Chapter 4
Norwood House stood at the edge of Kensington like a jewel set deliberately apart from the busy crowd of London – elegant, yet fairly aloof.
Asher had attended functions here now and then, but he was not close with the Earl of Norwood, who was a rather self-important type of gentleman.
Asher distinctly remembered his father being particularly dismissive whenever his name came up, and Asher’s own interactions with the earl hadn’t changed his mind.
The house, however, was beautiful, with bow-fronted wings that offered sweeping views of the gardens. Tonight, it was the setting for a ball.
“I am surprised you wanted to attend tonight, Asher, with all of the rumors as of late,” his sister said from where she sat next to her mother, across from him.
“Best to show that nothing has changed in my life,” he said, even though, deep within, he would rather have remained home for a more subdued evening.
But when the invitation from the Earl and Countess of Norwood had arrived, he had realized that it just might be the perfect opportunity to uncover any secrets that might be hiding among members of the aristocracy.
“I suppose,” Thalia murmured, although she studied him closely, likely knowing there was more to the explanation.
His mother sniffed. “Lord and Lady Norwood just wanted the opportunity to show off their latest renovations,” she said, lantern light shining over her face as their carriage rolled up the drive behind a great many others in line.
As they finally descended onto the drive, the tall front windows framed by ivy provided glimpses of the refined interior, lit by the soft glow of chandeliers sparkling through the glass.
“Well, here we are,” Asher said, leading his mother and sister into the house, greeting their host and hostess, who seemed particularly thrilled to see them in attendance.
But then, if any one of the ton was up on the gossip of the day, it was Lady Norwood, who was surely eager to have more news of the currently renowned Duke of Ravenscar, even if interest in him was now for all of the wrong reasons.
“After a drink, I think I best be off to find the card room,” he murmured to Thalia, who was already craning her neck, likely on the lookout for her friend, Miss Vale Vale.
Miss Vale had arrived in London earlier that year as the ward of Lord Eastclere under somewhat mysterious circumstances.
Of course, Thalia had been the one to befriend her, never wanting to see anyone left behind.
Inside, the rooms appeared to have been arranged with social strategy in mind. The central ballroom, where most of the guests congregated, dominated the ground floor, its polished parquet floor reflecting the candlelit chandeliers above.
In his search to discover the card room, Asher noted the long gallery of what likely featured ancestral portraits nearby, while smaller withdrawing rooms branched off the main hall.
Likely rooms where Lady Norwood could spy on her guests to provide gossip for the following day.
Asher made a note to himself not to fall into that trap.
At the back of the house, French doors led to a conservatory, while Asher guessed the doors within the ballroom led to a terrace and a garden. The open space was one thing Asher missed about his country estate.
Otherwise, he was just as happy to be in London.
This house was beautiful, yes, but Asher sensed that even its design was calculated to impress and to observe those moving within its opulence.
“Your grace!”
He had just entered the ballroom for the one drink he had promised his mother when Lord Julian Hartford found him.
They had been friends since their days at Eton, when they had bonded over their roles as second sons with little responsibility.
Asher still appreciated Julian’s friendship as much as he envied the fact that nothing had changed for Julian, who still lived his life with solely his own pleasures in mind.
“Lord Julian,” he returned. “Good to see you.”
“I wasn’t sure that you’d be here,” he said, “what with all the suspicions that you stole the Paragon Diamond and all.”
Asher groaned, rubbing his temple. “Can we not discuss that ludicrous idea?”
“That anyone would believe such a thing is beyond me. You could buy yourself a diamond anytime you pleased.”
“I could,” he agreed. “But apparently, I wanted this one.”
“Along with Lady Evelyn Stratford, it seems.”
“So it does.”
Julian looked around the room. “Your lover is over there, in case you are interested.”
Asher cast him what he hoped was a withering glare.
“You know as well as anyone that she is not my lover. I didn’t even know who the woman was until a few days ago.”
“You didn’t?” Julian looked at him in surprise. “She is one of the most beautiful, eligible young ladies. Although,” he tilted his head in consideration, speaking out of the corner of his mouth now, “she’s far too much of a bluestocking for me. Why her father allows all of that, I will never know."
Asher felt heat rising within him. Who was Julian to say what interests and activities she should be allowed? If he had discovered one thing since meeting Lady Evelyn, it was that her intelligence was something to be celebrated, not hidden away.
