Chapter 17
“I was pleased to see that you were allowed to keep to the dining room for dinner last night.” The Duke appeared seemingly from nowhere, causing Ella to gasp.
“Good heavens!” Ella squeaked and laid a steadying hand on her own chest.
“I am sorry, Miss Winfield. I should have realised how deep in thought you were as you studied that bolt of fabric.” He laughed.
Ella laughed too, although her shock had yet to subside. The Duke was right, she really had been deep in thought as she looked through the fabric and lace in the haberdashery.
The atmosphere at Dandridge had been so heavy with threat that morning that Ella had decided to make an early escape. The Earl’s temper, although not yet parted with, was clearly brewing and brewing as it waited to reach boiling point.
Still Ella had not been sure of its entire cause, although she could not rule out the idea that the glances she and the Duke had shared had been witnessed, and so she had quickly made herself ready and had ridden into town on the trusted horse she had taken to Dandridge when she had left Longton Manor.
“Are you in the market for a new gown, Miss Winfield?” the Duke went on when she had remained silent for a few moments.
“No, not a new gown, Your Grace.” She smiled. “Just a small piece of lace to add to a gown that I already have.”
“I see.”
“And yourself, Your Grace? What interests you so greatly in a haberdashery?” she asked with a smile.
“I saw you from the doorway as I was passing.” He shrugged and smiled all at once, and she wondered at her sudden ease in his presence. “And I thought I would make myself known. I was just on my way to the tearooms.”
“I wonder that you have room left for tea and cake, Your Grace, given the year’s supply of food that was provided last night at Dandridge Hall.” Ella had spoken without thinking, letting her humorous nature take over.
When the Duke laughed heartily, she was more than gratified at the response. She had known, of course, that he had a sense of humour, that much had been clear on the night of the masquerade ball. But the two of them had not particularly laughed together since then, and she was pleased that he was amused by her in the world without masks.
“I was very careful to eat slowly and chew thoroughly last night, Miss Winfield, for even I do not have the constitution for such bounty.”
“Nobody has the constitution for such bounty, Your Grace.”
“Do you think you will be long in choosing your lace, Miss Winfield?” he said, changing the subject altogether.
“I should not think so, Your Grace, for I have already decided.”
“Then perhaps you might have time to take tea with me? You would certainly spare me the sad and sensitive glances of Mrs Holton, the proprietor. I am forever in there taking tea alone, and her pity is so tangible I can almost feel it.”
“You paint a very sorry picture of yourself indeed, Your Grace.” Ella was enjoying herself more than she could say.
Perhaps something about the night before had put them more at ease with one another; maybe their shared glances and amusement had not all been in her imagination.
“A very sorry picture indeed, in hopes that you will take pity on me too. And not only would you be doing me a great service, Miss Winfield, but you would be sparing Mrs Holton such fraught emotions.”
“Well, I should not like to see Mrs Holton upset, obviously,” Ella began slowly and thoughtfully, “but I should also not like to be seen and reported on to my stepfather.” Ella ended her sentence much more quietly than she had begun it.
“You are still suffering the same concerns?” He lowered his tone also.
“I am being cautious, Your Grace. Things do not go well at Dandridge Hall this morning, which is why I am out so early shopping for lace that I do not particularly need.” She raised her eyebrows.
“Then what-say you make your way into the tearoom first, and have a good look around for anybody you think might be so well acquainted with your stepfather as to pass comment. If you are happy that there is no such person in the tearoom, then perhaps you might allow me to sit with you just a few minutes. What do you think to that as an idea?”
“As ideas go, Your Grace, it would seem to me to be exceptionally well thought out.” Ella laughed.
“I thank you, kind lady.” He gave a comical little bow. “And is it well thought out enough to tempt you?”
“Yes, it is.” Ella wanted more than anything to sit with him for a while and continue in the happy banter which seemed to have developed quite organically between them.
However, she knew she must remain alert to everything around her and be careful to maintain discretion in the conversation, lest anybody present overhear them.
The Duke hovered while she paid for the lace, and Ella felt suddenly a little embarrassed. Every penny she had in the world to herself was in the tiny fabric purse she held in her hand. It was but a few coins, enough to pay for the lace, but still very little. And what was worse, she felt him noticing.
Going ahead to the tearooms provided a certain amount of relief, a little time to get over her moment of embarrassment.
It was barely mid-morning, and the tearoom was mercifully quiet, there being only one other gentleman in there who looked as if he was taking a break in his working day. He was a smartly turned out and learned-looking gent, and she suspected him to be either an attorney or a bookkeeper or something similar.
Whatever he was, she was sure that he was not a close personal friend of the Earl of Dandridge and there, at that moment, she assumed herself to be safe.
