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Chapter Ten
The Following Afternoon
“You are going to make such a lovely bride, Jenny. You will be the envy of theton,” Mrs. Atwood gushed.
Jenny listened half-heartedly to her companion. It was almost teatime but she made no attempt to put her work away. She had assembled the rock samples she had collected since arriving in London for the season on the table before her, jotting down her most recent observations.
“Shopping for your trousseau will surely be exciting. Green is your favorite color and…”
Jenny lost concentration as she wrote down something about a sample she believed to be a fossil. On a normal day, Mrs. Atwood would never countenance such behavior from her. Once it was teatime, which she tookveryseriously, she would make Jenny stop everything she was doing. But as she was distracted by the news of the wedding, she paid Jenny no mind today, and she was glad of it.
"A fabric in jade green should make a wonderful wedding dress,” the woman droned on, "but ivory is another choice. What do you think?"
Jenny was too busy examining the fossil with a magnifier that she almost did not hear what Mrs. Atwood had just said. "They should make for tolerable colors if you are dressing a debutante," she said flatly just as Tanner, the butler, entered to announce Nicholas.
Jenny straightened in her chair as her heart began to race in her chest. She wished he would stop doing that to her.
"Are you not a little too old to be playing with dirt?" he teased as he walked in, looking too handsome in an immaculately tailored afternoon coat. He inclined his head and greeted Mrs. Atwood.
“Your Grace.” Mrs. Atwood curtsied and excused them, leaving the drawing room door ajar for the sake of propriety. Jenny followed his gaze to her rocks before responding with, "Would you like to join me?"
I can play his little game, too,she thought with a sly smile.
After more than a decade, Jenny was no longer annoyed by his comment. He had referred to her rock collection as dirt just to needle her when they were children. His saying it now made her feel as though she was having her old Nicholas back.
"As a matter of fact, I know the perfect place for you to source more dirt," he stated with a mischievous glint in his eyes as he tugged his black leather gloves.
"Oh? Where will that be?” she asked, gathering her samples and placing them back into a wooden box at her feet.
He made a show of contemplating for a minute. "I would prefer to show you.”
She put the rock samples away and stood. “It is teatime and Mrs. Atwood would never forgive us for leaving.”
“I will compensate her,” he said, smiling down at her. He seemed to be in good spirits today and she supposed that was a good thing.
She had not been pleased with his treatment of Phineas yesterday but she hoped he would behave better when they saw each other again. They had met Daphne on the way and Jenny had brought her along to avoid being alone with Nicholas even though Mrs. Atwood was nearby. She was not as concerned about being alone with him today and they were going out. She was completely safe.
* * *
"And here I was hoping to find myself in some fascinating cave filled with fossils and geodes," Jenny announced when she peeked out the carriage window and discovered they were in Hyde Park.
"You will find that the most interesting treasures are right in front of us," he responded, opening the carriage door when it rolled to a halt and stepping down. He offered her his hand.
"Why, Nicholas, when did you become so philosophical?" she jested, taking his hand and climbing down. They were regaining their rapport and they carried this easy banter through their walk.
Every time Jenny paused to examine something that piqued her interest, she would explain her observations and understanding of the object to him. And he looked genuinely interested in what she had to say as he regarded her with a combination of intrigue and something else that she was not quite able to place. Something that sent color to her cheeks and heat to the rest of her body.
The news of their engagement had already spread, and as they walked, eyes around the park practically shadowed their every move. But this didn’t stop Jenny from hunching over rocks and pebbles and collecting samples into the reticule that Sarah was carrying for her.
Nicholas surprisingly helped her by carrying her sketchbook for her. He, too, was not paying the curious gazes any mind. Or perhaps he was pretending to not mind them for her sake.
Either way, Jenny appreciated his gesture and found herself humming when she was not talking. She wondered what their marriage would truly be like if the circumstances were different, if Nicholas had not pegged it as naught but one of mere convenience. Nevertheless, she was starting to hope that her marriage would not be the nightmare she had thought it would be. As long as Nicholas continued to behave as he was behaving now.
“Do you remember the time we stole a treacle tart from your kitchen in Hanover Manor?” Nicholas asked.
“How can I ever forget that day?” She laughed. “I almost died of sweetness. Did you know that I haven’t had a treacle treat since then!”
“Truly?” His eyes widened ever so slightly.
