“Don’t be silly.” She offered a gracious nod. “They are in our home, after all. We can have tea in the drawing room. I’ll only need a moment with our housekeeper to confirm supper.”
“They aren’t staying,” he said.
The severe looking one let out a small harrumph. “Don’t be ridiculous. We’ll stay the night and be gone in the morning. Your stables have already agreed to manage my carriage and Ronan’s steed. The drawing room, Your Grace?” He added with a pointed look her way.
Isabel rather liked him.
It didn’t take long for the men to settle in the warm drawing room. Isabel lingered in the hall with Mrs. Maple. There was much to consider, but she rather liked the challenge. Her heart pounded and her head spun and it was more entertaining than keeping herself occupied singing songs to no one at all.
Returning to the drawing room, she accepted the chair that had been left empty. Sebastian sat nearby. She noticed the flicker of a warm smile before it faded. When she took her seat, he merely nodded in her direction.
Everyone introduced themselves. Proclaimed now to be family, she was given permission to call the severe man, the one she’d once heard referred to as the Iron Duke, as Northcott. The charming man with golden hair and a boyish smile was Ashcombe, and the third one was Ronan Ward, a gentleman she had been introduced years ago but didn’t recall until he pointed out they had nearly been pushed into a bush by his cousin at that garden party.
The four gentlemen here all carried the title of duke. It was Ashcombe who bragged about their playful name, Compass of the Rose. Or something of the likes––now they all argued about the proper name since so much time had gone by since their youth. Sebastian almost appeared embarrassed but grudgingly nodded along. There was a shadow of a smile on his lips all the while that she couldn’t stop looking for while they spoke.
In all, Isabel rather liked his friends.
Even Northcott, who couldn’t stop studying her from across the room. He was quiet while Julian slapped his thighs and sighed dramatically. “What a relief it is to have Eastwynd finally bested into matrimony. What a delight!”
She raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Have you visited here often?”
“No.” Ward sounded annoyed. “Never. Sebastian here never cares to come, and so he never invited us.”
Turning to look at her husband, she wondered if he didn’t like his home. He hadn’t said that. And yet… she did feel sometimes he didn’t care for this place.
“It’s a treasure, to be certain,” Isabel said while turning back to Ward with a poised smile. “I’m certain he was waiting for the right time. We must invite you again during brighter and warmer weather for a house party. What of that?”
Ronan clapped his hands. “I do enjoy a house party.”
“I think we would all enjoy that,” Ashcombe said with a chuckle. “Eh, Sebastian?”
“We will see.”
Northcott said nothing. He drank slowly from his tea cup, having refused the brandy that Sebastian must have offered before the tea tray was ready.
“At least we might make the most of this visit,” Isabel reassured them.
Ward snorted into his brandy before setting it down. “What a bride you are, Your Grace. I wonder if you are either foolish or fearless,” he said even while receiving an elbow in the ribs from Ashcombe, “to marry the most brooding of our lot.” He spoke with a brash smile as if confirming he knew just how improper his conversation topic was meant to be for them.
“That’s Tristan,” Sebastian corrected him.
“Either way, we are joyful to have you among us,” Ashcombe reassured her with a cheery smile. She wondered if his cheeks ever ached or drooped.
All the same, she nodded. “Those who brood are always thinkers and those who feel the most. I would have done myself a disservice not to consider my husband’s suite. London, too, for all the chatter they caused,” she added lightheartedly.
That garnered a few chuckles, much to her relief. She could have sworn Sebastian even let out a small sound but couldn’t be certain. Ronan didn’t have a quiet laugh, it filled the room and echoed over everyone else’s.
Isabel didn’t mind. Except that her husband was quiet and everyone else noticed that as well. It didn’t take long before there was a servant subtly letting her know dinner was prepared. She rose to her feet with the announcement.
Everyone stood before the men decidedly all shoved Sebastian over to her so the two of them, as hosts, might lead the way into supper. Arm in arm, of course.
“Apologies,” he muttered when they reached the hall. “I should have kicked them out.”
“Don’t you dare. I enjoy your friends very much. They make you happy, don’t they?”
That took him a while to think, though she couldn’t imagine why. “Yes,” he said at last just as they entered the dining room. “I wouldn’t be who I am without them.”
“And do you like who you are?” She asked while he led her around to the head of the table. The chair was pulled out for her and the step Sebastian took only brought him close in her personal space. She didn’t move, searching his face to try guessing what was in his mind.
