AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Eloise cleared her throat, turning to Jackson, who now slipped his hand into hers.
“This is His Grace, the Duke of Kenwood,” Eloise said. Jackson held out his hand to Eloise’s father and bowed.
“Forgive me, My Lord. But I’ve found your daughter to be the most enchanting of creatures. She’s quite swept me off my feet. I hope you don’t mind my dancing with her, and, with your permission, seeing her again tomorrow,” he declared.
Eloise’s father looked confused. He furrowed his brow, and Eloise wondered what he was thinking. Would he refuse the match on the grounds she was already promised to Lord Crawford? Or would he honor his promise of allowing her until the end of the Season to find a husband?
“You wish to call on my daughter tomorrow, Your Grace?” he asked, and Jackson nodded.
“I do, My Lord. Very much so. With your permission, of course,” Jackson replied.
He was behaving as the perfect gentleman. Eloise’s father nodded.
“Very well. You may do so,” he conceded.
Eloise smiled, though she tried to hide her immense delight at this happy fortune. At that moment, Lord Crawford came barging over, pushing through the throng, accompanied by his two sisters.
“What’s all this, Snowden? You promised me your daughter’s dance card this evening, and now I see her dancing with… him,” he scoffed, glowering at Jackson, who smiled back at him and bowed.
“I’m sure the lady would prefer to choose whom her dance card belongs to,” he said, and Lord Crawford’s two sisters grimaced.
“Be careful,” Lord Crawford snarled, before turning on his heels and marching off across the room followed by his sisters, who glared at Eloise, who rolled her eyes and gave thanks for her remarkable rescue.
* * *
“Well, Eloise. It seems you’ve proved me wrong this evening,” her father said, as the two of them rode home in their carriage that evening.
The ball had concluded with a final waltz, and Eloise and Jackson had danced happily together. For all the world, it appeared as though the two of them were indeed a couple. The way they comported themselves was so worthy of a stage performance that any observer would be bound to assume they were falling in love. But it had all been a ruse, concocted for the sake of appearances and designed to fool everyone – which it had.
“He’s charming, and you did tell me to find a husband before the end of the Season, Father,” Eloise emphasized, patting her father’s hand.
Her father smiled and raised his eyebrows, his face illuminated by the lamp hanging from the carriage door.
“One swallow doesn’t make a summer, Eloise. You’ve danced with the Duke, and he’s to call on you tomorrow. But I still reserve the right to find a husband for you. Lord Crawford remains a possibility,” her father asserted.
After the insults of that night, Eloise could hardly imagine the unpleasant aristocrat wanting to marry her. She had humiliated him, and the counsel of his sisters would surely be enough to dissuade him from wanting anything more to do with her.
“But surely you could see how I felt about him, Father?” Eloise urged.
“We’ll see,” her father said, and the rest of the carriage ride home passed in silence.
But Eloise was filled with renewed hope, not only for her own circumstances but for the fate of her sister, too. Had she married Lord Crawford, the possibility of ever finding Alice would have grown ever more remote. She could not imagine him allowing her to pursue her search, and his two sisters would surely have ridiculed her for doing so. But marrying Jackson would be different. He would not dictate how she was to behave, nor prevent her from doing that which was her life’s work. Perhaps he might even assist her in her task, and Eloise now felt filled with excitement at the prospect of not only escaping her father’s demands but of fulfilling her heart’s true desire.
CHAPTER5
Eloise found it hard to sleep that night. Her mind was filled with thoughts of all that happened at the Mayfair Ball. She had been at her lowest ebb when Lord Crawford treated her so cruelly, but meeting Jackson had given her hope, and she allowed herself to imagine what might be if they were to actually marry.
“But it’s completely ridiculous, of course. You can’t marry him. You don’t know him,” she murmured to herself, as though doing so would convince her of the opposite of what her heart had already decided.
Reason told her it was a foolish idea. A marriage could not be decided on in such a way and for such reasons. But her heart said something different. Eloise had no desire to marry Lord Crawford or anyone else whom her father chose, and if a marriage of convenience was what it took to prevent that, then perhaps it was not such a ridiculous idea after all.
“But it seems a drastic measure, My Lady,” Delphine said after Eloise explained her plan the following morning whilst she was getting dressed.
“We wouldn’t really be married. Well, we would be married, but we wouldn’t be seriously married,” Eloise argued.
The maid looked doubtful, and now that Eloise voiced her idea to another, the thought of its astonishing nature became even clearer.
“But marriage vows…. they’re sacred, My Lady. You don’t just make them on a whim,” Delphine said, shaking her head.
