AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Nineteen
That night, dinner was as formal and quiet as usual. Jenny, thinking that she could not take another evening of this torture, came to a decision on the spur of the moment. She looked up at him from across the table and made an announcement. "I have invited Ernest and Daphne for dinner tomorrow."
"Hmm?" He looked up from his barely touched meal, distracted and scowling.
"Yourcousinand myfriend." She emphasized the words. "I invited them to have dinner with us tomorrow." Her grip on her fork tightened. It was all she could do to not shoot to her feet, cross over, grab him by the shoulders and shake him until he returned from wherever it was he seemed to be going off to in that head of his these days.
"Excellent," he responded.
“You are not going to say anything else?” she asked with some incredulity.
He glanced at her before tossing back his whiskey. “What do you want me to say, Jenny, when I have no objections?”
“You are not going to ask me my reason for inviting them?”
He shrugged. “They are both your friends and you are in want of their company.”
Jenny decided to spare herself the pain of continuing the conversation but then a question surfaced. “I am still unable to find my rocks.”
He suddenly began to cough and his hand went up to his throat. Jenny bolted to her feet and ran to him. “Give me some water,” she ordered the footman as she placed her hand on his back to soothe him.
He shut his eyes, trying to control his breathing while she moved her hand up and down his back. When he was calm enough, she gave him the water and he took a generous gulp.
“Are you all right?” she asked softly, moving her hand up his back to his collar before touching the hair at his nape.
“I,”—he cleared his throat—“I am well.” His tone was brusque once more and he moved away from her touch.
“I see.” Her hands dropped to her sides and she returned to her seat. She opened her mouth to ask him why he was being distant but closed it, changing her mind.
She did not want to look like she was pleading for his attention even though she had the right to. Keeping her poise grace and not appearing desperate and pathetic was important.
Immediately after the excruciating meal, Jenny retired to the library and drew sheets of parchment from her desk drawer, and began to pen notes to Ernest and Daphne. She had not actually invited them and had claimed to so she could gauge Nicholas’s reaction.
Sadly, Nicholas had been too cold to give her any reaction. She could swear he was becoming colder and detached by the day. It was as if he was no longer there with her.
* * *
“Good night, Your Grace,” Jenny said after clearing her dessert plate.
Every sensible part of him wanted to call her back, ask her to drink port with him, or spend some time in the library talking about geology, but it was better this way. The sacrifice he was making was for her. Certainly, he was failing at mending their friendship but perhaps in time, he will get the opportunity to do that.
“Good night, Jenny,” he mumbled after her. Then he touched his nape where her fingers had been, closing his eyes.
How he had missed her touch. How he wished he had allowed her to continue stroking his hair after his coughing fit. But that would mean another cold bath tonight and he was growing sick of them.
He walked to his study to work on estate matters. If only ice could numb his soul the way it numbed his body. “Your Grace?” came Ramsay’s voice at the study door.
“Yes? Come in.”
He walked in with a missive in hand. “This just arrived for you from Gloucester.”
Nicholas took it from him and broke the wax seal. It was from his Steward. “It’s from Mr. Anders. A storm has caused some damage on the property.”
“Is your presence required, Your Grace?” Ramsay asked, likely so he could begin packing if they were to travel.
“No, only a reply which I will write in the morning. You may go.”
“Of course, Your Grace. But permit me to compliment you on the show you put on in the dining room.”
