Chapter 17
Seventeen
“Ihave a surprise for you,” Windham said the following morning when he found Isabelle throwing a ball for Rose in the apple orchard.
Isabelle tossed the ball again. “There is nothing you need to do for me. Supper last night was disastrous but I shall be fine. It was only a moment of weakness.”
“Yes, but there are still weeks to the season and you need something to ground yourself.” Windham tilted his head in the direction of the house. “Come with me.”
Curious, she followed him with Rose trotting along at her heels. “I really am fine. You know that, do you not? Cruel words from women are nothing new. They are as common in America as they are here.”
Windham tucked his hands into the pockets of his breeches. “Must you be so infuriating?”
“Always.” She gave him a small smile. “I will try to be less infuriating in the future.”
“No,” Windham said quickly, his gaze meeting hers before he looked away. “I do not wish for you to become someone you are not. It is simply an observation.”
Isabelle wished that the butterflies in her stomach would become less relentless. Her heart skipped a beat each time she looked at him. She didn’t know what to think anymore. This was a side of the duke that didn’t make sense to her.
“Will you tell me what this surprise is, Windham?” she asked as they drew closer to the house.
He took a sharp turn down a small path, leading to a little building with a base of stacked stone and walls of glass. “How can a surprise be a surprise if I tell you what it is prior to you seeing it?”
“I do not know. I am horrible about keeping surprises. Each time my mother has tried to surprise my father, I let it slip. She does not tell me about the surprises anymore.”
Perhaps that is the reason I do not know what else your arrangement with my father entails.
She was certain that whatever Felix was taking great pains to hide from her would only upset her more.
Isabelle took a deep breath and pushed it out of her mind. Now wasn’t the time to think of such things. She had made her decision to save her friend and she was going to stick to it.
If none of the suitors were tolerable she would find another way to convince her father to help. It would be a Herculean task, whereas entering into a marriage would be much easier, at least for the short term. Looking into the future was murky at best.
Running away is always an option.
Windham looked back at her. “You look like you have a million different things going on in your head right now.”
“It is seldom quiet in there, to be honest.” Isabelle stopped with him outside the little glass building and waited while he unlocked the door before handing the black metal key to her. “What is this for?”
“This is going to be your art studio.” Windham stepped to the side, sweeping his arm out in front of him.
She stood there dumbfounded. “My what?”
“Victoria mentioned that you wished you had brought watercolors with you. I had this little building, and I thought that it would make you a proper art studio for the time being.:”
Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. “Why did you do this? This is too much, Windham. Thank you.”
He shrugged and waited for her to enter before following her in. “I know that this household can be a lot to deal with at times. I would not survive it if I didn’t have a place to be on my own every now and then. This studio will be for you to use whenever you feel like it.”
She ran her fingers over the stack of canvases and sheets of textured paper stacked on one of the counters. “This is all too much. Thank you.”
“You are willing to help my family. This is the least I could do for you.”
Isabelle took a deep breath and went to the little pots of paint, looking through all of the colors lined up in a neat row.
She knew it would have cost several pounds to stock the little building.
For a moment, she considered offering him money to pay for all that he had done, but she knew he would take her gesture as an insult.
Isabelle realized that this was the most selfless thing that anyone had ever done for her.
She looked around at the small space again. It was all her own. There would be a place for her to go when she needed a moment to feel like herself again.
It was more valuable to her than the duke would ever be able to comprehend.
The Dowager Duchess came rushing toward them. “We are late and you have yet to get dressed, Miss Alden.”
Heat flooded Isabelle’s cheeks as she nodded to the duke before following behind his mother.
The last thing she needed to do was make an enemy of the Dowager Duchess, particularly because she would soon be meeting her suitors and giving them an opportunity to tie her down forever. She needed the Dowager Duchess on her side if she wanted to survive in this world.
“She is an American,” one of the women whispered behind her fan as Isabelle and Lady Victoria strode by.
The woman beside the first laughed. “I hear that all the wealth in the world would not make her the sort of woman a gentleman would wish to court.”
