Chapter 2 #2
Lady Fullerton was all smiles. “Nonsense, Your Grace. My party shall be the talk of London tomorrow and every hostess will be green with envy that I snared this coup. You and Miss Farthingale, secretly in love, and now you are to marry! And to declare it at my rout! It is wonderful, simply wonderful.”
She called for her butler to bring champagne for everyone. “I shall offer a toast to your good fortune and many, many years of happiness.”
They both thanked her sincerely.
Tulip hoped they might get a day of happiness out of this fiasco.
After the toast, the orchestra resumed playing.
It happened to be a waltz.
“Would you care to dance with me, Miss Farthingale?” Davenport asked. “I believe it is expected of us.”
She stared up at him, dismayed because he was incredibly handsome.
Perhaps it was the splendid way he looked in his formal evening attire, the impeccably tailored jacket that molded to his muscles and made his shoulders look so broad.
Perhaps it was the heat she noticed in his piercing, dark eyes that had her melting a little as he stared at her while awaiting her answer.
All of that magnificence was capped by glorious waves of dark hair.
She smiled at him in gratitude, but also felt some hesitation because she was worried about what would happen once their betrothal announcement was shown to be a hoax.
But for tonight, they were a young couple in love. “Yes, it would be my honor.”
He led her onto the dance floor and took her in his arms with the confidence of a man who knew how to hold a woman and make her melt.
Oh, she was so out of her depth.
The butterflies in her stomach were in a mad flutter and her legs were in danger of turning to sand and crumbling beneath her.
She understood why a young lady could fall in love with this man.
But whatever had possessed him to make this sacrifice for her?
“Thank you for everything,” she said with heartfelt sincerity as the music started because there was no denying he had defended her reputation tonight.
“No need to thank me, Miss Farthingale. I did you no favor.”
“Please call me Tulip, for we are now betrothed and a certain familiarity ought to be acceptable. But…how can you deny your good deed? You saved me from Caruthers and from my own foolishness. It was quite valorous on your part.”
“You think so? Well, no matter. We’ll continue the conversation at your uncle’s home.” He said no more as he guided her with obvious proficiency around the floor.
This man had all the skills and made everything look easy.
She followed his lead and remained silent as they danced, for she was trying to make sense of him. He now looked severe and authoritative, yet had shown himself to be wonderfully valiant and protective.
He sighed upon noticing her dismayed expression. “You think I am angry with you.”
She nodded. “Aren’t you? And do you not have every right to be?”
“No, I knew the risks involved in coming to your rescue. But I also knew this might work out well for us.”
“How?” She did not see any advantage to him in taking her on as his wife.
Well, perhaps there was one. He would no longer be considered eligible and hunted down by every debutante wishing to snare him. It could be more accurately said that they were hunting the title and not the man himself.
Another advantage was that as a duke, he had the power to set whatever terms he wished for in their marriage.
Who would dare contradict him or deny his demands?
Was that it? Did he want a wife in name only and thought he had settled on someone biddable? Namely, herself.
This might make sense if he had a reputation as a rake, but he did not. If anything, he was the quiet sort who spent most evenings on his own, working or reading.
And if he thought he had just proposed to someone docile and easily managed, someone who would not interfere with his style of living, then he was about to receive a rude awakening.
She was not docile.
Although she understood why he might mistakenly think she was. Having been raised in the countryside, she had not yet gained confidence going about in a big city such as London. After months of living here, she was only now beginning to learn her way around the bustling streets.
What also confounded her were these rules of Society that seemed so arbitrary.
She was still grappling with them, particularly when they felt so hypocritical. Why make a fuss about a young lady’s virtue when so many of the married ladies had affairs after marriage?
Some of these ladies were not even discreet in their liaisons.
Neither were their husbands, for that matter.
“Do you doubt our marriage could be advantageous to both of us?” Davenport asked, responding to her question with one of his own. “You could be useful to me. The seat of the Davenport dukes is in Somerset, and this is where you were born and raised.”
“Yes, I grew up in the village of Burnham which is not far from Thornwycke Hall,” she said, referring to the impressive estate that was his ducal seat. “But I did not realize you were aware of this. Then again, it is no secret and must have come up a time or two in conversation.”
“Yes, it did.”
But those conversations were never with her because she had spent much of their acquaintance avoiding him.
No doubt, Marigold had told him all about her.
Her cousin was sweet and delightful, but could also chatter like a magpie.
“I am still not sure how my Somerset background helps you,” she said. “I was not raised among the titled elite and can tell you little about the prior Davenport dukes or their families beyond what I noticed from a distance or what I heard going around our village as common gossip.”
“That is far more than I know about them. I’ve had no dealings with them since I was a little boy. By purposeful design, but now I wish I had kept a closer eye on what was going on over these past few years.”
