Page 98

Eleanor took a deep breath, settling her racing heart. She turned to the mirror and saw red blotches on her cheeks and her red-rimmed eyes. “Oh dear. I am in a state. Poor Simon. When he takes one look at me, he might reconsider his proposal.”

Eleanor hoped saying the joke out loud would elicit some response from her mind to get its act together, so she could adequately prepare for the day. Instead, it created an ill-intentioned iota of hope that the wedding wouldn’t go through.

“Nonsense. No man in his right mind would pass up on a prize such as yourself.”

Her mother’s words, meant to soothe, actually caused the shards of her heart that remained to be ground to dust. Eleanor squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself to breathe and calm down.

Charlotte finished fixing Eleanor’s face and took a step back. “There. You’ve got some color back, I think you’re ready. I’ll give you a moment alone. I’ll go downstairs and gather your sisters, so we’re ready when you come down.”

Eleanor nodded to her mother. She took one last glance in the mirror. It was now or never. Everything she had ever done was for this moment in her life. She didn’t feel joy, and despite what she told her mother, she didn’t feel nerves. She felt empty.

Eleanor walked to her door, and with one more glance at her childhood room, she closed the door behind her. Her footsteps were heavy down the stairs where her mother and sisters were waiting for her.

She half expected the Duke to be waiting there with them, but he was nowhere to be seen. She opened her mouth to ask where he was but thought better of it. She assumed he would be in attendance. Although, she wouldn’t know what she would do if she had to stand in front of the Duke and become another man’s wife.

“Eleanor,” Beatrice’s voice was full of wonder and love. “You look exquisite.” Beatrice slipped an arm through Eleanor’s, and the two began to walk to the front door.

Eleanor managed a small smile. “Do you have a book?” she whispered to her sister.

Beatrice shook her head vigorously. “I do not. Today is reserved for my favorite sister.”

“Hey!” Sarah piped up from behind them as the two sisters walked ahead. “I heard that.”

Eleanor’s smile grew more intentional.

Charlotte sighed from behind all of them. “Enough of this, children,” she joked. “The carriages are waiting; we must make haste. We do not want to be late to the wedding.”

Beatrice bumped shoulders with Eleanor. “I doubt they’d start without the bride, Mama.”

The girls smiled as they approached the door. Just then, the study door opened, and the Duke entered the hallway.

Eleanor couldn’t tell what stopped first, her feet or her heart, but she found herself frozen in her spot, looking into desperate and longing blue eyes. Hesitation faltered her steps as Beatrice continued walking.

“Eleanor, why’d you—oh, Your Grace! Good morning!” Beatrice’s chipper voice rang out through the hallway.

The Duke said nothing but continued to look at Eleanor. He looked just as empty as she felt. But why? He said his peace. Eleanor expected anger to rise within her like it did that one morning at the breakfast table, but she was so emotionally exhausted she could only return his stare.

Beatrice gave Eleanor a little tug. “We must go, Eleanor.”

Eleanor broke eye contact and continued with Sarah and Beatrice, their mother right behind them.

Eleanor released a breath. The next time she would see the Duke, she would be Viscountess Hountshire. There was no comfort in that knowledge. The only solace she found was that she had read stories about longing and love, and if what the authors wrote were true, her feelings for the Duke would subside over time.

She just needed time.

Derek watched as Eleanor’s frame was swallowed up by the incoming sunlight that streamed through the open door.

“Are you coming, Your Grace?”

Derek hadn’t realized Charlotte did not follow her daughters out the door.

Derek lowered his gaze and adjusted the cuffs on his sleeves. He prepared for the day as if he was going to go, strictly in a professional capacity. Derek would be the Duke of Graynor overseeing one of his wards being married, nothing more, nothing less.

But after seeing her, he was not sure he could manage it.

“I’m terribly sorry, Charlotte, but something important has come up that needs my immediate attention.”

Charlotte frowned. “What a shame. I still stand by what I said last night. It would mean a lot to Eleanor if you would show up today.” Charlotte tipped her head towards the door. “I think more than you realize.”