Chapter 16
“Welcome!” Norman boomed happily.
Reeves laughed at his friend’s exuberance. “His Grace the Duke of Heathmare. I must say, I never thought I would see you so overjoyed to hold the title you do. There was a time you hated the very notion of being a duke.
“Well, I’m still not overly fond of it,” Norman chuckled. “But it does come with some awfully nice benefits, I will say that. Including the ability to throw rather splendid parties. This event is worth the trouble.”
“I’m so glad you could all make it,” his wife, Susan, said, beaming at everyone. “Agnes, we had hoped we would see you here, given…what people are saying.”
“What they’re saying about her suitor, you mean?” Reeves asked, raising an eyebrow. “Is the fellow here? I would very much like to meet him. I have a few questions for him, if he’s going to be courting my sister.”
“I haven’t seen him yet,” Norman said. “If I do, rest assured I will point him in your direction, Reeves. I’m almost as eager for that conversation as you are.” He grinned. “I can’t wait to see what you’re going to say to the Duke of Bellmoor about his scandalous relationship with your sister.”
“Oh, Norman, stop that,” Susan chided. “We all know there was nothing scandalous about it. That’s just the gossips making things up again, just like they always do.”
“Though my sister does seem to provide the gossips with an unusually high volume of material,” Reeves murmured.
“I can’t help it if I’m interesting,” Agnes said, raising an eyebrow.
“But you can help it that you draw attention to yourself,” her brother countered.
“Be happy tonight,” Norman said. “Enjoy the party. And enjoy meeting the Duke of Bellmoor! I’m sure you two will find plenty to like about one another once you really settle in to talking, Reeves.
For now, go on in and get yourselves some drinks.
I’m going to greet the rest of my guests, but I will catch up with you before the night is over. ”
He took Susan by the arm, and the two of them walked off together.
“Really, Reeves,” Bridget admonished. “You don’t want to make a scene.”
“I just don’t understand why this all had to be put together at the last minute, that’s all,” Reeves said. “If he really is courting you, Agnes, why couldn’t he come to the house and introduce himself to me there. Why not escort you to this ball instead of making you come on your own?”
“I’ve told you this already,” Agnes said. “He has a young niece that he cares for. He doesn’t like to spend time away from her. He will be here tonight for as little time as he can without being impolite to the host.”
“And what about rudeness to you?”
She stared him down. “I don’t ask him to choose me over his niece,” she said firmly.
“I would never be so selfish as to ask such a thing of anyone. And I would certainly never be offended at the fact that it hadn’t been offered.
If someone else needs that sort of devotion in a courtship, they may say so.
But I have never been a very needy person, and you know that about me.
I am happy with his participation in my life, just as it is.
I wouldn’t want anything more from him than what he already offers me. ”
“You’re not used to asking for more,” Reeves said. “But maybe you should.”
Agnes turned away to keep from rolling her eyes at him.
“He may be right,” Bridget pointed out gently.
“He isn’t right,” Agnes said. “He hasn’t even met the Duke of Bellmoor yet, and he’s already trying to tell me how to manage this courtship. Reeves may be my elder brother, but that doesn’t mean he knows better than I do about everything. I do know a thing or two about my own life and preferences.”
“Of course you do,” Bridget agreed. “That wasn’t what I meant.
I’m just saying that…maybe Reeves has a point about you being unwilling to ask for as much as you deserve, Agnes.
You’re a very good person, and you’re worthy of a great deal.
I think you should consider that you have the right to expect things of people. Maybe more than you ever have.”
Agnes sighed. “I think you both need to consider that I’m getting everything I want,” she said.
“Have I ever given the impression that I wanted a courtship at all? This is a new development, no matter how you choose to look at it. And while I am enjoying myself, I could easily tire of this. If the Duke of Bellmoor were to insist on peppering me with his constant company…”
“I didn’t realize my company was such a burden to you,” said a voice filled with amusement.
Agnes turned. It was him, of course—Gabriel. Fortunately, he was smiling. What she had been saying hadn’t offended him. Even so, though, she was embarrassed at having been caught talking like that, and her face grew hot.
She cleared her throat and tried to regain her composure. “Gabriel—this is my brother, Reeves, Duke of Greystone. Reeves, this is the Duke of Bellmoor.”
She saw her brother’s eyebrows lift at the informal address, but he didn’t comment on it. “It’s good to meet you, Bellmoor,” he said. “It’s good to meet the man who’s been squiring my sister about town.”
“I imagine it would be,” Gabriel agreed, inclining his head in a slight bow. “In your shoes, I think I would be very curious to meet me as well.”
“May I ask you about your intentions?”
“Nothing short of honorable,” Gabriel assured him. “But tonight, my intentions are very simple.”
