Chapter 6
Chapter Six
“Come here, kitty,” Elinor cooed, crouched at her bedside again, trying to coax Newton out from beneath her bed.
Once again, he was curled up on her cloak, and she couldn’t help the tenderness in her chest from hearing his little purrs.
He blinked at her sleepily, and she stroked between his pointed ears. Stretching out his front paws, Elinor tapped the white tips of them.
“That is it,” she encouraged. “Come on.”
She jingled his lilac-colored leash in further coaxing, and Newton’s ears twitched.
“What are you doing?”
Elinor startled so hard at her stepmother’s voice coming from behind her that she knocked her back on the side of her bedframe. She ducked out, facing Lady Morland. Newton took that moment to emerge, and she quickly scooped him up before he could bolt at the sight of her stepmother.
“I am taking Newton out for a walk, like I usually do,” Elinor told her.
It was the morning she was due to meet the Duke of Fairmont, and all she wanted was for it to go smoothly and not be disturbed, but her stepmother’s face paled in horror.
“Where?”
“Hyde Park,” Elinor said slowly, “as usual, like I said.”
“No!” Her stepmother hissed. “No, not alone, you cannot.”
“I will have my lady’s maid,” Elinor insisted.
Please do not make Joanna or Belinda come, please do not—
“No, she was useless when you argued with poor Lord Thompson. He is still humiliated and has not been able to go out in public since your outburst.”
Then perhaps he knows he was wrong, Elinor responded in her mind.
“Stepmother—”
“No, I forbid it.” She shook her head furiously. “Not after that embarrassment. I will not risk it. You will be accompanied.”
“Stepmother, I will behave,” Elinor insisted, dread pitting in her stomach.
No, she really needed to be alone. “I will be on my utmost best behavior. I only wish to walk Newton. I will not even speak to anyone, and, as Belinda often points out, nobody speaks to me or approaches, either. There is really no risk.”
She was rambling, desperate in her need to go alone, to have the plan with the duke go without a hitch. Too much rode on it.
“I will come with you,” her stepmother said firmly.
“I will not risk you being foolish, no matter what you say. You have not yet proven to me that I can trust you, so I will accompany you. Joanna and Belinda, too. Heavens knows those girls need to get some promenading in.” Then, a light went on in her eyes, and Elinor’s dread grew.
“Besides, I am certain His Grace will be taking a morning stroll. Belinda can manage a chance meeting with him.”
Oh, he will be strolling, but it will not be to see you or your spoiled daughter.
Panic clawed up Elinor’s throat as she prepared Newton with shaking hands. How could she get out of it? There had to be a way, there had to be some way—
“Belinda! Joanna! Prepare yourselves,” her stepmother called out, whirling out of her rooms. “We are promenading in Hyde Park. Belinda, wear your best morning dress.”
“What of me, Mama?” Joanna called, their voices distant as they came upstairs from wherever they had spent their morning after breakfast.
Elinor didn’t hear her stepmother’s response, couldn’t focus on that, not when she tried to steady her breathing, not knowing how she could endure this.
Her hands trembled violently. She pressed her face into Newton’s tiny head, trying to find comfort in the responding purrs.
“Please do not aggravate them,” she whispered. “My nerves are frayed, and I know you dislike them for how they treat me, but we must both behave, all right?”
Newton gave a little meow in response. Elinor gave herself another few moments to stroke his rounded body, carding her fingers through his soft fur. She thought about brushing him briefly to further steel herself, but her stepmother entered her room.
“We will depart in five minutes,” she told her, and Elinor’s heart sank, nodding.
She had no other choice.
The Duke of Fairmont had chosen a good day for their pretend first meeting, for it was crowded.
The only problem was that the advantage was now a disadvantage, given Elinor’s company.
She walked through the main thoroughfare as he had instructed in a discreetly sent note the day before, stating the time and specific location, so Elinor had tried to direct her family there, pretending it was Newton hunting down his favorite paths.
Still, her cat kept hissing back at Elinor’s stepmother.
“Heavens, Elinor, that cat is as misbehaved as you,” her stepmother complained. “Can you not make it stop?”
“Newton is a he,” she grumbled. “And he is my pet. He is protective of me.”
“We are your family,” her stepmother snorted. “What protection do you need from us?”
“From … from strangers,” Elinor lied, knowing she needed to cover for Newton.
She jingled the lead, as if to remind him to be on his best behavior, as she was trying to be.
