AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ewan was no longer anywhere to be seen.
Baldwin didn’t look pleased. His cheeks were sallow, and his eyes glittered menacingly. He poured her second glass and then poured himself one. Over the table, they clinked glasses. At that moment, Marta felt as though the crowd around them disappeared. She could have fallen into the depths of his dark eyes. She could have abandoned this world completely.
“You look as though you need that,” Baldwin said.
Marta felt a blush creep across her cheeks. She forced herself to drop her eyes. “I suppose tonight hasn’t been what I planned for.”
“Did you have an orchestrated mission?” Baldwin asked.
“Don’t be foolish. I only hoped to perform whatever task my aunt has for me.”
“And that task, I suppose, is … woe the Duke himself,” Baldwin said.
“It’s not as though I have many options in this life. I’m just a woman. I must do whatever the world tells me to do.Marta, find a husband. No, not that one. Oh, dear, well, what about England? Yes, go to England. Immediately. No, you cannot have time to say goodbye to your friends or hike through the mountains a final time. No.And now that I’m here, another has taken up these commands. It’s rather pathetic, isn’t it? I suppose you think that were you in my shoes, you wouldn’t allow such things to occur.”
Baldwin studied her for a long moment. Amid it, another girl lunged to the side of Marta, stabbing her elbow into her side and forcing her away from the table. The girl gave her a dagger-eyed look, one that sent Marta to the far end of the table and then into the corner. Baldwin followed after her, a broad grin across his lips.
“I imagine that many of the women here aren’t exactly fond of you,” Baldwin said.
“Why on earth not? I haven’t spoken to many of them!”
“Come now. Duke Remington, who has the ear of the Regent himself, invited you and danced with you the moment you arrived. You’re hardly weathered in the world of English society, and already you’ve mastered it.”
“What I would give to trade my position with theirs!” Marta said. Admittedly, the words were accidental, yet filled with truth.
“Whatever do you mean?” Baldwin asked.
“Only that the Duke doesn’t seem to be the most pleasant of men,” Marta said hurriedly. She didn’t wish to dip into the fact that the Duke had very little respect for Baldwin.
“We’ve never seen eye-to-eye,” Baldwin admitted, as though he could peer directly through her mind.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Marta said. “Aunt Margaret wouldn’t match me with someone with any ill will.”
“There’s so much Aunt Margaret cannot understand about today’s society,” Baldwin affirmed. “She’s from a different time. The seasons shift everything.”
“But she’s assuredly already written my mother to announce her pairing with me and the Duke himself,” Marta said. “To be frank, the idea of pleasing both my aunt and my mother at once makes me feel as though all my horrendous actions and dispiriting situations from the previous year could be forgotten.”
“Is that enough of a reason to marry such a wretched man?” Baldwin asked.
“I don’t suppose he has any sort of engagement plans for the evening,” Marta said with a light laugh. “Please, don’t worry away the rest of my existence.”
“If you have these worries yourself, Ewan and I can whisk you away from here this moment,” Baldwin said, his voice conspiratorial and low, hardly heard over the swell of the orchestra.
“And where has dear Ewan escaped to?” Marta asked.
“I can find him swiftly,” Baldwin affirmed. “I always can.”
Marta arched her brow contemplatively. It was strangely alluring, the idea of escaping the wretched Regent’s party and whisking out into the dark summer night. But of course, this very well could incite gossip, and it wouldn’t necessarily put her in good light.
Suddenly, Ewan appeared beside them. He was red-cheeked and boisterous, far more like the younger boy Marta remembered from seven years before. “What sort of secrets are the two of you exchanging?”
Marta laughed. “Nothing of interest, I’m sure.”
“You’d best be careful, you know,” Ewan said. “I was out dancing with dear Penelope…”
“Oh?” Baldwin said, incredulous.
“Don’t be so jealous, Baldwin.”