By the time she had made herself comfortable, the Duke was already entering the tearoom. He looked over at her and raised an eyebrow, and she nodded imperceptibly. He made a little show of being pleased to see her and somewhat surprised, presumably for the benefit of Mrs Holton, and then politely asked if he might join her.
“Of course, Your Grace,” she said with a knowing smile.
“Good morning, Mrs Holton.” He smiled at the approaching proprietor with an easy informality that the older woman seemed to appreciate very much. “Would you be so kind as to bring us a pot of tea and some of your wonderful little cakes?”
“Certainly, Your Grace.” Mrs Holton returned his smile, a little colour appearing in her pale, lined cheeks.
“Mrs Holton really does make wonderful cakes, does she not?” the Duke said, turning back to her.
“I am afraid I do not know, you Grace. I have not spent much time here in town, given that I used to shop for whatever I needed in Middleton. It was closer to Longton Manor, you see.”
“I see, it is just the other side of your father’s old estate, is it not?”
“Yes, and it had everything I needed, albeit a good deal smaller and less well-appointed than town.”
“You have simple tastes, I perceive, and yet I think good taste.” He smiled.
“If that is a compliment, Your Grace, then I thank you for it.” She laughed.
“It is indeed a compliment, Miss Winfield.” He looked at her intently for a moment, his dark eyes such a draw to her. “So, tell me, if I do not ask too much, what is the cause of such consternation in your household this morning that you felt the need to make yourself scarce?”
“Nothing has been said, Your Grace, rather it was a general feeling,” Ella said and chewed at her bottom lip in thought. “An atmosphere, perhaps.”
“Am I to assume that your family did not enjoy dinner with the Duke last night?”
“I am not entirely sure that they ever truly enjoy anything, Your Grace,” she spoke quietly, still keen not to be overheard, even by the clerical gentleman some seats away.
“That is a very interesting idea, Miss Winfield.” He narrowed his eyes in a way which suggested he was keen to hear more. “Would you care to explain it?”
“The Belvilles are a family of acquisition, Your Grace. And they spend so much time in acquiring that they never enjoy what they have. As soon as something is achieved and is in their possession, already they are thinking of the next thing. And it can be anything, gowns, decoration, horses, people. They are never satisfied, sir, and so they do not have the capacity for true enjoyment. It eludes them.”
“Because true enjoyment, I suppose, demands a certain amount of presence. One must be where they are and when they are, so to speak, in order to enjoy what is .”
“You have it exactly, Your Grace. If only I could have put it so succinctly and so well.”
“And now you are complimenting me, Miss Winfield.”
“But not without reason, truly. You have managed to describe the circumstance exactly as it is.”
“Then it must be a very trying circumstance for you and your mother,” he said, and she recognised at once that he was turning the conversation in order to seek a little more information.
Still, she did not mind it at all, for she was sure that it was well meant. But she knew she must guard against giving too much away, especially since she did not know for certain that he was not at all interested in either of Ronald Belville’s daughters. Just because the Duke was at his ease with her did not mean that she ought to let her guard down and say something that might well land her in trouble at home.
“I am not quite sure how my mother feels about it all. It is true to say that she is very much more at home with the Earl and his family than I am, and certainly regarding acquiring she is already adept. She fits better than I do at Dandridge, but I am not certain that she fits as well as she had hoped to.”
“I see,” he said and paused whilst Mrs Holton laid out their tea before them. “Thank you kindly, Mrs Holton,” he said before the woman bobbed and turned to walk away.
“They really do look like very nice cakes.” Ella was seeking to change the subject, albeit very gently.
“Indeed, they are.” He stared at the cakes blankly for a moment before resuming. “Forgive me, Miss Winfield, but are you treated as one of the family at home?”
“I do not … I mean …” Ella was taken off guard by the question.
“What I mean, Miss Winfield, is were you instructed to keep quiet last night?”
“I was quiet, Your Grace, and I apologize for it. I meant no offence, and I was certainly pleased to be in your company.”
“You are avoiding my question,” he said and placed one of the little cakes squarely on the plate in front of her.
“Yes, I am avoiding your question, Your Grace.”
“But why? I have kept my promise, have I not?”
“You have, and I am very grateful for it. I would not do well in that household if any one of them knew that you and I had spoken anywhere outside of Dandridge Hall.”
“Then I would hope that you know you can trust me.” He had become suddenly very serious.
“Of course,” she said and nodded enthusiastically. “Of course. And yes, I had been instructed to keep quiet last night. My stepfather is very determined that you concentrate only on his own daughters, and he sees every word you speak to me as being my own fault. I know that he must realise that it is irrational, but he suspects me of trying to gain your attention, and he no doubt thinks that his own daughters will lose out on account of it.”
