As for having a meal and a drink, Banks suggested easing the other pub-goers into things as Frazer had.Perhaps a drink in a corner of the room or at the end of the bar, and the meal in the private dining room or, if it wasn’t busy, in Banks’ office with the proprietor joining him.Then they could ease him into spending longer at the bar in a few weeks.
Heeding their concerns, Xander had agreed and had already spent three evenings lurking in a dark corner of the public room, nursing an ale and fielding questioning looks and deferential nods.Happily, the quizzical looks had become shorter and shorter before the other patrons went about their business.
Those occasional mornings and evenings had saved his sanity.Focusing on physical labor and watching people who performed it all day reminded him to wield his new power for the good of the majority of the country, not those who held money and power and wanted to retain it.On the other hand, it made him miss his simpler life in a new way.If he wasn’t a duke, he wouldn’t need to marry, and he could tup whom he pleased, including a maid with gorgeous reddish-brown hair hidden under a mobcap.
Having sent the requisite note after his conversation with Evie, Xander was in the back alley bright and early the next morning.If anyone knew where to find musicians on short notice, Banks would.
Sure enough, Banks had a few ideas and told him he’d send a note over after he’d made a few inquiries.By the midday meal, Xander had musicians scheduled to arrive after supper.
The meal itself was frustrating.Before he was even allowed to sit down, Evie called him to find the long dining table set as though for a dozen guests.He was given placards with names on them, only half of which he recognized, and she led him around the table, indicating where each would sit and why.
She’d been kind enough to include his mother and stepfather, but not his brother.But with the duke and the marquess who had visited among the names, his parents were seated several chairs down from his seat at the head of the table, which made no sense to him.
“Why is my brother not among these names?”
Evie gulped.“Your brother is…problematic.”
Xander frowned in confusion.“You’ve never met him.He’s a lot nicer than I am by most people’s standards.”
“The Ton do not welcome…illegitimate relations at a formal dinner.”
He stared.She was joking, wasn’t she?She must be.There would never be a house of his that did not welcome Bruce to all social events within it.Finally, he said, “Do you know where he’d sit if I ignored etiquette and included him?Never mind, I suspect I know.It would be the farthest end of the table from me, with the lowest-ranked guests.”
She nodded, her hands clasping and unclasping in front of her.
“’Tis quite all right, Evie.You do not make the rules.I’ll make a note of it.That is not where Bruce will sit at any dinner I host.”
Moving on quickly, she cleared the other settings away and sat to his left—where his mother might sit if she had been duchess before him, or where his own duchess would one day sit.There were more sets of utensils surrounding his plate than he’d ever seen, and she’d organized an eight-course meal with the kitchen.
Finally, the whole ordeal was done.Mentally exhausted from all the rules around dining, he stood, needing a moment to steady himself with the back of his chair.Eight courses came with a similar increase in wine consumption.While he could hold his liquor with the best of them after working at a pub these past years, he wasn’t sure he was up to dancing after consuming so much liquid and food.But the musicians had arrived, and he needed to be prepared should a request from his potentially betrothed’s family come.
Gesturing for Evie to precede him, he stepped into the hall to the sound of string instruments warming up.
Evie turned to him in surprise, and he wanted to lean down and lick her parted lips.Right, then.No more wine for him.
“You found musiciansin a day?”she asked.
He shrugged and tried to make light of it.“I’m a duke.”
She snorted.
He snorted.
They both broke out in laughter there in the hall, pausing in place because they could not see to walk.
Finally, she sobered enough to say, “Shall we dance, then?”
He held his arm out for her and led her into the music room.
* * * *
As they waited for the musicians to finish tuning their instruments, he turned to Evie and gestured.“Take the cap off?”
She shrugged and quickly removed it, placing it on a narrow table by the door before unpinning her hair as well.
He gulped a swallow.
She asked, “What dances do you know?”
