AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Emotions or mere infatuation, she wasn’t certain, but she knew that he had set roots deeply inside her heart, and she would need to cut them out immediately and not water them with hope.
“I do not think so,” Sarah shook her head, continuing with the combing. “It is you he cannot seem to take his eyes off.”
Bridget swallowed heavily, but there was still something big and heavy stuck in her throat. “He is not unable to take his eyes off of me. He is unable to stop staring out of sheer curiosity for my affliction. Nothing else, I assure you.”
“I feel like you two have more in common, somehow.”
“What could we possibly have in common?” Bridget had to laugh this time, for this was truly funny. The little she knew of that man was that he was a reformed rake in search of a wife to settle down with. The questions regarding her garden were mere politeness not interest.
“Your conversation flows smoothly,” Sarah explained. “I struggle to find words around him.”
“Could it be because you are enamored with him?” Bridget teased.
“Well, heishandsome,” Sarah chuckled.
“Is he?” Bridget wondered. “Tell me what he looks like.”
“He is very tall,” Sarah started with the obvious, something even Bridget could tell. Immediately, she remembered how perfectly their bodies aligned during their dance. “He has very broad shoulders. I do believe he is quite athletic underneath all those clothes.” The two girls leaned closer to each other and giggled as if they had just shared a wicked little secret that no one could be privy to besides the two of them.
“What are his eyes like?” Bridget asked; inside her mind was ready with an empty canvas to be filled with a beautiful color.
“His eyes are the color of the ocean,” Sarah described, “and the sun is reflecting upon the surface. The cerulean depth of his eyes is inviting, warm, and inside the very center, there are two golden caramels.”
“How poetic,” Bridget smiled, grateful for the chance to see his eyes exactly how Sarah described them. Others would only tell her that he had blue eyes and consider it enough for her to be able to imagine them, but for her to truly see them with her mind’s eye, she needed a more in-depth account, such as this one. “Those eyes must be beautiful.”
“They are,” Sarah agreed, “and they always keep looking at you.”
“Curiosity is a perpetual human condition,” Bridget reminded her. “People are instinctively drawn to what they don’t know, what they’ve never seen. It doesn’t matter if they like it or not. They will be drawn to it nonetheless until the novelty wears off which is rather quickly.”
“There,” Sarah said, straightening a few loose curls around her sister’s face. “Your hair looks lovely.”
“Thank you, Sarah,” Bridget smiled.
“Should we make a little bun?”
“Yes,” Bridget nodded. “As for tomorrow, do give the Duke a chance. He seems like a good man.”
He seemed like many things more, but Bridget did not wish to delve more deeply into that right now.
“I suppose you are correct,” Sarah agreed, pulling her sister’s hair back at the root of her neck and circling it into a loose bun. “We shall see tomorrow. As for now, we shall join mother for tea and focus on us. Today is a day to celebrate sisterhood.”
Bridget giggled sweetly. “I agree.”
Indeed, Bridget would think about Joseph the following day and focus on herself and her sister today. Only, that was easier said than done.
Chapter 8
Belonging to a gentleman’s club was something no respectable gentleman could skip. Joseph preferred White’s, mostly because it was Tory membership, and his late father was loudly against them. That in itself was enough reason for Joseph to become a member.
The fact that it was predominantly a gambling club only seemed to strengthen his decision to become a full-time, long-term member who ordinarily played high-stake card games with his favorites being whist and quinze. This time, however, he did not prefer to indulge in any betting and instead retired to a pool room with his company.
Lord Morgan Turner was a younger version of Joseph’s father which was to be expected as he was the younger son of Joseph’s grandfather. As social customs dictated, he remained untitled which led to the diminishing of his social status. His thin, greying hair had started to pull to the back of his head, and the man’s stomach instead pulled forward— the two were actually supposed to be doing the exact opposite. His wife, Joseph’s aunt, was an equally insipid woman to her husband with whom Joseph could only exchange the basic pleasantries and nothing further, but Joseph attributed that to her being a woman of a lower status who rose on the ladder by marrying slightly higher than herself and then preferred to portray herself as being more eloquent, more debonair, more interesting than she truly was.
The person Joseph felt closest to in that family was his cousin, Seth. Sharing the physical similarity that their father’s shared as well, the two were initially mistaken for brothers as they grew older then adulthood chiseled Joseph’s features in a more Romanesque manner, making him appear akin to old Greek statues of gods and heroes, while Seth remained in the realm of mortals with an occasional feature that made him handsome.
“How is business, Uncle?” Joseph inquired politely as he always did while he aimed his cue at the nearest ball, striking it gently. Despite his careful calculations, he missed. The disappointment made him click his teeth to his upper lips as he stood up and kept staring at the table.
Lord Turner walked over to the table and took one of the balls into his hand. Joseph said nothing, and neither did Seth who was standing right next to him.