Isabelle longed to turn around and give them a piece of her mind, but she was doing her best to be a well-mannered young lady. However, if the glares from the women around were anything to go by she had already failed.
She took a deep breath and leaned closer to Victoria. “What is the point of walking in the park?”
“For you to be insulted, apparently,” Victoria said, shaking her head. She shot a withering glare at another group of ladies who passed them, all of them taking a look at Isabelle’s dress before turning to whisper behind their hands.
Isabelle swallowed hard, forcing the easy smile to stay on her face. “Oh good, I was sure I had the purpose wrong.”
Victoria laughed and looked over her shoulder at her mother. She turned back to Isabelle and towed her down a path that led toward a large maze carved from rose bushes. “You should not have to tolerate what they are saying about you.”
“They shall say what they please and there is little I or anyone else can do about it.”
“They will not be laughing when you find a husband that is better than theirs.” Victoria paused at a fork in the path before guiding them down the one on the left.
“It is why they are being so cruel to begin with. They assume that tearing into your insecurities will force you to back away from the marriage mart and settle for the first man who comes your way.”
“We both know that will not happen.” The corner of Isabelle’s mouth twitched as she looked at Victoria. “The first man who came my way was dreadful.”
“Lord Townshend surely could not have been the worst man you have met.”
“Since my arrival in England, yes, but I suspect there will be more marching my way quite soon.”
Isabelle’s stomach lurched just thinking about getting married and abandoning the life she knew. While she was certain that she wanted to help her friend, she had been up most of the night tossing and turning, trying to figure out if this was truly the right thing to do.
Nonetheless, in the name of saving Victoria and Windham’s duchy, she would entertain the men and give them pretty smiles, and in the end she would do her best to find a husband she could bear for the rest of time. It seemed impossible but she intended to persevere.
At least, she hoped that she could.
Another pair of women passed by close to them. One stopped in front of Isabelle, her beady blue gaze dragging up and down the dress Isabelle wore. Her thin lips pursed and her cheeks hollowed slightly. She blew out a breath and shook her head, a cruel smile forming on her lips.
“I simply do not see it,” the young lady said, shaking her head. “I do not know what Lord Milton would see in a woman like yourself, and yet my brother said that you were all he would talk about last night at cards. Though from what I hear it may not have been very complimentary.”
A foul taste rose in the back of her mouth. “I was unaware of Lord Milton’s interest.”
The woman laughed and shook her head. “You poor dear. Lord Milton does not have interest in anyone other than himself. It is far more likely that he was speaking of how you shall never become civilized.”
Isabelle stood ramrod straight, giving a nod before brushing by the women. “If you would excuse me, I believe I will find someone with those legendary British manners over this way.”
Lady Victoria giggled and walked with her, rounding one of the bushes and heading straight down the path. Isabelle forced a smile before reaching up and wiping the tears from her face. She tipped her head back and stared at the bright sky until the drops of water stopped trying to escape her eyes.
Those wretched women weren’t worth her tears, and although she knew that, it was impossible not to feel horrible about herself after the things they had said.
“Don’t let what they say bother you,” Victoria said, stopping in her tracks and forcing Isabelle to look at her. “I know that is easier said than done, but women like that thrive on making others feel bad about themselves.”
“I know.”
“Good, then you know that you are infinitely better than them and you have to hold your head high.”
Isabelle rolled her shoulders back, trying to gather herself. “It will be difficult to spend the rest of the season listening to the things that the women have to say.”
Victoria laughed and reached up to wipe away a tear that had escaped. “Oh my dear, it will be for the rest of your life. None of the women are ever going to stop speaking about you, both behind your back and to your face.”
“They don’t speak about you.”
She looped her arm through Isabelle’s as they continued through the maze. “That is where you are wrong. They have said all kinds of hateful things about me, and I suspect they will again. Right now, you are taking their foul attention away from me.”
Isabelle leaned her head on Victoria’s shoulder. “Then I guess you will have to thank me for bearing the brunt of the insults this season.”