“Perhaps,” Godric nodded, lowering his eyes to meet hers. “But I fear that without me present, you would get yourself into worse trouble than you can imagine. And I simply cannot bear that possibility.”
He faced the hosts again and nodded at them. “It was a pleasure to meet you.”
Then he walked away, leaving Nora seething.
Swiftly, she followed him as he walked right into a gaggle of young women who were expressing their awe over his presence.
“I was hoping that you might attend more balls, Your Grace. It would be a delight to dance with you,” one young lady expressed shyly.
“Well, as flattering as that is –”
“He dances worse than a newborn deer,” Nora cut the duke off. “You would expect that all the etiquette lessons he had been given would have granted him with some semblance of the skill, but he’s a rather disappointing dance partner. I watched him step on my friend’s foot at a soiree a few days ago and I felt blessed to have avoided his invitation to dance.”
The ladies stared at her in disbelief while Godric simply shrugged.
“It is rather ironic then, isn’t it, Miss Nora? Despite my apparent hopelessness, you have volunteered to assist me in improving to at least a decent capacity.”
Then he gave the ladies a look Nora could only describe as mix of solemn and earnest,
“She is truly a saint, when she’s not attempting to cause unimaginable chaos with her pianoforte playing. My tutoring can only do so much when one has questionable posture.”
“I have excellent posture,” Nora stated defensively.
“There is no same in admitting that you are not as well-versed in an area as you would like,” Godric told her, his tone placating. “I am sure we all have many skills we would like to give ourselves some grace to improve on. Is that not what makes humanity so sacred? Giving ourselves the much-needed grace to grow and improve?”
Nora could not believe what she was hearing. He sounded so utterly ridiculous, so… unlike himself. A glance at the ladies told her that they were not even concerned with her presence, their gazes fixed on him.
“That was a very unique perspective, Your Grace. You have a very kind heart and an open mind.” Another lady stated.
“Yet his emotions are as stunted as a tree consistently cut down before it can hope to reach its full height. Do not expect him to show much more of that ‘humanity’ he spoke about.” Nora scoffed.
“Well, that is because the life I have lived has allowed me to understand how difficult and cruel this world is. I might not necessarily open myself to weaknesses, but I do have enough empathy to offer others some leeway.” Godric stated his voice calm in a way that was beginning to greatly infuriate Nora.
“Oh, how noble of you!” the first lady sighed dreamily.
Nora could feel her strength sapping away, but she refused to relent. She was certainly not going to give in so soon – not untilshe had managed to instill some quantity of irritation in him, at least.
A viscount and his wife walked by moments later and the viscount had expressed how wonderful it was to see him up and about after so many years of his reclusion.
“Hardly. I cannot think of a singular pointless act than his reemergence into society. He has done nothing beneficial for us or even those who are living less fortunate lives. All this prancing about like a prized show horse is rather ridiculous.” Nora stated with a smile.
The couple looked aghast but then the duke simply responded,
“Would you feel better about my presence if I were sneaking about at ungodly hours to provide resources to orphans and widows? I have a charity in place for such acts. I do not believe it is necessary to make such acts into a public display of good or a hidden risk just because I would like to fulfil my sense of heroism.”
No matter what Nora tried to do, he seemed like an immovable force in the face of her words. She interrupted him, made pointed cutting comments and was rather rude and disrespectful, giggling too loudly, her gaze daring him to get angry with her.
But Godric simply remained calm, consistently meeting her rudeness with bantering, his tone leveled and gaze almost bemused.
Nora could not tell what upset her more – his nonchalance in the face of her wrath or the fact that she had been trying to deliberately anger him and nothing worked, whereas he could ruin her day with his mere appearance.
Just as she had begun to contemplate giving up, a hand gently wrapped around her wrist, and she whirled around to face the gentleman she had approached earlier in the evening.
“My apologies, Miss. You slipped away rather suddenly earlier, and I did not get a chance to properly assess if you were all right.”
“Oh,” Nora blushed. “Thank you for your concern, kind sir –”
“Lord Gabriel Thompson, Baron of Gainsbury. It is nothing at all, Miss –”
