Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
“Rose, who are you looking for?” Marianne asked. “Rose?”
“Hhmm?” Rose said absentmindedly, hardly paying her sister any attention. In fact, so distracted was she that she had completely forgotten that her sister was there.
“Rose!” Marianne stepped in front of Rose, cutting off her eyeline. “Who are you looking for?”
“Oh… me?” Rose blinked nervously and then laughed to distract from the situation. “Nobody, Marianne. I am just seeing who is here, is all.”
“What does it matter who is here?” Marianne whined, her shoulders collapsing. “He is here. And I just know that soon he is going to try to speak with me. Oh, please, if he does, do not leave us alone.” Marianne took her sister by the hand. “You cannot leave me alone with him.”
“With whom?” Rose asked, still distracted as her eyes searched the garden party.
“Who? Who do you think?” Marianne squeezed Rose’s hands, and she could feel her sister trembling. “The Duke is who. He is here, Rose. And he keeps on looking at me!”
“Right, yes, of course.” Rose shook her head to clear it. “I knew that. And it is perfectly fine, Marianne. I am sure you are just imagining it.”
“How can I be imagining it?” Marianne continued, becoming more undone by the second. “It is done, we are to be married, and no doubt he is watching me to make sure that I do not do anything to upset him.” Her chin began to tremble. “You promised me, Rose. You promised me…”
Rose’s chest tightened when she looked upon her sister, seeing just how upset she was, and how broken her state of mind was.
Sadly, there was nothing that Rose could do about it, yet. Despite the deal that she had struck with the Duke, she was hesitant to tell her sister the details, lest she fail. Better that she does not get Marianne’s hopes up until there was a reason to.
“I know I promised you,” Rose said as she looked at her sister to calm her. “And the two of you are not married yet.”
“But –”
“Trust me,” Rose spoke over her. “Please, Marianne. All I ask is that you trust me.”
Marianne grimaced and did not look at all as if she did. “I just wish he would stop looking at me like that…” She scrunched her face into a pout. “Perhaps I should do something to embarrass him? If he thinks I will be trouble, he might change his mind altogether.”
“No!” Rose cried before she could think.
“What?” Marianne said. “Why not?”
“Because,” Rose looked through the garden, where she found the Duke watching them. “Because it will make no difference, is why. He will marry you either way, and annoying the Duke will only anger him. Not to mention, Father.”
Marianne slumped. “I know…”
“Just trust me,” Rose said again. “And don’t do anything stupid.”
“I want to trust you, Rose, you know that I do. But what can you do? Nothing will change his mind.”
I wouldn’t be so sure about that…
Despite her sister’s quickly diminishing state of mind, Rose was doing her best to be positive. Which should have been easy enough, considering the opportunity that the Duke had given her. An opportunity she fully intended to make good on, no matter what it took.
The problem, as Rose was starting to realize it, was the very real fact that the man whom she had come here to learn about, Lord Ellery, was nowhere to be found. Nor did it appear as if he would be arriving anytime soon.
Rose had been certain that this task wouldn’t be nearly so hard to achieve.
She did not know Lord Ellery personally, but she knew his wife, just as she knew a few of his wives’ friends.
All Rose needed to do was sit with them, have a few drinks, and let their wagging tongues run rampant as so often happened at these parties.
Again, something that would have been made easier if he were there!
She looked over the garden party, trying her best to see beyond the mass of colorful gowns and smart suits.
Many of the guests stood in groups, chatting and laughing.
Others wandered freely. Some played games.
Many lingered by the orchestra and listened.
And all behaved themselves, as one had to do at these events.
It angered Rose that he was not there. She was beginning to suspect that she had been given an impossible task on purpose, and that the Duke had wanted her to fail.
Anger growing, she scanned the garden and found the Duke watching her. He was with friends, but he ignored them as he stared across the garden, making sure that she could see him clearly.
He was not smirking at her. He was not gloating.
But he watched her, those eyes unblinking and intense, and Rose was struck by the same sensation that always seemed to occur when she was around the Duke.
It was not one that she understood, but it made her feel uncomfortable and exposed as she had never felt before.
“Stay here,” Rose said as she stepped around her sister.
“Rose!” Marianne reached for her. “Where are you going?”
“To speak with someone.”
“Who?” Marianne asked the question, then followed her sister’s line of sight toward the Duke. “What are you going to say? Rose? Rose?”
