“Perhaps the greatest mistake you would make was what he meant. Men and their selfish brains can mix up quite a bit of common sense with nonsense. This is why I say it is better to stay away from them. Many are as useless as they come. Hopeless creatures who derive joy and pleasure from women by taking away our joy and sense of self. I do not care for it, and I intend to live out my days in a cottage at the end of London, perhaps with some cats and enough yarn to knit my time away.” Penelope sighed.
“You can’t knit. You can barely thread a needle.” Nora frowned.
“And you fall into a fit of sneezing whenever you get close to cats,” Jane pointed out, voice soft as she raised her teacup to her lips.
“You both just love to steal my joy. Cruel beings,” Penelope glared at them, throwing the crumbs of her devoured scone in their direction. “Anyway, this conversation was not about me. Why are you not thankful for the duke’s intervention, Nora? Tobias is certainly raving mad if he believes that you and he were meant to be – especially after you witnessed him with one of his… trysts. I would be very grateful for the duke’s interference if it kept that madman at bay.”
“I am thankful!” Nora said, her tone bleeding frustration. “I do – I did appreciate his efforts. However, I cannot help but feel annoyed by how he managed to do so without showing any expression on his face. He is like a blank sheet always, so utterly void of emotion. Even after I told him why I had ended my betrothal with Tobias. All he did was agree that Cecil was right to want to protect me so fiercely. It is so infuriating how inhumane his reactions are. I cannot help but feel as though I am conversing with a wall of ice, or even a lump of lettuce. Bland.”
Jane hummed, keeping her nose to her book as Penelope refilled her cup of tea with a thoughtful expression.
“Honestly, I do think that is rather strange. Perhaps he is incapable of showing emotion?” Penelope reasoned.
“What sort of human is incapable of showing emotion?” Nora echoed, confused.
“Perhaps one with extensive damage to the mind,” Jane suggested.
“The duke looks quite well, so I doubt he is sporting any damage to his mind. Maybe it is not that he cannot show emotions, but rather that he feels no reason to do so. If the latter is the case, I think I know how to solve that problem – whilst making things interesting for us. If you are going to be stuck with him, you might as well derive some sort of entertainment from it.” Penelope suggested with an excited glint in her eyes.
Nora nodded, spurring her friend further after she prompted, “How so?”
Penelope leaned closer and whispered conspiratorially, as though anyone in Jane’s quiet greenhouse would have paid them any mind.
“I propose a running game; make him show some sort of emotion. Anger, sadness, happiness, and jealousy. Any of those – or all, as you’ll gain more points that way.”
“And what will you both be doing to win this game?” Nora enquired, folding her arms.
“I shall recluse myself from this game,” Jane smiled with a glance up.
“We,” Penelope drawled, wrapping her arm around Jane’s shoulder, “Will offer encouragement to keep you motivatedenough to get it done. Think of it as a bet – if you get him to show any form of emotion, you win, and we have to do whatever you want. If you are unable to, you will lose, and we have to honor whatever request you might have, no matter what it might be.”
“You are enjoying my irritation far too much,” Nora grumbled.
“All the better to be more involved in your exciting life, my dear. Besides, I do not hear you refusing to participate.” Penelope pointed out with a taunting smile.
She was right, much to Nora’s ire. Nora had no plans to refuse, but was rather plotting what she would do and how best to carry out those intentions. Because honestly, she was quite curious about Godric. She wondered exactly what made him tick, what would bring a smile to those ever-grim lips of his.
Nora once more wondered what he was like when he was interested in a woman – if he was the possessive sort who would get caught in a fit of jealousy if any other man spoke to his beloved. She wondered if he was even capable of love.
“Have you received any word from your brother?” Jane asked after Nora responded to Penelope’s last statement with an expression of irritation.
“Not yet,” Nora shook her head. “He said not to expect anything from him within the first few days. Besides, the moment I have a chance to reach out to him, I will unleash my flaming wrath upon him.”
“Ohh, sounds dangerous. I hope it is just as potent on paper as it is within you.” Penelope grinned.
“I’m sure he misses you a lot. Has your father spoken of him since his departure? Does he miss him at all?” Jane questioned softly, putting her book away.
Nora snorted, brushing away the crumbs of the cookies she had eaten before she spoke up.
“Hardly. Even the day Cecil left, when I had told father that I was leaving to see him off, he did not offer his greetings or well-wishes. Afterwards, when I told him that Cecil had left, he simply waved me away. He has never been interested in any of us – not our upbringing, our interests, or anything about our lives. The only time he gave me any sort of care or interest was when he had been arranging my betrothal to Tobias. That turned out rather splendidly, did it not?”
Nora had long since given up on having any expectations from her father. He had always been a selfish man who cared more about himself and the accumulation of his wealth than the lives of the children in his care. He was not concerned with any of them or their well-being, and she was eager to leave his side after she was married.
Cecil’s absence was felt even more so now because she had been left alone with only her father to relate to, and there was never any point in speaking to him anyway.
“I am sure that he regards you all in his own way,” Jane said earnestly.
Nora nodded with a smile, not wanting to tell her friends how unlikely that seemed. Jane perked up suddenly, and she rose out of her seat and walked off in a hurry, returning later with a small stack of books tied with a blue ribbon.
