Page 33 of An Innocent Bride for the Duke

“They say?” repeated Aunt Beatrice. “Anonymous witnesses have an unfortunate habit of embellishing events, Lady Huxley. I should not give them so much credence if I were you.”

“So, do you deny the essential facts of the account I heard?” their neighbor demanded. “My cousin and I should be only to glad to have such a story denied.”

“What a good idea, let us deal in facts and not gossip, Lady Huxley,” replied Lady Esher robustly. “Firstly, Lord Ashbourne has never actually sought my niece’s hand nor even her friendship. Secondly, the Duke of Northwick is indeed a guest at Rosemere and a family friend. Thirdly, being unengaged, Lady Louisa is free to receive appropriate attentions from any gentleman I deem eligible.”

“You do fence well, Lady Esher,” retorted their neighbor with a cold laugh, “but not even a skilled swordswoman could fight off the scandal that is brewing here. You may play with words as you wish, but we both know that servants rarely mistake an embrace, and they know a kiss when they see one.”

"You presume a great deal,” Louisa threw back, angered at Lady Huxley’s sense of entitlement, and presumably that of her cousin too.

"Do I?" the blonde lady replied coolly. “Then, spare me the speculation, Lady Louisa, and tell me plainly. Were you, or were you not, alone with His Grace in the drawing room last night, and what were you doing there?”

Before Louisa could say anything more, Aunt Beatrice rose to her feet, eyes glinting angrily.

“My niece does not have to answer that question, Lady Huxley. It is entirely inappropriate."

"On the contrary, Lady Esher. It is the only question that matters. My cousin has every right to know whether the lady he intended to marry has been compromised. I demand…”

At the sound of a man clearing his throat, Lady Huxley fell abruptly silent and Louisa’s heart leapt…

Chapter Fourteen

“Good morning, Lady Esher, Lady Louisa. Ah, you have a guest.”

Three heads spun about or turned sharply as the Duke of Northwick spoke. When had he even entered the room and how much had he heard? Louisa supposed that the door had never been closed after Lady Huxley arrived. For all she knew, he might have been standing in the doorway, or listening in the hall beyond, for the entire awful conversation.

Tall, dark, handsome and with an air of confident assurance, the duke now stood before them with folded arms, an expression of polite expectancy on his face. With very little effort, the room and the conversation seemed to be entirely his.

Benedict…

Louisa could not say his name aloud, but murmured it in her head and found that it soothed her spirit. Despite all her fears and reservations, she was relieved at the duke’s appearance at this moment and could not deny it to herself.

“Your Grace, this is our neighbor, Lady Huxley,” Aunt Beatrice made the necessary introduction very civilly, as though she had not been about to descend into a outright row with the lady in question. “Lady Huxley, this is the Duke of Northwick.”

The duke bowed his dark head in response to Lady Huxley’s curtsy and murmur of greeting. Then, less expectedly, he strode around the table and gently raised Louisa’s hand, bowing over it in what any stranger might take for a gesture of affection and respect.

"My apologies for my lateness this morning, Lady Louisa.”

Louisa stared back at him, utterly confused, but managing to nod. He was behaving as though this was their normal and expected mode of greeting, and he expected everyone else to go along with it.

What does he mean by this?

Taking a seat at Louisa’s side, the duke reached for the coffee pot and turned his attention to their neighbor.

“Forgive me, Lady Huxley, I could not help overhearing some of your conversation from the hallway as I came in,” he stated casually and Louisa saw Lady Huxley’s eyes open wide in surprise at this lightly-spoken but very direct confrontation.

“I see,” she responded with a stiff smile, her eyes narrowing as she tried to gauge what manner of man she was dealing with.

Louisa wished Lady Huxley luck with that and did not rate her chances highly. She herself had not yet worked out Benedict Hale after several weeks of his company.

“Yes, and what I heard surprised me,” he continued in a conversational tone, with the slightest hint of amusement. “I had no idea that in Cumbria one’s neighbors might take it upon themselves to criticize a gentleman for enjoying an evening conversation with his betrothed in the drawing room of her home, with the approval of her aunt. What a shocking lapse in my understanding of propriety."

Louisa heard her aunt make a sound between chuckling and incredulity, as Lady Huxley’s smile disappeared entirely. Her own heart had stopped on hearing one particular word cross his lips…

"Betrothed?" Lady Huxley repeated, her brow knitting in perplexity at a development she had clearly not anticipated any more than Louisa or her aunt.

Louisa swallowed and looked to the duke, feeling as though she had been pushed onstage in a play without knowing even what role she ought to be playing, never mind the lines in the script. Benedict met her astonished gaze with unwavering certainty that soothed her in one direction while stirring her in another.

“Indeed, Lady Huxley,” he confirmed. “I had intended to wait some weeks more before making a public announcement. Some dear friends of ours are presently holidaying in Scotland and we wanted them to join us in celebration the engagement. It appears that local society in Cumbria has forced my hand rather sooner."