Chapter 15 #4
For several seconds Ronan watched her go, expecting her to stop beside Charity, but she only exchanged a few words with her sister before continuing toward the tall doors that opened onto the terrace.
Charity looked after her, then toward Ronan, and even from across the room he could see the question in her expression.
He had no answer for her.
He had wanted to tell Augusta she was beautiful from the moment he saw her downstairs. And when she finally asked him directly, he had behaved as though she had requested an analysis of the cloth.
“The color suits you.” Ronan closed his eyes briefly.
He had been foolish for not speaking up clearly.
“What did you do?” Gregory had arrived beside him. “I suspect the Duchess seems a bit upset, so surely you must have said something to her.”
“Go away,” he tried to wave off his friend.
“That bad?”
Ronan opened his eyes and continued looking toward the terrace doors. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Yes, you do. Augusta walked away looking miserable, and you are staring after her as though you have set fire to your own house. Since she appeared quite happy when you dragged her away from me to dance, I am going to assume the disaster happened somewhere between the first measure and the last.”
“I did not drag her anywhere; she came willingly.”
Gregory sighed. “That is the part of my sentence you chose to dispute?”
Ronan finally looked at him. “She asked whether I liked her dress.”
Gregory waited, and Ronan already knew what was coming.
“And?” Gregory prompted.
“I said yes.”
Gregory stared at him for a long moment. “I don’t understand what the problem is then?”
Ronan’s irritation sharpened. “She asked whether I liked it, and I answered the question.”
Gregory’s eyebrows rose, and then his expression became almost comically pleased.
“You have spent all evening threatening me with your eyes whenever I mention that your wife is beautiful, yet when the woman herself asks whether you think so, you apparently transform into someone incapable of a compliment?”
“I also told her the color suited her.”
Gregory shut his eyes.
“Wonderful. Did you compliment the stitching as well? Perhaps you could have asked whether the seams were reinforced.”
“Gregory.”
His friend’s amusement faded when he saw that Ronan was genuinely angry, although there was still sympathy beneath it that Ronan found almost more irritating. “What did you want to say?”
Ronan looked back toward the terrace.
“That is not your concern.”
“Fine. Then allow me to guess. You wanted to tell her that you have been staring at her since she arrived, that you nearly crushed her waist when I complimented her, that you volunteered for a dance you despise simply to prevent me from having one, and that you currently look prepared to murder every man who glances toward the terrace because she is standing somewhere beyond those doors.”
Ronan said nothing.
Gregory’s voice softened. “You could simply tell her she is beautiful.”
“It is not that simple.”
“Of course it is not simple. Nothing worth saying ever feels simple when it matters, but the sentence itself remains rather straightforward.”
Ronan looked at him.
“You shouldn’t meddle anyway,” he tried to warn his friend. But ultimately, he knew that he had good intentions.
Only that he didn’t want to confront his own actions at the moment.
“I think meddling is fine if I am trying to help you out,” he said. “What’s the big deal anyway? I think you can compliment her; she is your wife after all. Not a strange woman, and certainly not one whom you cannot speak your mind with.”
“I can speak my mind with her,” he corrected him. “We don’t have that issue.”
“Oh, I imagine that you don’t.” Gregory shook his head. “So why is it that it is only compliments that you find difficulty in giving to her? I know you’re not afraid to argue with her.”
His friend was getting closer to diagnosing the problem, and that simply put Ronan on edge.
“What is your point? I don’t have the patience for your long winded explanations at the moment.”
Gregory shrugged. “You are very good at saying things when the consequences do not frighten you. That is why you can order people about all day without hesitation. This is different because you care what she does with the words once you give them to her.”
Ronan disliked how close that came to the truth.
He looked toward the terrace again. Augusta had gone outside believing he did not feel what she felt.
He did not know precisely what she felt. But he knew she had been hurt. Maybe it was disappointing to put effort into one’s appearance, and then not have it be acknowledged.
Surely, he should have known better. But the entire problem was that he had in fact acknowledged it. Perhaps more closely than he should have.
“I should go after her,” he said after a long moment of contemplation. He didn’t want her feeling bad about herself.
Gregory’s mouth curved. “That would be my recommendation.”
Ronan started toward the terrace while Gregory’s expression was openly amused again. “Try using more than two words. I know that you have it in you.”
Ronan gave him a look and continued walking.
He reached the terrace doors before he had decided what he intended to say, but for once he did not allow that to stop him.
Augusta was outside because he had failed to find the right words when they mattered, and although he still did not know whether he could give her everything she wanted to hear, he knew one thing with absolute certainty.
She was beautiful.
He should have told her the moment she came downstairs.