Chapter 11 #2
“Ho!” called a voice from afar, and Julia looked up to see Poppy returning with the Duke and another man in tow.
He was a little shorter than the Duke, and extremely handsome in a very traditional sense; the kind of man that would have ladies swooning over him the moment he entered a room.
She recognized him after a moment as the referee of the Pall Mall game the other day, but she didn’t know his name.
The Duke’s eyes were fixed on her in a way that made her shiver.
The three of them hurried over towards the pair, and Benjamin leaped up, injured knee forgotten, and raced towards the stranger at full speed.
“Papa!”
“Ben!” The man reached out, lifted the boy, hugged him tightly, and put him on his shoulder. “I was worried about you! Where on earth did you get off to?”
“I fell out of a tree and then got lost,” the boy said forlornly, hiding his face in the man’s collar. “You didn’t find me, though. So I’m the winner.”
The man laughed. “Well, technically, Miss Norish is the winner since she’s the one who spotted you, wouldn’t you say?”
“That means she has to hide next!” Benjamin said.
“Perhaps I’ll play next time,” Julia said with a smile, standing to greet the cohort as they arrived at her spot and dusting her dress off.
“Miss Norish,” said the man, sweeping off his hat and flashing her a smile. “Anthony Thynne, Marquess of Claremont. A pleasure to make your acquaintance. I’m sorry that until now I haven’t had the opportunity - looking after this bundle of energy takes up most of my time.”
“Not at all, My Lord.” She curtsied politely. At the very least, this man seemed to be charming and amiable, which was a pleasant change from the way most of the guests at the party had behaved. “It’s wonderful to meet you, too.”
“I hope Benjamin was no bother?” he queried. “I knew hide-and-seek was a bad idea. The little rascal loves to find extraordinary hiding places.”
“Not at all,” Julia smiled. “It was Poppy that saw him, in fact.”
“Well, my sincere thanks to both of you for looking after him and bringing him back.” The Marquess smiled. “I’ll have to take him inside now, but I very much hope to make your acquaintance again another time.”
“Miss Penelope…” The Duke of Pridewell turned to Poppy as his friend retreated back towards the house. “I believe your aunt was looking for you earlier. She mentioned something about the grandson of one of the dowagers. You may want to seek her out.”
“Oh! Will you be alright alone, Julia?” Poppy asked.
Julia tried not to look at the Duke and just nodded. “I shall stay out here by the gazebo for a while with my book. I’ll come and find you later. Good luck with Aunt Violet.”
“Maybe she’s found a match for me!” her sister trilled, then, with a last nervous glance at the Duke, she rushed away, leaving the two of them alone.
Now that it was just her and the Duke, Julia felt that same strange, tingly atmosphere from the previous evening return.
It was as though all her nerves were amplified, waiting for something to happen, although she didn’t know what.
He smiled at her and offered his arm, and the dam suddenly broke, giving way to an odd sort of relief.
She took it, and they began to walk back towards the gazebo.
The corner of his mouth shifted. They remained for a moment in the easy, unguarded silence that had begun to appear between them with increasing frequency.
Julia tried to understand this new and quiet intimacy, but she could not place the moment when she first felt comfortable in the Duke’s presence.
Just then, the Duke’s eyebrows lifted high on his forehead, and he said, "I think that I should like to call you by your Christian name now.”
“Indeed?” She was surprised by this new idea.
He nodded. “Given the circumstances, Miss Norish has become a somewhat absurd formality."
Julia looked at him skeptically. "Has it?"
"We are, ostensibly, courting." The boyish grin that had lit his face a second ago disappeared.
He said this statement with the dry practicality of a man discussing the weather.
"If you continue to call me Your Grace and I continue to call you Miss Norish, nobody is going to believe we are enamored with each other. "
She considered that. "Leander," she said, evaluating the shape of it.
He looked at her with an expression she couldn't quite read. "Julia," he replied.
It was only a name. She told herself it was only a name.
And yet the way he said it — quietly, with none of the performative warmth he used in public and none of the cool distance he used when he was managing her, did something she was not prepared for.
