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Chapter 23
Marcus didn’t know how long he had been marching around the gardens, in desperation to make some sense of the whirring thoughts going around in his mind, but in the end, he had to give up, deciding that the walk was doing him little good at all. He marched back into the house and started heading for the staircase, intent on talking to Lady Violette again. He supposed she’d be staying in her room after their quarrel that morning.
“My lord, there you are!” A delighted voice made him come to a stop in the middle of the stairs. He turned round to see Lady Helen standing in the doorway to the dining room nearby. “We have been waiting for you for luncheon.”
“I am not hungry. Please, help yourselves. I have business to attend to.” He tried to make his way free again and hurry up the steps, but she stopped him by coming after him.
“Then I shall come and keep you company instead,” she said, reaching him on the steps and looping their arms together. He hesitated, looking up the staircase in wonder. He now couldn’t go see Lady Violette with Lady Helen on his arm. That would be far too much! Then he remembered what Lady Helen had said about luncheon. There was a chance that Lady Violette had gone to luncheon, dressed as Mr Violet Blake.
“On second thoughts. I will come to luncheon,” he said, turning them around on the staircase and heading back down the stairs.
“Oh, what a shame, I was looking forward to spending some time alone with you,” she said, lacking any subtlety as she pulled on his arm, urging him to stop. He ignored her and pulled her through the door regardless. Everyone around the table looked up at their entrance.
“There you are, you’ll be able to answer our question, I’m sure, Marcus,” Peter said, with what looked to be a rather mischievous smile to his eye.
“What is that?” Marcus asked. He purposefully steered Lady Helen toward her chair, needing to extricate himself from her.
“Where has your friend Mr Blake gone?”
“What?” Marcus said, snapping his gaze up to the empty chair that Lady Violette usually sat at. Seeing that it was indeed not just empty, but the plate was bare too, showing she had not been down at all for luncheon, he began to worry. He stepped away from Lady Helen, intent on moving to Lady Violette’s chair, only to find Lady Helen taking his arm, pulling him back toward her.
“Will you not sit for some food, my lord?” she said sweetly, looking up at him with a rather pretty little smile. Marcus couldn’t look at that smile for long. He was busy comparing it to the full smile that Lady Violette gave whenever she smiled at him. There was a stark difference.
“In a minute,” he said hurriedly, then lifted his eyes to Peter and his brothers. “Mr Blake isn’t having lunch?”
“It is not just that,” Peter said, still with that mischievous smile. “The stable lad tells us that a carriage left this morning, taking one of our guests into town. As you can see, everyone else is accounted for.”
Stunned, Marcus stood stock still as he looked around the room. The Duke seemed much more interested in the amount of pâté he was adding to his bread than the current conversation. Lady Katherine was trying her best to get Walter’s attention, who was infinitely more interested in the current conversation at hand. All were indeed accounted for, except for Lady Violette.
“You do not know where he has gone then?” Laurie said.
“He? I mean, he didn’t say. No, I do not know.” He cursed himself for making the mistake and hoped his quick brush over the words had covered up his discomfort. He had only just managed to start thinking of Mr Blake as Lady Violette after his romp through the gardens. It was going to be odd to talk of her as a ‘he’ again.
“Oh, let us not talk about your friend,” Lady Helen said, beckoning Marcus to sit down beside her. He did so, but distractedly. “I wish to talk about Mr Blake’s room. My lady’s maid tells me it has the finest view of your guest rooms in the house. Now that he is gone, perhaps I could move into the room instead?”
“I beg your pardon?” Marcus said, struggling to see if he had understood Lady Helen right. The rudeness of such a statement was outrageous at such a time as this.
“It is the finer room, isn’t it?” she said with a smile. “With your friend gone, he will hardly mind. We could move my things in after lunch?”
Marcus looked to his brothers, seeing the three of them were also exchanging surprised glances at the audacity of such a statement.
“Mr Blake may have just left for the day. He could be back this evening.”
“I am certain he would not mind switching rooms. I am sure too you would like to make me happy, my lord,” she said with a flirtatious smile as she pushed some tea toward him, urging him to eat. “After yesterday evening, I can have little doubts on your thoughts of me now.” She may have attempted to whisper the words, but they were hardly that quiet, as Peter and Laurie nearby glanced at one another again, even though Walter was finally distracted by Lady Katherine’s conversation.
“Yesterday evening?” Marcus repeated in wonder.
“Our dances,” she said. “Had we danced so much in public, the county would say we must be betrothed by now. Though I look forward to such a formal announcement in the future.” She whispered the latter part so quietly, that it did not matter how much Peter and Laurie leaned forward trying to listen in, their frowns showed they could not hear her, but Marcus had.
It was arrogant and incredibly rude to suppose he would propose to her after a few dances. They had hardly been at a ball the night before. They were at dinner, there were few other partners to be had. Thinking of those dances, Marcus winced, remembering the way that Lady Violette had excused herself from dancing, probably only knowing ladies’ steps for such dances, then she had left the room early because he had danced so much with Lady Helen.
The memory of it made him push his chair back sharply, determined to go and find her at last.
“If you would excuse me, I need to go and see if Mr Blake truly is gone,” he said, looking past Lady Helen toward the door.
“He’s gone, Marcus,” Laurie said quietly.
“What? You are sure?”