Behind her, Belinda was prattling on to Joanna. “What if we see His Grace? I do promise I shall leave the Duke of Silverford for you, as long as you do not get in my way again with the Duke of Fairmont.”
Elinor’s heart thundered with anxiety; she had not been able to calm it all morning since leaving her chambers. She tried to focus on Newton’s lifted tail, his cute trotting as he walked with her. He sniffed into the grass, and Elinor paused, forcing her family too, as well.
“Why are we stopping?” Belinda demanded. “We may miss the duke.”
“You wanted to come along,” Elinor answered, her panic making her voice sharper than she meant. Her stepmother’s eyes narrowed. “This is what he does. I cannot stop him from exploring. He is an animal.”
“Yes, but it is weird,” Belinda stressed. “I am already embarrassed. Everybody keeps looking at you, Elinor. Have you really no shame?”
At that, her shoulders shrunk. She was used to the glances she got for walking her cat, but she would never dream of keeping him cooped up in her bedroom all day.
“His walks are the only reprieve he gets from Morland House,” Elinor said defensively.
And heaven knows, I understand the need for that.
“I think it is cute,” Joanna pitched in. “Do not worry about the stares.”
“She ought to,” Elinor’s stepmother countered, her voice a scoff. “It is most unladylike, and your father would not stand for it.”
Elinor gritted her teeth, keeping her retort held back. What her stepmother did not know was that her father had gifted her Newton when he knew he would depart for the countryside estate.
“One must always have company,” he had told her, pressing the kitten into her waiting arms. “Care for him, well, Elinor. I think he will be as intelligent as you.” And then his voice lowered even more.
“Did you know that science ponders if cats can bond to their owners, soul-wise? He may become your soulmate, but I do hope you also find that in a husband.”
Together, they had chuckled, and Elinor did not have the heart to ever tell her father that her debut had not gone as planned, that she would likely never find a husband, let alone a soulmate beyond her beloved cat.
“See, Elinor,” Lady Morland said, and Elinor realized she had still paused for Newton’s exploration.
Belinda and Joanna had walked on a little ways ahead.
“This sort of behavior is what makes you so undesirable to men. They do not want to approach the strange woman who thinks she knows about science and walks her cat in the park and cannot stop fiddling with those forsaken spectacles. I know they are not loose.”
Elinor immediately put her free hand down, realizing she had been going to do just that.
Her stepmother glared at her before she impatiently gestured for Elinor to continue moving. She did dutifully, regretfully tugging on Newton’s leash to get him to move. He gave a mewl of protest, growling then at her stepmother, as if he knew it was her fault.
Elinor managed an apologetic smile at her stepmother before she ducked her head and continued on. Her eyes finally lifted from Newton, seeing those stares that her family spoke of, but she tried to blank them out. Instead, she tried to find the golden hair of the Duke of Fairmont.
I do not care if the morning sun will catch it and turn it into a halo, she thought. That does not matter to me. In fact, I do not care if he looks terrible. We only have to see this meeting through. Somehow.
She looked at her sisters up ahead.
Someway.
And then she saw him, approaching from the designated place he had tried to predict they ought to run into one another.
Right by the maple tree that overlooks the bridge over the west-side pond along the main thoroughfare.
Elinor’s stomach tied into knots.
“Be the perfect actress,” she murmured to herself. “Act well, lie, pretend, as you always do.”
“What was that?” Joanna asked, falling back to her side.
“Nothing!” Elinor said quickly.
“Oh, I see him!” Belinda cut in excitedly, coming to Elinor’s side. She smugly smiled at her, linking her arm through hers. “I shall introduce you to my new, good acquaintance, the Duke of Fairmont. I admit I am a little embarrassed to present you to him, but most proud to introduce him to you.”
“I shall do the introductions, darling,” Elinor’s stepmother said calmly, already moving forward.
She waved the duke over. For a minute, the duke frowned and the confusion was palpable. Elinor gave him an apologetic, panicked look, hoping he knew she’d had no choice.
“Your Grace!” her stepmother called out smoothly. “You must come over here to meet my daughters again. And my … other one.”
The duke made quick work of striding over, his confusion smoothed over impeccably, replaced by a polite, greeting smile.
“Good morning, ladies,” he said, bowing as they all curtsied. “It is a lovely day for a promenade, no?”
“Indeed, it is,” her stepmother said. “We are ever so fortunate to run into you, Your Grace.”
The duke’s eyes flitted over Elinor, and she felt that strange twist in her stomach again. “Most fortunate.”