But to object to Lord Julian would only make Asher seem interested in her, so he kept his mouth shut.
That didn’t stop him from seeking her out with his gaze, finding her standing near the edge of the ballroom across the room, deep in conversation with another young woman.
Lady Evelyn wore a dress that was somewhere between cream and a pale blue, hugging her in all the right places before draping around her while tendrils of dark hair dipped over her forehead.
And those eyes. He should forget them, but he couldn’t forget their distinct color, hazel with a touch of green.
He saw them in his sleep, especially after she had eyed him with such assessing interest.
Julian chuckled beside him, and Asher startled, realizing that he had been staring for far too long. He took a sip from his drink.
“Enough,” he muttered.
Which only made Julian laugh even louder, drawing attention from those around them.
And that was when Lady Evelyn looked over and met his gaze.
Evelyn had arrived that night with her head held high.
She was not one for society events, but when she had seen the invitation, she’d known this was the perfect opportunity to speak to other young ladies and learn what she could without being too obvious.
Attending would also allow people to speak of her without risking her name becoming scandalous, showing that her life remained unaffected.
“Are you nervous?”
Lady Verity Merrow had met her halfway through the room, as though understanding that Evelyn needed support tonight.
Verity, cousin to the Marquess of Eastclere, was kind, steady, and perceptive, observant more than the cause for any attention.
“No,” Evelyn said, before meeting Verity’s knowing eyes and admitting the truth. “Perhaps slightly. Is anyone watching me?”
Verity hesitated, but she was always one to speak the truth. “Yes, since you walked through the door,” she said. “But I think they are just waiting to see how you have been standing up to all of the scrutiny. Show them that there is nothing more to be said.”
“Agreed,” Evelyn said before lifting her chin, although she felt the heat on her neck.
“The Duke of Ravenscar is here,” Verity noted, watching Evelyn’s reaction closely.
“Oh?”
“Yes, across the room with Lord Julian. Don’t look now, as they are staring this way.”
“Why?”
“Likely for the same reason we are discussing them. Your names have been linked, for whatever reason.”
“It is still perplexing,” Evelyn said in exasperation.
“I don’t think I have ever seen you perplexed before,” Verity said wryly as Evelyn finally allowed herself to look across the room — and catch the duke’s heated gaze.
She stilled, unable to move from his stare, even though she knew that she had no business looking at him in such a way.
But… he cleaned up very finely in those beautiful buff breeches that hugged his thighs and the black jacket that wrapped around him.
She shook off her admiration to wonder if he had learned anything since their last conversation, and resolved to find some time to speak to him again soon, even if it wasn’t tonight, with so many eyes on them.
“Lady Norwood was already sniffing me out, trying to determine just what had brought me here.”
“What did you say?” Verity asked.
“Her invitation,” Evelyn said with a grin, causing them both to laugh, loosening some of the tension that had settled in, even though Evelyn still couldn’t shake the sensation of being observed, and not with curiosity, but with calculation.
As though someone were waiting to see what she would do, and whether she would make a mistake.
“Lady Evelyn?”
Surprised, Evelyn turned to see who had risked the social ramifications of speaking to her, finding a small, familiar woman near her own age, awaiting her. It took Evelyn a moment to recognize her.
“Lady Thalia,” she said in surprise. “How are you?”
“I am well,” she said. “After all of the rumors that have arisen lately between you and my brother, I thought we should, perhaps, speak.”
“Of course,” Evelyn said. “I am always happy to spend time with you, as it has been a while since I have seen you.”
“I prefer not to attend such events, although my mother adores them,” Thalia said. “I enjoy… other pursuits, but I did wish to become reacquainted with the woman my brother spoke of with such… intensity.”
Evelyn felt her brows lifting. The duke had spoken of her to his sister? How… interesting. Thalia was charming and observant, and Evelyn had always liked her when they ran into one another at events such as these.
“He told me that you were discovering more about why you have been suspected,” Thalia said. “Have you learned anything?”
“I have not, unfortunately,” said Evelyn. “I seem to be going round in circles, as though this were a children’s game with the message constantly changing.”
“Oh dear,” Thalia said, biting her lip, but she was looking over Evelyn’s shoulder. “Here comes Lord Julian.”
