Chapter Six
Elizabeth got dressed in a daze, knowing she had to go to dinner but really not wanting to. She struggled enough to speak to men as it was—so how on earth was she going to behave normally now, when she had seen every part of a man sitting at that very table?
“I do hope you’re not sickening for something,” Mama said as she walked out to dinner with her daughter. “You’ve been awfully quiet ever since your walk.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Elizabeth said, smoothing down her dress nervously.
“Well, you know it is a great honor for us to be here. So do try your best to make conversation, won’t you?”
“I do always try,” Elizabeth said with a sigh.
They all gathered in the parlor before heading into dinner, and when Elizabeth spotted the duke across the room, deep in conversation with Lord Dartington, she immediately felt her cheeks flush and hid herself as well as she could behind her mother.
“How was your walk, Miss Trowbridge?” the duchess asked, forcing Elizabeth to speak and making her position in the room clear to anyone who might be looking.
She was also forced to comment on the ill-fated walk, which she was struggling to keep from her mind.
“Very pleasant, thank you,” she managed to stutter out, keen for the conversation to move on.
“It is a beautiful area, is it not?”
She nodded quickly, hoping a speedy reaction would encourage the duchess to turn to another subject.
“Very beautiful.”
“And how was your little adventure, Duke, Lord Dartington? Did you see what you wished to see?”
Elizabeth met the duke’s eye entirely by accident, squeaked, and looked away.
*
Freddie could not help but smile. She was acting exactly as he expected—and he hadn’t even mentioned anything about the swim, or what she had seen.
Perhaps it was a little cruel to tease her, but he enjoyed the brightness it brought to her eyes, and after all, he was the injured party; he was the one who had been seen at his most vulnerable moment.
“We had a wonderful time, didn’t we, Darty?” he said, and his friend nodded in agreement. “There really is so much to see out here. Things you wouldn’t have expected…” He tried to catch her eye, but she was studiously avoiding him.
“Well, I’m glad there is enough to captivate your interest down here in the country,” the duchess said. “Although don’t be disappearing on any more walks—we have a lot planned over the next few days.”
The butler opened the door then, and announced Lord and Lady Bradford, the daughter and son-in-law of the duchess.
“Ah, there you are at last. Wonderful. And how was your journey?”
Lady Bradford, who very much looked like a younger version of the duchess, wrinkled her nose. “It is a very long way, and the roads are not pleasant.”
“Yes, yes, that is true. But it is beautiful—you’ll see in the morning, in the light. It is a shame you could not have stayed for the whole house party. But never mind, you are here now.”
Matthews, the butler, re-entered and caught the duchess’s eye. “Dinner is served, Your Grace,” he said.
They followed in order of rank, Miss Trowbridge remaining with her mother, although Freddie was sure they would not be seated together.
The duchess liked to mix things up, to make things more interesting.
And sure enough, when they reached their place settings, no one was sitting with the person with whom they had attended the house party.
The duchess was at the head of the table, but beyond that, everyone’s positions had been shuffled.
And on the left-hand side of the table, where Freddie had found his own name, he found he was flanked by Lady Bradford and Miss Trowbridge.
He rather thought it was going to be enjoyable.
*
Her heart sank as she realized where she was sitting. Mama was almost as far away as she could be, near the duchess, whereas Elizabeth was on the other side of the large table—and right next to the duke.
She walked to her seat like a convict walking to the gallows, wishing there was a way to back out but knowing there could not be.
“Miss Trowbridge,” the duke said, with a nod of his head, as if everything were entirely normal.
“Good evening, Your Grace,” she managed to say, before sitting down without looking at him.
He sat beside her, his chair feeling rather too close, but for a moment or two he turned and spoke with Lady Bradford, and so she found herself having to talk to Lord Bradford, who was on her other side.
“It’s an awfully long way from London, isn’t it,” he said cheerfully, reaching for his glass of wine. “Are you staying for the whole week?”
“We are,” Elizabeth managed to say, although her usual tongue-tied nervousness persisted, even though he was a married man and no risk to her innocence.
Not like the man on her right.
“I must say, the duchess always throws a good party,” Lord Bradford said with a smile. “Not that I’m always on the guest list!” He laughed, then clapped a hand over his mouth. “I probably shouldn’t say things like that. Sorry.”
But his easy manner made her smile, and she took a sip of wine, and managed to say, “You don’t have to apologize. I’m not sure we would have expected to be on the guest list either.”
The first course was fish, and as it was placed down in front of them, the duke finished his conversation with Lady Bradford and turned to Elizabeth.
It would have been rude to ignore him, so even though she knew she would struggle to find any words to say, she finished her conversation with Lord Bradford and nodded in the duke’s direction.
“The sea certainly does have a rich bounty, doesn’t it,” he said, cutting a piece of fish with his knife. “And what it beholds can be quite surprising, too. Shocking, even.”
Elizabeth’s mouth went dry. Oh, he definitely knew who had been watching him—and he was enjoying teasing her about it.
Even if she had normally found conversing with men easy, she did not think she would have found a suitable response to such comments. Instead, she picked up her cutlery and began to cut her own fish, though she had no appetite.
“How are you enjoying Devon?” he asked when she had not spoken for some time. She knew she would have to answer, but she could not look him in the eye.
“It’s beautiful,” she said honestly. “And refreshing, after the heat of the city.”
That was the wrong thing to say.
“Yes, it can become unbearably hot, can’t it? If only one could find a way to cool down…”
He might have cooled down when he had dipped in the sea, but she had only felt hot and bothered since the event. The image of him walking from the water, the salty drops glistening on his bare body, filled her mind, and she dropped her knife in a fluster.
“Careful, Miss Trowbridge,” he said, mirth coloring his tone. “You mustn’t drop things so easily, else you’ll lose them. Like your parasol…”
“You’re enjoying this!” Elizabeth hissed in indignation, and then—shocked that the words had left her mouth—she clamped her hand over her lips.
But the duke simply laughed. “Yes, I rather think I am.”