It sat differently from Miss Norish. To her, it was assumed that he had already decided that she was worth the shortened distance.
"Very well," she said, looking back toward the garden. "Leander."
“I watched you talking to Benjamin as we approached,” he said teasingly. “Were you trying to find out information about me?”
“Why must everything be about you?” she replied. “You’re rather full of yourself. I could have been asking for information about his rather handsome father.”
The Duke’s lips quirked up. “You’d be disappointed, then, to find out that we have no idea who the boy’s father is.”
“Benjamin said the Marquess was his father. Is that not true?” Julia asked, confused.
“We don’t think so. There’s a distant possibility, but it’s much more likely that the boy’s mother simply wanted rid of him and turned to the richest man she knew. Anthony took a shine to the boy and decided to take him in. He’s never claimed fatherhood officially; Benjamin is his ward.”
“I see.” Julia nodded slowly. “A very kind act.”
“So I understand you think Anthony is both handsome and kind.” The Duke raised an eyebrow as they both took a seat. “Should I be jealous?”
Julia laughed. “I shouldn’t think there is anything to be jealous of. After all, this isn’t a real courtship, is it?”
For some reason, as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them.
It wasn’t untrue, but the Duke’s casual, teasing grin dropped away and was replaced with a look of consternation.
She felt like she’d ruined a perfectly nice moment.
Somehow, with the sun shining on them in this secluded, private place and the Duke’s smile reserved only for her, it had felt for a minute like this could all be real, and she could tell that he’d felt the same.
But her words had brought reality back into their little bubble.
It’s for the best, she reminded herself fiercely. You’re a fish, Julia, not a monkey. This life isn’t for you. He isn’t for you.
He’d even said as much when they made their deal. It had been the only rule she needed to follow.
He cleared his throat and shifted away from her a little.
Whatever moment they had been sharing was well and truly gone now; he was back to business mode, and it was like a shutter had fallen over his expression.
“Speaking of our arrangement, I actually have some good news. I received a visit from my solicitor earlier this morning. He believes that your father may be close by, perhaps even in London already.”
Julia felt a well of guilt rise up inside her stomach and quickly swallowed it back down. “Oh? Well, that’s excellent news.”
“Indeed. I believe if we plan a big, grand gesture at the end of the party tomorrow evening, it may be enough to convince him to show himself,” he continued. “Perhaps I should make a false proposal? What do you think?”
“A proposal?” Julia wasn’t sure she wanted things to go so far. A courtship was one thing, but a broken engagement was something else entirely. “That may put us in dangerous waters.”
“No, you’re right,” the Duke conceded. “I’ll think of something else. All that matters is that it intrigues him enough to lure him out of hiding.”
Julia wrestled with her conscience. Poppy had told her to listen to it, but she still didn’t know what it was trying to tell her.
Every time she thought about telling the Duke what she knew, her inner voice screamed at her that her own father had begged her not to say anything.
But keeping quiet was making her feel equally nauseous.
She decided to try and find out some more information, to help put her mind at ease that the Duke really wouldn’t want to harm her father.
“What is it that you’re trying to get back from my father?” she asked candidly. “I think since I’m involved in this deception, I’ve a right to know.”
The Duke swallowed thickly, then sighed.
He looked away for a moment into the middle distance, as though remembering something difficult.
Then, finally, he answered her in a gruff tone.
“A pocket watch. My friend Henry, mine and Anthony’s, was like a brother to me growing up.
The three of us were each other’s family. ”
“The friend who gave you your nickname,” Julia recalled.
“Yes. The watch was incredibly important to him, an heirloom handed down by his grandfather. Also priceless, made with very precious and rare materials. It was his symbol of hope, of determination; the only thing he had left of his family after his father lost almost all their fortune. He used to look at it when times were tough to remind himself that he’d always make it through the other side.
“Henry…had a difficult life. He was never a hearty man and was far too kind for his own good.
He had married young to a quiet girl from Dorset whom he loved very much.
He lost her within two years to a fever that took the child with her.
After that, he threw himself into work and charity and bad investments, as though keeping still long enough to grieve might finish the job the fever had started.