He turned and addressed himself to Agnes. “Would you consent to walk with me, Lady Agnes, as the dancing has not yet begun? And perhaps we could take a turn on the dance floor a bit later?”
He offered his arm.
Reeves said nothing, simply raised his eyebrows. Agnes couldn’t be sure what her brother was thinking —but it had to be something good. Gabriel was being an absolute picture of honor and class right now. Even a brother couldn’t object.
“I’d like that very much,” she agreed, taking his arm. “Reeves, Bridget, I’ll find the two of you a bit later, if that’s all right?”
“Are you sure you don’t want company?” Bridget asked eagerly, and Agnes could tell that she was eager to spend time with them and to get to know a little bit more about Gabriel and about their relationship.
To her surprise, it was Reeves who intervened. He took his wife’s arm and held her back. “Let them alone,” he murmured quietly. “Let them have a moment.”
Gabriel and Agnes walked off together, arm in arm.
“I’m surprised he allowed that,” Gabriel murmured as they made their way through a pair of double doors that led out to the garden path. “I didn’t think he would. I thought he would insist on coming with us, chaperoning us.”
“I think you impressed him,” Agnes said. “He was glad to see you weren’t an utter beast—I think he worried you might be.”
“Why would he fear that?”
“I don’t know,” she gave him a pointed look. “People do have a tendency to assume that a lady is too helpless to watch out for herself, and that anyone she meets will try to take advantage of her. But you wouldn’t know anything about that.”
He wrinkled his nose. “I was right to worry about it at the gentlemen’s club,” he said. “I acknowledge that it didn’t happen, but I was right to be concerned that it might. You won’t convince me otherwise.”
She nodded, not really wanting to revisit that debate.
“I think Reeves also wants you to be a good person,” she said.
“What I mean is that he wants to be able to put his trust in you, because his preferred outcome in all this is that you and I be married when it’s over.
” She hesitated. “I’m already starting to worry about that,” she admitted.
“It’s going to be difficult to tell him that our arrangement has come to an end. ”
“Will he be angry?”
“Disappointed, I think. Not angry.”
They made their way down the garden path. “Have you been to Heathmare before?” she asked him.
“I haven’t, as a matter of fact.” He turned to look at her. “Have you?”
“The Duke of Heathmare is a close friend of my brother’s,” Agnes explained.
“I’ve been coming to this house for as long as it has been his—although that hasn’t as long as a person might speculate it to be.
I don’t know if you’re aware of the history of this manor, but Norman wasn’t raised to this title.
He came into it only recently, when a distant relative died. ”
“Ah, so he didn’t grow up anticipating that he would take on these duties?”
“That’s right. He’s risen well to the challenge, but no, he didn’t expect it to be a part of his life.”
“Life can often be funny like that,” Gabriel mused. “Giving us things we didn’t expect.” He glanced at her.
Agnes didn’t know if he meant to imply anything with that glance, but she couldn’t argue.
Life was undoubtedly full of surprises. She would never have imagined that she would be here, walking along the garden path with the Duke of Bellmoor, considering him to be a partner in courtship.
And if she had imagined that such a thing might happen to her, she certainly wouldn’t have dreamed that she would actually enjoy the bond between the two of them.
That she would want to spend an evening with him.
They rounded a corner and found themselves alone on the path, away from any of the other attendees of the ball.
Agnes swallowed hard. They couldn’t stay here.
She knew that. If anyone were to come across them, it would give rise to scandal.
And she needed to remember what she had told herself the other day.
Scandal might not bother her, but if it had the potential to cause problems for Helena, it wasn’t something they could tolerate.
“We shouldn’t stay here,” she murmured. “We might be seen alone together.”
He was clearly following her thoughts. “All right,” he said.
“Let’s go back to the house. I’m sure the musicians will be starting soon, and it would be good to dance.
We do want people to see that.” He smiled.
“Including your brother, I think, now that I’ve met him.
I’m eager for him to see me dancing with you. ”
“Why?” She looked at him.
“Because I want him to know that I take this seriously,” Gabriel said. “I didn’t think I was going to care, but, believe it or not, I like the fact that he likes me. I want to keep winning him over.”
“You just like the idea of proving a point to him, I think,” Agnes said with a smile. “But you’re in luck, because I also like that idea. Let’s go back and get a few dances in, and we’ll make sure he sees them.”
They linked arms and walked back to the house.
Agnes’ heart raced as they stepped back onto the main path. A few people looked their way curiously, but no one stopped or took any real notice of them, and she relaxed and allowed Gabriel to lead her back through the doors and into the ballroom.
The moment they stepped inside, the music began to play.
He held out a hand to her. She took it, and for the second time, she began to dance with him in front of a crowd.