Well, that was his problem, not hers. She didn’t have to convince him of anything.
She left her room and went down the stairs to find her father waiting for her in the foyer. “Here you are,” he said, frowning. “And what took you so long?”
“I told you I was going to take a nap this afternoon,” Lavinia said.
“A nap. When you have only a short time left to find yourself a husband, you choose to spend it sleeping?” He shook his head. “I always knew that your priorities were in the wrong place, Lavinia. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. It’s a good thing I intervened. How else were you ever going to find yourself a husband without my help?”
“Didn’t Edwina have a nap this afternoon as well?” Lavinia asked.
“But you know that things are different for her. She can’t marry until you do anyway. But the moment she’s able to accept a suitor—why, they’re practically lining up, Lavinia. See for yourself.”
He led her into the sitting room, where she saw that most of the party guests were gathered in the sitting room around an assortment of tables. Cards had been produced, and several games had begun. Lavinia walked into the room and paused, glancing around to see whether there was room at any of the tables for her.
She saw nothing—the tables were all fully occupied—but she did notice something else as she took a seat near the fire.
Heads had turned when she came into the room. People were looking at her.
She felt herself begin to blush. She was unused to being looked at, and it was something she usually tried to avoid, for she knew that she was judged harshly by the gentlemen of theton—not to mention the ladies. It had been that way at every party she had attended last season. That was one of the reasons she preferred to keep out of the thick of things, lingering to one side while the others engaged in their revelry. It was always better not to be the center of attention.
Not that she was the center of attention now, she reassured herself. There were plenty of people who hadn’t turned their attention away from their card games at all. It was just that there were more people looking at her than there ordinarily would have been, and that alone was enough to make her feel uncomfortable.
“There,” her father said. He didn’t seem to notice the attention she’d garnered at all. “Just look at your sister.”
She looked around for Edwina. Her sister had arrived early enough to join one of the card games, and she was laughing as though she was enjoying herself more than she ever had in her life. She shared the table with three gentlemen, all of whom seemed to be vying for her attention. None ofthemhad looked up when Lavinia had entered the room.
Perhaps some people would have been jealous, but Lavinia couldn’t help smiling at the realization that her sister still commanded more attention than she did. Some things would never change—and perhaps that was for the best.
A servant appeared with a glass of wine and Lavinia accepted it gratefully and took a sip. It was the perfect distraction from the fact that she wasn’t making of this moment what she knew her father would want her to. He would have insisted that being looked at was a good thing and that any lady ought to know enough to take advantage of it; to strike up a conversation with one of the gentlemen who had noticed her. And Lavinia did know that was what she ought to do. It was just that she found it impossible.
His Grace might have told me to wear the right gown, but he never told me what to do next, she thought, surprised to realize that she felt some unhappiness about that fact.My clothing has never been my problem. Indeed, fashion was the one area in which she felt able to equal her sister, since they bought their gowns from the same shops. The gowns never looked as lovely on her as they did on Edwina, but that wasn’t about fashion. It was just that Edwina was prettier.
She would always be prettier. She would always be more gregarious. It didn’t matter what Lavinia wore. She would always be a paler version of her sister.
“I see you decided to take my advice,” a voice murmured.
Lavinia turned. The duke was there, sinking into the seat beside hers. He looked her up and down appraisingly. “I like that gown,” he commented. “I was right about it.”
“Right about what, exactly?”
“That the color would look good on you,” he said. “It brings out your eyes.”
