Chapter 9
Frankly, Nathaniel was utterly amused by the furious young lady that had cornered him.
She was quite the opposite of what he had expected, and he reminded her so much of his own sister that he wished he could say as much without them asking after her.
“I know what you are doing,” she said, furious.
“I am courting your sister. I do not believe that is a crime, Miss.”
“But you know what you are doing! I am not like those other young ladies that do not know anything. I know what gentlemen like to do with unchaperoned young ladies.”
“Do you? Pray tell, what might that be?”
Had he thought for even a moment she knew, he would not have said something so inappropriate, but one look at the girl was all he needed to know she was bluffing. In an instant, she flushed pink.
“I– well, I may not know precisely what it is, but it ruins them, and you will not ruin my sister.”
“I do not intend to. Is that why you have been like this all evening?”
“No, I… well, I will not claim to trust you, not at all. Unlike my poor younger sister, I am not a fool. I know that my family is not particularly well off at this moment, and that you have something to do with it. My sister would never have agreed to be courted otherwise.”
Nathaniel regarded her for a moment, half impressed that she knew as much as she did and half surprised that she had not worked it out entirely. She was almost there, and yet she did not seem to understand the most important part.
“I will not lie to you. Yes, I am going to help your family, but it is not because I want anything from your sister. I respect Lady Margaret, and I would not do anything to harm her, nor any of you for that matter.”
“Why not? It would be easy to, and then say that she had lied about her dowry or some such thing and abandon her.”
“And is that what you think I am doing?”
“It could be.”
“Well, it is not.”
But she did not look at all convinced. Nathaniel sighed, not wanting to give away too much but also not wanting the young lady to hate him. It would be a long social season if she did.
“I shall be honest with you, Miss Emily,” he said carefully.
“I have seen how your mother speaks to your sister, and how she speaks of yourself and Miss Poppy. It is clear to me that your sister has been the one to raise you, and has been your tutor and your guide for much of your life. As well as that, she is your sister, and so it is perfectly natural for you to want to protect her.”
She softened slightly, and he knew he had been correct in his assumptions.
“I know that you will think me a villain no matter who I am, and that to you, nobody could ever be enough for her, but I am not expecting to be. I am not going to saunter in to your household and take her away from you before you can even say your goodbyes. We are courting, and I think that she is an excellent young lady. You do too, do you not?”
She looked at her shoes, her arms slowly dropping by her sides.
“Yes,” she replied, “I do. I think the world of her. She would do anything for us, and I– I do not want her to be taken advantage of. She would give her life for us, Your Grace, so you must not hurt her.”
“I do not intend to. Now, might you have anything more to say to me, or shall we go to the parlor room? I would like to speak with you and your mother, and of course Lady Margaret.”
“And Poppy?”
“I believe I know quite enough about her.”
The young lady laughed at that, and Nathaniel hoped he had made her trust him even a little bit more.
He was not at all angry about her outburst, for it would have been the case no matter who he was.
What mattered to her, evidently, was that her sister was cared for, and he would ensure that happened.
He would ensure that it happened for all of them.
As they reached the parlor room door, Miss Emily faltered, and he saw a faint trace of fear in her eyes. It seemed that, at last, she realized the behavior that she had displayed.
“Mother will be furious.”
“She will not. I will explain everything once we are inside.”
“But you are a duke, and I was so–”
“Let us go inside, and I will explain everything. All that I need from you is an apology. Fear not, I do not care if you do not mean a word of it.”
They entered, and he fixed a bright smile on his face.
“Now that is out of the way,” he declared, “I was wondering if I might ask you all about yourselves?”
“I am sorry,” Miss Emily said on cue, “to all of you. I did not mean to ruin the evening.”
“You have not ruined anything,” Nathaniel replied as she took her seat. “It is as I told you, I admire a family that cares for one another. If anything, had you all been perfectly pleased about what happened, I would have wondered why you did not question the circumstances.”
He watched as Lady Fairleigh softened, her fists flattening in her lap. He hoped that would be enough; that if he outwardly showed that he did not care, and that he had not taken any offence, she might forgive her daughter entirely.
Lady Margaret looked at him curiously, and then her sister, as though trying to work out what had happened in the drawing room, before also settling.
The evening continued with them discussing their passions, and with Miss Emily no longer furious, it made for a most pleasant interaction.
Even Lady Fairleigh was more bearable when she was not trying to tell him to choose another one of her daughters.
“I do not know what you did,” Lady Margaret chuckled as they were leaving and they had a moment together among it all, “but thank you. Whatever you said to her was precisely what she needed to hear.”
“It was nothing, I can assure you. She simply wants the best for you. However, are you aware that she knows of your situation?”
“Indeed,” she said in discomfort, shifting her weight. “She learned of it before the ball. Fortunately, she does not want Poppy to hear of it, so at least she will be spared from the knowledge. Does she know that you are assisting us?”
“She may well work it out for herself, but she does not think that I have bad intentions anymore, so we at least have that on our side.”
“That is certainly a start.”
“Your Grace!” Miss Emily called as she joined them again. “I wish to tell you that we will gladly meet you in Hyde Park two days from now. I forgot to tell you that I had changed my mind.”
“And I am pleased that you did,” he replied, and she left with a satisfied look in her eye.
Lady Margaret shook her head with a grin as she watched on.
“Does she often make the decisions?” he asked.
“She likes to think so. Will you be at the ball tomorrow?”
“I plan to be. We can consider it our first public display.”
“Then we shall be dancing again, yes?” she asked. “Once, at least.”
“Twice– no, three times, I would say. We ought to appear serious, so that when we promenade the following day we are taken for what we are.”
She agreed, and moments later they were gone.
The household was quiet again, and for the first time Nathaniel hated it.
He missed the conversations, the bright voices of all three ladies.
It all felt colder, and he felt Lady Margaret’s absence far more than he ever would have expected.
He had known her for a matter of days, and yet she had already made a difference to him that he had never imagined.
And he had lied to her.
It was not an outright lie, but he had certainly omitted a lot.
He knew he had to tell her about Eliza, about her predicament, and given all that he knew about her she deserved to know, but he could not.
His sister had made him promise that he would not breathe a word of her condition to anyone, and he was determined to keep to it.
He hoped that, in time, his sister would warm to the idea, or that she would miss having friends so much that she would accept that Lady Margaret could be a friend to her, but until then he would have to keep it all from her.
Even so, he was happy. He had a fragile but existing truce with Miss Emily, a bond with Miss Poppy, a perfectly satisfactory distance with Lady Fairleigh and a friend in Lady Margaret. He was pleased about that.
Even if he was uncertain of how he felt that a friend was all she would be.