“But you have done nothing to attempt to gain my attention. If that is clear to me, surely it must be clear to the Earl.”
“As I said, Your Grace, it is not particularly rational. I suppose fathers can become that way when they are seeking a good match for their …” She realised that she had gone too far.
“You need not flush, Miss Winfield,” the Duke said and laughed again, the ease returning to his face. “You have not blundered; I think it is obvious to all that my appearance at Dandridge is no more than a matrimonial quest.”
“Perhaps, but it is not my place to comment on it.”
“But what is your place?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“What is your place, Miss Winfield? What is your place within that family?”
“I do not have a place at Dandridge Hall,” Ella said, wishing that he was not quite so determined to prize the truth from her. “I am simply the daughter of the Earl’s new wife, and that is it. No, perhaps that is not it.” She stopped for a moment and realised that she was not even that well-regarded.
“Miss Winfield?” the Duke said and seemed to lean across the table slightly towards her.
“You saw how I was once ejected from the room, Sir,” she began, and he nodded. “And I can tell you quite truthfully that last night was the first time since that day that I have been permitted to eat with the family.”
“I beg your pardon?” the Duke said incredulously and then looked all around him, clearly realizing that he had spoken volubly. “Do you mean to tell me that you are excluded from meals?” He looked horrified.
“I take breakfast downstairs because I rise before the rest of the family. As for the remaining meals, I take them in my own chamber. It is not meals as such that I am excluded from, rather the society of the rest of the family at meal times.”
“Why?”
“Because my mother is keen to stay on the good side of her new husband.”
“It was your mother’s idea?”
“Since it was my mother who suggested it to me, I can only think that that is true. But, of course, she might well have been acting upon the Earl’s instruction, I do not know.”
“That is appalling, Miss Winfield.”
“As appalling as it is, it is the truth. But I am bound to say that I do not miss their society particularly, it is just some society if you understand?”
“Yes, I do understand. You might not find them particularly engaging company, but they are company nonetheless.”
“Quite so.” Ella knew that things had moved on too quickly.
She had given away too much, and yet she could hardly have avoided it. The Duke was extraordinarily easy to speak to, even without the mask, it seemed. And he did pry, that much was true. But the idea that he pried with nothing more than warm intentions was the very thing that made his prying so successful.
“I had no idea that things were quite as bad as all that. Why was it then that you were allowed to take dinner with the family last night?”
“Because it would not do for the Duke of Hillington to wonder why it was a family member was missing. The Earl told me as much himself, and I am certain of it.”
“What a dreadful way for a man to behave.”
“It is dreadful, I agree. So dreadful, in fact, that I ought not to have mentioned it to you.”
“Do not chastise yourself about that, Miss Winfield. I am aware of a certain persistence in my questioning of you, and so if anybody is to blame, it is me. But there ought not to be any blame at all in my opinion. When a person is suffering as you do, it is vital to be able to give voice to it. Tell me, do you have any particular friends?”
“My circle of friends is sadly decreased since my father died and my mother re-married, and I must say that Lady Brightwell is probably the closest of them.”
“And she knows of your circumstances?”
“We have not been in contact greatly since my mother remarried. I have seen Lady Brightwell just once, that afternoon at bridge, and so we have had little opportunity to discuss it. But she is very kind and wise, and I know that she would listen to me without prejudice. That is why I am so cautious in my manner. That is why I am so secretive, Sir, for I should not like to be denied the right to leave the house during daylight hours. I should not like to be denied the society of people whom I actually care about, people like Lady Brightwell.”
“Tell me, do you intend to go to bridge at Lady Brightwell’s this week?” He smiled and seemed keen to ease her embarrassment.
“If I have a chance of it, yes.”
“Good,” he said without explanation, leaving Ella wondering if he would again appear in Lady Brightwell’s drawing room.
“I hope you will forgive me, Your Grace, but I do not think that I can sit here with you for very much longer. As much as I try to concentrate, I cannot help thinking that somebody who knows my stepfather might well appear in the doorway here at any moment.”
“Well, at least eat one of the cakes and have two sips of your tea,” he said in a cajoling way. “And then I promise to release you, Miss Winfield.”
“And you really must say nothing of all that I have told you, Your Grace. Forgive my impertinence, but it would not help me at all if you did.”
“I understand better than ever your need for discretion, Miss Winfield, and I shall keep to it, I promise.”
“Thank you kindly,” Ella said and quickly set about the cake in front of her, knowing that her own particular enjoyment of the moment was coming to an end.