Isabel couldn’t place it exactly where this happened or how, within the man, but it made her stop in return. The two of them looked at each other for a long minute. Eventually, his gaze shifted to roll over the rest of her.
A warm flush crept up her cheeks. Determined not to feel embarrassed, she lifted her chin and walked forward. “Your Grace,” she murmured politely.
“You look beautiful.”
His words were so blunt and sounded so factual that it took a minute for the words to sink into Isabel. She blinked, meeting his gaze, before slowly smiling.
“Thank you. You’re very handsome this evening as well,” she told him.
“You’re beautiful all of the time.” He said while taking her cloak from the butler to wrap around her shoulders. “Only tonight, you are…”
She raised an eyebrow, wondering if a man such as he could truly be rendered speechless. “Beautiful?”
“More than beautiful. I would need a dictionary of the past thousand years to find the right word to explain… this. You,” he amended, his voice sounding rougher than usual.
It was a strange compliment, one that made her pause. Isabel considered it a minute and then cinched the clasp around her throat. Turning back to face him, she gave him a short nod. And she ignored the fluttering in her heart as she said, “Charming, too. Whatever shall I do with you?”
His lips twitched. “You can join me at this dinner party to begin with. Shall we?”
Before Isabel knew it, she was hand in hand with her husband strolling down to the carriage where he helped her in. The two of them smiled quietly but didn’t have a word to say. Her own breath stuck in her throat. A simple interaction such as that shouldn’t have had her feeling light-headed. And yet… Well, she hadn’t expected a compliment. The glimmer in his eye. That almost smile.
While it made sense for him to be on his best behavior this evening, she didn’t understand why he had started it with her back at the house when they didn’t have much of an audience.
Unless he truly meant what he said… Could he? Would he? I can hardly believe he would spend so much time away from, attend meals quietly, only to suddenly attempt to charm me like that. I didn’t take him for a flirtatious fellow.
And then Isabel remembered what Emilia had told her, how Sebastian had been known to dance with the wallflowers in London. He gave them opportunities no one else would offer them.
Was that what he was doing with her? Or something else? She wished it made sense. She wished she knew how to ask him. But even as she pondered on the idea, her last conversation with Emilia, about her brother.
“Is something wrong?”
She jerked her head up. “I beg your pardon?”
Sebastian nodded his head toward her. “You frowned.”
“You were staring.”
A shrug with one shoulder. “I glanced.”
Isabel thought about exploring that further, but decided against the notion. “I’m all right, thank you. I was merely remembering a distasteful conversation I had recently.”
“With whom? The household?”
“No, all is well with them. It was merely something that Emilia said…” Isabel forced a smile and smoothed out her dress. “But it doesn’t matter. I don’t wish to think on it any longer. Tonight, I’m very happy for this distraction.”
Those clear eyes of his searched her face like he was looking for something, perhaps a lie or the truth. Isabel couldn’t tell. But she must have shown her certainty because he gave another short nod and then looked away.
A comfortable silence settled between them as they rolled further down the hill. Isabel glanced at the setting sun and then toward her husband, trying to think of something to say. Something more amusing, even charming, for them to speak of together. Just to see if he meant such flirtations just for everyone else.
Only Sebastian was more intimidating, even if he was her husband. She’d managed it all right with Lord Gright before, but… It wasn’t the same. This was difficult to explain even to herself. And yet she didn’t want to make a mistake with her husband. She didn’t want to make a mess of anything.
“Isabel?”
She blinked, finding him reaching out to her from outside of the carriage. They had arrived and he had already clambered out. “Oh! Thank you.”
“Still dwelling on distasteful matters?” Sebastian murmured in her ear.
“No. Just… everything else, I suppose,” she admitted sheepishly.
