The bars of the waltz came to an end, bringing the dance to a close and he finally looked away, breaking their eye contact. She should have been pleased, but the loss of his dark eyes on her left her oddly bereft. He led her back to the edge of the dance floor where Lady Edward had joined Lady Blackmore. When they reached their sides, the duke took his leave of her and his sisters-in-law, before turning and stalking from the ballroom. She watched his powerful body stride through the crowd, people moving out of the way without him having to miss a step. He did not acknowledge a single soul, even those who smiled timidly up at him.
When Grace could no longer see him, she turned back to find both the ladies smiling widely at her.
‘I am afraid we must also take our leave,’ said Lady Blackmore. ‘My daughter is only a few months old and is fretful at night without me.’ This was a lot of personal information that Grace, who had met so many Englishwomen this evening, didn’t think was normal to share with a virtual stranger. ‘However, my sister-in-law and I should be honoured if you would call on us tomorrow.’
Grace could only blink at her in response. This was exactly what she wanted, but she had thought it would take weeks or perhaps months of befriending them at social events to get an invite.
‘Shall we say noon?’ said Lady Edward.
‘I should be delighted,’ said Grace, utterly bewildered by the turn of events.
‘Excellent,’ replied the women at the same time, both turning and laughing at each other. They were close, that much was obvious, and they were happy. Grace hoped that would still be the case after her private visit with them, but she thought it unlikely.
Chapter Three
Breakfast at Glanmore House was always a riotous affair. At least it had become so since Tobias’ brothers had returned to living in the dukedom’s London residence. A state of affairs none of them had wanted at first, but which had been forced on them due to Sebastian’s will. Sebastian had required the four brothers to raise his daughter, their niece Charlotte, together. He further stated that if any of them broke that stipulation, their aunt, Miss Dunn, would raise Charlotte. As Miss Dunn had made all the Dashworths’ childhoods miserable, to various degrees, Tobias had surmised that Sebastian had known none of them would allow that to happen, thus forcing them to get to know one another again as they lived under the same roof. He could only guess at his brother’s intentions, but he liked to think that Sebastian had been nudging them towards becoming a proper family.
Tobias could have challenged the requirement, there were not many people who said no to a duke, but having lost one brother and finding that the others were drifting away from him, he didn’t have the heart for it.
Besides, all four of them had fallen desperately in love with Charlotte the moment they had laid eyes on her. Taking her away from any one of them would have been a cruelty Tobias would not inflict on any of them. Despite not wanting to, the four remainingbrothers had ended up here, at Glanmore House in London, a place that had seen many a childhood cruelty inflicted on them all, but which now had become a home.
In less than two years, each of his three brothers had acquired a wife. Freddie already had a daughter with his and Edward had two male wards, Peter and Silas, with a baby on the way, although it was not due for some time yet. From the way Christopher was eyeing his wife, Tobias thought it might not be long before they were in the family way too.
For some reason, which was totally unclear to Tobias, all of them opted to eat breakfast together in a boisterous melee. For a reason that was even less clear to him, he chose to join them. No one would have batted an eyelid if he’d kept to himself; they were used to his ways. Although he would have said he disliked the noise and the chaos of every member of the family talking at once if anyone had asked, breakfast was often his favourite part of his day. It was the only time when he was not working or being forced into some obligation that the dukedom required, and it was also the time when he found out most of what his family were doing. They were close to one another, not so to him. It was understandable. He didn’t invite confidences, didn’t enjoy conversations, preferred solitude above all else, but he did care about his family and he did want to know that they were happy. The loud breakfasts reassured him that they were, that he was doing something right with his life by providing them with a place they could relax and be themselves.
This morning, however, was suspiciously quiet. He picked up his newspaper with one hand and tried to read an article on the upcoming opening of the Union Chain Bridge, but the near silence was almost deafening. He put the paper down and cut through a slice of bacon.Next to him, Freddie, not known for silence at any time, straightened his knife with the air of a man pondering one of life’s great mysteries.
‘Out with it,’ he said, when he could take the weighted silence no longer.
‘Out with what?’ asked Freddie, who as the brother nearest in age to Tobias was his heir presumptive. A state that looked likely to remain, given marriage seemed like a tremendous amount of fuss to Tobias, and the thought of having to speak with someone all the time did not appeal in the slightest.
‘Someone has to have done something, otherwise none of you would be acting like this.’ He waved his hand around the table to encompass everyone who was not shouting, laughing or doing anything other than eating breakfast. It was disconcertingly unusual.
‘How are we acting?’ asked Christopher, his eyes far too innocently wide.
Turning to Edward, by far his most sensible brother, Tobias waited for him to say something. But Edward merely plucked another piece of toast from the rack and began spreading butter over it.
Tobias picked up the paper and tried reading again.
‘Emily, how was Mrs Hitchings’ ball last night?’ asked Christopher, and Tobias’ fingers tightened on his paper. That question had been too guileless, too innocent.
‘Mrs Hitchings was a delight as always,’ said Emily.
‘The ball was to introduce her American friend to Society, was it not?’ continued Christopher.
Tobias resisted the urge to put the paper down and glare at his brother. It was clear that Emily or Kate had told the rest of the family that he had asked to be introduced to a woman. That was bound to be news, because he had never done anything similar. Unfortunately, he could not tell anyone why he had wanted to speak to her, so they werecertain to get the wrong idea about his intentions, which were not, and would never be, an interest in courting the blasted woman. She was as argumentative as they came and she would not back down. The whole dance they had been locked in a silent war of not being the one to look away first. It was unfortunate really, because it had given him plenty of time to study how blue her eyes were. The blue rim around her iris, which was substantially darker than the rest, had particularly fascinated him. He’d never seen such a marked contrast and it irritated him that he had become so transfixed by it.
‘A Mrs Wilmott, yes.’ Freddie picked up his knife and studied its handle with the air of a man who had never seen such an object before and who was merely making idle conversation while making his discovery.
‘She is married then?’ Christopher still sounded far too innocent to be natural.
Tobias focused on the article he was reading, because engineering feats had always been of interest to him. And if the silence in the breakfast room and these pointed questions were anything to go by, and his family thought he had some kind of interest in Mrs Wilmott, they would be sadly disappointed.
‘She is a widow,’ explained Emily.
‘Ah,’ said Christopher, as if that meant something.
If Tobias had been the type of man who shared every inner thought, he would have told his meddlesome family that the reasons he had danced with Mrs Wilmott last night were twofold. Firstly, he had felt bad that he had been rude and ungrateful towards her. Yes, she had accidentally left him floundering beneath the water of the Serpentine, but her intentions had been kindly meant and he had not treated her with the politeness befitting his station. Secondly, he had needed to know that she would not tell people of the incident. Hethought it unlikely, given that the whole experience had the potential to ruin her, but you never knew with Americans; they were an unpredictable lot. If her blue eyes seemed to hold some sort of spell over him and if her short stature meant she fitted perfectly against him, it did not signify anything. Nor was there any point in dwelling on the urge to lift her so that her legs wrapped around his waist, because it was never going to happen.