Rose ignored her sister as she kept her stare leveled on the Duke, making sure to narrow her eyes. She was not going to be taken advantage of, and he needed to know it.
Surprisingly, the Duke removed himself from his friends when he saw her coming. He strode down the garden path toward her with a gait that suggested he expected the hedges might move out of his way if he needed them to.
He is just so frustrating! He knows how serious this is. He knows how much it means to me. He just does not care. Well, it is about time that he does.
“What is this?” she hissed when she reached him, keeping her voice low.
“Miss Rose,” he said with an exaggerated smile. “How lovely to see you.”
“You tricked me!”
“I did no such thing,” he responded calmly.
“You told me Lord Ellery would be here. That I was to –”
“I thought he would be,” he spoke over her, keeping his voice calm. “It seems he has other places to be…” A raised eyebrow, the meaning clear. “The deal remains, Miss Rose, and if you are as valuable as you claim, his absences should not matter.”
Rose glared at him. “You better not be trying to trick me.”
“I would do no such thing.” His green eyes flicked down her body, and a smile touched them. “I must say, too, Miss Rose, the gown suits you infinitely more.”
“What?” Rose frowned. “More than what?”
“The breeches,” he said simply. “You look infinitely better in the gown. Far more preferable in all the ways which matter.”
Rose’s eyes widened, and she felt her cheeks color with embarrassment.
Rose did not think of herself as unattractive.
She had thick and wavy dark hair, blue eyes that were clear and a tad too large for her face, and soft features that many had described as cute.
However, she was also quite tall, slender without large breasts, and with wide shoulders that many a boy had mocked her by describing as mannish and too muscular.
Marianne had always been the beauty of the two, and Rose was perfectly fine with that. Or she thought that she was…
To hear the Duke compliment her like this was—it was… it is a distraction! That is all. He is trying to get inside my head. I cannot let him.
“Perhaps the gown will suit you more,” she snapped, not knowing what it meant, but needing to say something. Then, a final glare, and Rose turned back and stormed away.
All the while, she could feel him watching her, and that feeling was nowhere near as awful as it should have been. If anything, she might have even said that she liked it.
“What did he say?” Marianne asked Rose rejoined them.
“What did who say?” Standing with Marianne was Lady Alison Huntington, a friend of Rose’s, as they were of a similar age and had come up in the Ton together.
“Alison.” Rose swept toward her friend and kissed her on the cheek. “I did not know you were here.”
“I wish I weren’t,” Alison sighed and rolled her eyes.
“So boring. And Charles–” She nodded across the garden toward her husband.
“—is already well past drunk. Perhaps I should stop him?” As she made the comment, Alison was sure to have a large mouthful of wine from her cup, and Rose chuckled to see that her friend was likely even more drunk than her husband.
“Rose!” Marriane pressed desperately. “What did he say?”
“Who?” Alison asked.
“The Duke!” Marianne cried and waved her hands in the air, which had Alison leaning back as she was very nearly whacked in the face.
“Oh, of course,” Alison crooned. “And might I say, Marianne, that a congratulations is in– Oh!” Alison cried out as Marianne spun on her, a little too wildly, sending Alison back, which in turn saw her glass of wine tumble from her hand.
“Marianne!” Rose exclaimed.
“Oh, no!” Alison moaned as the glass of wine splashed red across her yellow gown. “Marianne! Look what you have done!”
It was not nearly as calamitous as it could have been. Thankfully, most of the red liquid had missed the gown, merely staining the hems on the skirt. But Marianne’s extreme panic had caused the accident, and e Rose worried her sister was nearing the end of her tether.
So bad was Marianne’s mood that she hardly seemed to notice the mess she had caused.
“What did he say?” Marianne asked.
“Never mind that.” Rose swept toward her drunken friend and took her by the arm. “Let us get you inside, Alison. We will find a sink to wash this, so it does not stain.”
Oh no!” Marianne only then realized what she had done. “Alison, I am so sorry.”
“It is quite fine,” Alison drawled, her tongue thick in her mouth. “I was never a fan of this gown anyway.”
“Stay here, Marianne,” Rose said. “I will be right back.”
Her sister’s eyes were wide with panic, and she fidgeted with her hands. But she did as Rose commanded and stayed put as Rose led Alison through the garden and toward the manor.