Cori swallowed a bit nervously.
Clearly, the Countess of Upwell had been responsible for the seating arrangements. That much was obvious as the woman was staring directly at Cori as though waiting for a reaction.
Cori was determined not to give her one.
She accepted a glass from the footman and took a healthy sip of claret.
She could do this. She could make pleasant conversation with His Grace. She was perfectly capable of doing so. She was. After all, she had faced down a Bahamian customs official for the better part of an hour one time. She had once even talked a pelican out of the ship's cook's best hat. So she could manage dinner next to the Duke of Linthorpe. Even if he did have the loveliest grey eyes she’d ever seen.
To her right, Mr. Atherton had turned his attention to his sister Emma, which left Cori to manage the left side of the table on her own. The Duchess of Hythe was next to Linthorpe on his other side, which Cori had only just noticed; but the duchess was already engaged with Lucien to her left, and there was a moment, just a brief one, where it was only the two of them, Linthorpe and Cori, at their end of the table with no one else paying them particular attention.
His Grace turned.
"Miss Corinna." His greyish blue eyes were direct and a bit warmer than she'd expected. "I don't believe we've been formally introduced, though under the circumstances that seems rather beside the point, doesn’t it?"
"We’re nearly family," she agreed with a nod. She meant to say something clever, something to capture his interest, but what came out instead was, "I'm very glad to finally meet you properly. Cait speaks so warmly of your family."
He looked at her for a moment in that steady way he had. "Your sister has made Daniel extraordinarily happy," he finally said. "I find I am quite in her debt for that."
Oh, that was unexpected. And lovely. And she liked him enormously for it. "She’s happy too," Cori replied quickly before reminding herself to steady her pace. "Happier than I've ever seen her, actually, which is no small thing. Cait does not do half measures, so the fact that she’s this blissful is rather significant."
The corner of his mouth moved upward. There. She had been waiting for that since the Plumstead ball. Up close it was even better than she'd remembered.
"Daniel does not do anything by half measures either," he confided. "It has been the defining challenge of my existence for the past twenty-seven years."
She laughed at that, genuinely, and his almost-smile became something a little more definite and a great deal more appealing.
"At least they are well-matched in that regard," she said.
"At least," he agreed, and there was something dry and fond in it that made her want to ask him a hundred more questions about Lord Daniel and about growing up at Acklan Castle and about whether Hannah had always been the force of nature that she was, but dinner was beginning in earnest and the Duchess of Hythe had said something on his left that required his attention, and he turned.
Cori turned to Mr. Atherton.
"You look pleased about something," he said with a knowing glint in his eye.
"I am pleased about everything," she replied, which was true. "It is a very good evening." And it was even better than she could have imagined.
Mr. Atherton glanced briefly past her toward the head of the table. "Yes. I rather think it is."
She chose to ignore the knowing quality of that remark.
Between courses, the conversation opened up to include the duchess, and it was Her Grace who said, with the natural ease of someone merely following the thread of the evening, "I was thinking today about the arrangements for the wedding. Acklan Castle in August. It has been too long since I've seen it."
"It is very fine in the summer," Linthorpe said. He paused briefly as though deciding whether or not to divulge a truth. He surprised Cori when he added, "Daniel has been after me for years to open it up more. He feels it sits empty too much of the time."
"Is he right?" Cori asked, before she thought the better of it.
He looked at her, and she felt it in her bones. Then something passed through his expression that she couldn't quite name. "Probably," he said. “But do not tell him I said so, it will make him unbearable.”
Cori bit back a smile. "He says it’s one of the loveliest places in the world. He says it with such conviction that I find myself quite prepared to believe him."
"My brother says most things with conviction," Linthorpe replied. "It’s one of his more exhausting qualities."
"Is he ever wrong?"
“Often.” His greyish gaze held hers with just a hint of mirth. "But not about Acklan. He’s not wrong about that."
There was something underneath those words, something she couldn't quite reach from across a dinner table at a first meeting, but she tucked it away carefully because she thought it mattered.
