Page 64 of A Bluestocking for the Wicked Duke

“He is an intensely proud man William. He would never accept this. He was already planning to come ask for my parents’ consent to marry me. I have being cooling him down on the issue. If he does that, our entire plot might fall apart and my parents will always say no to him if they believe I am in a courtship with you,” she replied.

William thought about it.

Can I accept an arrangement like this if I was him? No, I would never.

“We have to be careful then. You would not want him to get to hear of this,” William told her.

Esther laughed when he said this. The laughter didn’t reach her eyes; it was a cynical laugh that ridiculed the situation.

“Is that possible?” she blurted.

“Why not?”

“My father has made it his new job to find different ways to mention our “courtship” to every person that he discusses with. Yesterday one of his friends who had just come back from a business trip visited, my father stylishly informed them of the new development. He intends to spread it around to every part of England if possible,”

William’s heart lurched when he heard that.

Joane must never hear of this.

“So Andrew might find out at long last,” William stated.

“Yes,” Esther replied.

She held William’s other hand and squeezed both tight.

“I might need you to help me convince him whenever that time comes. He would believe it if he heard it from your mouth,” she stated. “I will be devastated if Andrew turns his back on our love because of this.”

William nodded his head in agreement.

“I’ll help you but that is a favour I would need you to return if there is a need to debunk stories of our relationship to another person on my side,” William stated.

Joane.

Esther drew closer to William.

“You’ll scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours,” Esther said.

Someone cleared his throat on the staircase making William to look up to it. It was the Earl. William rose to his feet and bowed.

“Your Grace,” he greeted.

The Earl said nothing, walking gingerly down the stair case till he got to the bottom where William was.

“How is your father? I heard he is recuperating now, I hope he is back to full health,” the Earl said.

“He is getting better by the day sir, thank you for your concern Your Grace,” William said.

“Let me leave you two lovebirds to your affairs,” he said, looking at Esther as he said so. “I have a visitor waiting for me outside. She is the daughter of my friend and has brought a few gifts from him for me.”

William bowed again and watched as the Earl walked out of the sitting room.

“Let’s go into the garden William. There are too many disturbances here and it is not private enough,” Esther commented.

William followed her out of the sitting room and into the garden. They walked past the first stone seat and went to the stone seat beside the fountain. William watched the water fly up and drop into the bowl. It was dropping very close to him without touching him. He stretched his hand into the circumference of the bowl, catching water as it dropped.

He removed his wet hand from within the fountain and turned back to look at Esther. He found her gaze was already on him. Her eyes did not ignite his insides like they did the first time they spoke.

Is that because I know of her real relationship or my persistent thoughts of Joane?