“Lord Julian Hartford?” Verity said, her eyes widening.
“The very one,” Thalia said while Evelyn studied her friend, wondering why it mattered so much. Did she know the brother of the Marquess of St. James?
“Ladies!” he said as he approached, his warm brown eyes deep and inviting, his smile wide, a dimple flashing in his cheek. “How am I so lucky as to find the three of you here together?”
“It is positively shocking,” Verity said with what almost appeared to be an eye roll. Evelyn couldn’t help the laugh that emerged from her lips.
“I am not too scandalous for you to converse with, Lord Julian?” Evelyn asked, lifting a brow, and his eyes lit up.
“The more scandalous, the better, Lady Evelyn. Do you not agree, Lady Thalia?”
Thalia eyed him as would a woman who knew him better than most.
“Why have you come here, Lord Julian?”
“To this ball?”
“No, to speak to us. You have another motive in mind, I am sure of it.”
He dipped his head, placing his hand over his heart as though he was hurt. “I am injured by your lack of faith in my motives, Lady Thalia. However, I do have a question.”
“Yes?”
“How does your brother appear right now?”
Evelyn followed Thalia’s gaze across the room, her own jaw dropping when she took in the duke. He was watching them closely, his jaw tight, his fingers curled around his glass. But it was the way he was staring at his friend so intensely, almost like….
“The duke looks ready to drag Lord Julian outside by his collar,” Verity whispered in her ear, and Evelyn nodded slowly, for Verity was right. But… why?
Julian must have heard their remarks, for he threw back his head and laughed.
“Just as I thought,” he said before walking away, leaving the women shaking their heads after him.
“That was… interesting,” Evelyn said.
“Bizarre,” Verity said with a snort. “Just like him.”
Unsurprisingly, Evelyn didn’t find herself invited to the dance floor for the next couple of hours.
Not that she minded. Instead, she spent her time joining conversations, uninvited or not, trying to trace who had mentioned the rumor.
Verity aided her, and all they heard were vague guesses that led from one lady to another, circling.
Evelyn sighed as she leaned back against the wall.
“It’s useless,” she said to Verity. “No one is going to provide us with the answer we seek.”
“Don’t look now,” Verity murmured, “But Lady Norwood approaches.”
“Perhaps she can give us some information,” Evelyn murmured. “If anyone knows anything, it is Lady Norwood.”
As the woman, about ten years Evelyn’s senior, approached, Evelyn couldn’t help but stiffen. There was something in the way Lady Norwood was looking at her that told her she wasn’t coming this way solely to make her pleasantries.
“Lady Evelyn, I am so pleased you accepted my invitation despite all that is being said about you.”
Verity stifled her laugh by pretending to cough.
“I appreciate you inviting my father and me despite the circumstances,” Evelyn said. “I can hardly understand why anyone would suspect me of such a deed.”
“It is ludicrous,” Lady Norwood concurred. “Best to show a good face despite everything.”
“Agreed,” Evelyn said, walking with Lady Norwood, who had taken her arm.
Verity mouthed a “good luck” before slipping back into the people around them, despite Evelyn’s desperate, silent plea for her to remain.
Finally, Lady Norwood stopped them, just as the orchestra struck up a waltz.
“I was thinking,” Lady Norwood said, “that truly the best way to put this all to rest is to show that there is no reason to gossip.”
“On that note, Lady Norwood, do you happen to know—”
Lady Norwood didn’t just interrupt her – she interrupted her triumphantly. “You, Lady Evelyn, will lead this waltz!”
“Oh, I really don’t think—”
But Lady Norwood wasn’t finished.
“Your grace, how fortunate you are here. I was beginning to fear you would hide in the card room all night.”
As though Lady Norwood had accidentally led Evelyn across the room to where the duke was standing.
“You must lead Lady Evelyn!”
The duke’s eyes flitted toward her before returning to Lady Norwood.
“I do not think that is wise.”
“The Duke of Ravenscar with Lady Evelyn Stratford!” Lady Norwood announced to any close enough to hear her, a self-satisfied gleam in her eye.
Evelyn’s stomach dropped as she met the duke’s horrified expression.
But there was nothing else to do.
He held out his hand.
She placed hers within his.
Their eyes locked as he drew her close.
And the dance began.