She regarded him thoughtfully. “Because a string of Davenport dukes have died in quick succession? Yes, the local magistrate could have used your skills to investigate those untimely deaths. You do not need to marry me to find out all the lurid gossip I’ve heard about that. I will gladly tell you.”
He arched an eyebrow. “They were ruled accidental deaths by the local coroner in each instance. Have you heard anything to the contrary?”
“No,” she admitted. “Although to lose so many family members within a short period of time seems quite unnatural, don’t you think?”
“Not unnatural. People die, and this is the natural way of things. My predecessors did not have sterling reputations. Who knows what damage they did to themselves with their profligate ways?”
Tulip merely nodded, choosing not to argue the matter. But four Davenport dukes had died within a span of five years. Was this not significant enough to raise doubts about how innocent those deaths were?
She had lost both her parents in a tragic accident years ago.
One accident that had led to both deaths.
But this is not what had happened with these Davenport dukes.
Four had died in quick succession, although the first had died quite innocently of old age. But the others? Each had met his abrupt end in a different way.
Two had died after falling off their horses.
One had drowned.
“Tulip, I did question how I came to be the next duke. Until a couple of years ago, I was too far down the Davenport line to ever consider that I might inherit the title. But you have to understand my family.”
“Oh, I know your family’s reputation quite well.”
He cast her a wry smile. “Yes, which explains why you so diligently avoided me all these months. The Davenport men are hedonistic wastrels. Name any vice, and I’ll give you a Davenport duke who indulged in it to the extreme.”
She nodded. “We all saw how they lived their lives of excess and indulgence. They cared only for themselves and gave no consideration to the harm they caused others. Is this why you believe their deaths in short succession plausible?”
“Yes, although I did have my doubts. Ultimately, I could draw no other conclusion. I’ve read the coroner’s reports and they were quite thorough. He ruled the deaths accidental. No hint of foul measures.”
“Oh? When did you read them?”
He cast her a wry smile. “Shortly after I inherited the title. I thought it prudent to do a little investigation, just to be certain nothing more was going on. I was not keen to become the next duke about to meet a quick and untimely end. Must we discuss this now?”
“No, I suppose not.” But she was relieved he had looked into those deaths and was satisfied there was nothing sinister going on.
She had enough concerns about marrying him.
A murderer on the loose should not be one of them.
Her greatest worry was in regard to the terms of their marriage.
What was he offering?
Having come from a large and loving family, this was important to her.
She did not care about becoming his duchess. A title in itself was not going to secure her happiness. What she wanted was a true and loving friendship between them. The hope of children in their future.
She had grown up surrounded by caring family, for both her father’s Farthingale relations and her mother’s Hester family had taken active roles in raising her. Every cousin, whether related by first, second, or third degree of consanguinity, treated her as one of their own.
John Farthingale was actually her father’s cousin, but she referred to him as Uncle John because it felt odd to call him cousin.
The same for George and Rupert, since they were the older and wiser family members and it felt right to address them as uncles, too.
Perhaps this was why she appealed to Davenport, a man denied the warmth and protection of his blood kin.
By marrying her, he would acquire a ready-made, closely knit family.
Was not his desire to be a family man among a good family like hers another point in his favor?
Tulip was still trying to make sense of him when he regained her attention. “What are you thinking now, Tulip?”
“That you are an excellent dancer,” she said lightly as he continued to twirl her around the crowded dance floor with effortless grace.
“Is that all?”
“Truthfully, I am thinking of us and trying to figure out what I should hope for in our marriage. And also learn what you are hoping for in this union, should it come to pass.”
“Still reluctant to believe this is real? It is, Tulip. At least, for my part. But yes, it is something important that we must discuss.”
She nodded. “This is what I am trying to organize in my mind. Why did you choose me? Merely because of my connection to Somerset? I know it quite well, but so do many other people. It seems you have just saddled yourself with a convenient tour guide. You could have paid anyone to tell you more about the area and your family than I could.”
“Why are you dismissing your importance to me?” He frowned while continuing to lead her through the steps of the waltz that would soon come to an end.
“Because we are not equal in any respect. Not in height or strength. Not in bloodlines. You are a duke. My father was not even gentry. You are experienced in worldly matters and I have been sheltered in the countryside for most of my life.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“After months of balls and routs and musicales, I still feel awkward and uncertain. But you…you are one of those annoying people who do everything well and make it appear easy.”
He laughed at her last remark, a deep, mirthful rumble that felt quite nice as it wrapped around her heart. “Is this what you think of me?”
His gaze was piercing as he stared at her.
He had a disconcerting way of appearing aloof and icy on the surface, but there was a smoldering heat that simmered just below that expressionless exterior.
That heat now surfaced as he asked, “Tulip, you have now told me what you think of me and what you think of yourself. But you haven’t asked the most important question yet.”
She had no idea what he was talking about. “What question is that?”
“Do you have any idea what I think of you?”