Page 27 of A Duke to Undo her (The Husband Hunt #1)
Chapter Twenty
“You look ravishing, Josephine!” Lady Rose trilled as Betsy and Vera fixed the circlet of emeralds in Josephine’s artfully pinned hair of brown, red and gold.
“You do look very well,” Madeline agreed.
Rose and Madeline were both in white tonight, Rose’s gown in silk with a pink sash and embroidered flowers, and Madeline’s a fine muslin trimmed with blue, the simple lines flattering her more stately form.
Josephine, in contrast, had insisted on wearing her favorite blue evening dress.
Her choice had surprised Vera, who was aware that her younger sister had brought to Ashbourne Castle a choice of two other dresses, specifically for the ball.
Most young ladies would have wanted to show off their newer gowns, she had observed but was quickly rebuffed by Josephine.
What no one else in the room could know was that this was no longer simply an old blue silk dress, but a dress that had caught the attention and excited the interest of Cassius Emerton.
Do you have any idea how beautifully that blue gown suited your figure, Lady Josephine…?
Josephine studied herself in the looking glass as she rose to her feet.
Her only concession to embellishing the dress for the ball had been to tie it with a green silk sash.
Initially thinking that this might distract from the slight tightness at the bosom, she now saw that the sash only seemed to raise and accentuate her breasts further.
This awareness made her feel a little self-conscious but not displeased.
The Duke of Ashbourne had told her before how hard he found it to control his gaze around her.
Tonight Josephine hoped it would prove impossible, regardless of his clear determination to avoid her presence since their erotic embraces in the library.
“You will be the most beautiful woman at the ball and Mr. Emerton will want to dance with you all night,” Rose declared with rapture.
Josephine smiled and kissed her friend’s cheek.
“You will be the most beautiful woman at the ball, Rose. You generally are although you seem not to notice and maybe that is part of why we all love you. As for dancing, Mr. Emerton is a fine dancer and an excellent host. I dare say he will dance with all of us.”
Would Cassius Emerton dance at all, Josephine wondered to herself?
More than just avoiding her, he had been largely absent from the party entirely over the last two days.
Making minimal appearances at luncheon and dinner for form’s sake, he then pleaded pressure of business in order to vanish again into his locked study or suite.
Well, tonight Josephine refused to be ignored.
“How grown up you seem all of a sudden, Josephine,” commented Vera with a curious smile as she handed Josephine her gloves and put on her own. “Well, ladies, are we all ready to go downstairs?”
Benedict Emerton was waiting for them at the door to the ballroom which was already filling up with guests, some from the house party, some from the local neighborhood and others from London or further afield.
He grinned broadly as soon as he saw them and offered Josephine and Vera his arms, seeming as delighted to see them as always.
“I only wish I had four arms so that I could escort all four of the most elegant ladies at this ball,” he joked over his shoulder to Madeline and Rose as they followed behind.
“Ah, you flatterer,” Lady Elmridge teased the affable young man.
“Entering a ballroom in the company of four ladies is impression enough to make on the rest of the likely envious young men. They know that they will have to strive for their dance partners while you will be in constant demand with little effort. There is no need to grow extra arms.”
Josephine laughed with Benedict at this small joke, barely even registering Lady Belinda and Lady Penelope casting dark glances towards her as they lurked in the corridor outside the ballroom, in anticipation of something, or someone.
“I suspect they are waiting to pounce on Cassius when he and Mother have finished welcoming the wider arrivals in the front reception room,” Benedict confided to Josephine in a whisper.
“More fool them. The Duke of Ashbourne is in no mood for flirtatious young ladies tonight and they are liable to have their heads bitten off. "
“Are they really?” Josephine asked, her heart fluttering even at the mention of the duke. “Is your brother really in such ill-temper as that?”
“Not ill-temper exactly, but he does not seem very happy to me. He has told our mother that he does not intend to dance, which is hardly very sporting at a ball.”
“What did your mother say to that?” she pursued further.
“Mother tried to tell him that he was the host and had to dance, but Cassius told her that was what younger brothers were for! I intend to dance all night anyway but the cheek of him, assuming that I must pick up all of his duties on command…”
It was a lightly spoken and amused criticism and Josephine joined in Benedict Emerton’s laughter even though her body ached to be near Cassius again.
“Yes, he ought to live his own life and let you live yours,” she remarked earnestly, thinking of her conversation with Duchess Nerissa. “I wish he understood that.”
“As do I,” Mr. Emerton agreed. “Aha, the orchestra is tuning up. The first dance must be ours, if you permit it, Lady Elmridge?”
With Vera’s nod, and both Madeline and Rose almost instantly approached by a pair of red-haired brothers offering to partner them, Josephine followed Benedict Emerton to the dance floor.
“They will open with a country dance, if I remember our final listing correctly,” she reflected, feeling none of her usual enthusiasm for dancing.
Her handsome blond friend seemed to notice something amiss in her mood and looked at her sympathetically.
“You can’t have forgotten already, Lady Josephine, after we agonized over that list for a whole hour. Dear me, you do seem a little cast down tonight. Is everything well?”
Josephine felt her lip wobble, and wished for a moment that she did not need to hide so much.
It was even more impossible to confide her confused woes in Benedict Emerton than in Madeline and Rose, or Vera.
He might even despise her if he had any idea of what she and Cassius had done together.
Still, she liked him far too much to lie more than necessary.
“I am not feeling very happy,” Josephine confessed. “But I hope that dancing will help.”
“My dear Lady Josephine, I shall do my best to whirl all unhappiness from your heart tonight. But is there anything more I can do to help you?”
She shook her head. There was only one man who might answer her troubling questions and ease her unhappy mind, and this could be her last chance to see him. Still, until the Duke of Ashbourne appeared, Benedict Emerton’s company was always easy and warm-hearted.
“Dancing with a good friend is quite help enough,” she told him and he settled for that in his usual undemanding manner without further complicated questions.
On the dance-floor, Benedict Emerton was as agile and energetic as ever and Josephine enjoyed being his partner as much as she enjoyed horse-riding or playing pall mall with him on the lawns.
How different it felt to be in the blond man’s arms, as opposed to those of his dark-haired brother in certain other situations.
She could never imagine Benedict kissing her, or wishing him to do so…
Josephine returned to Vera in order to rest after the first two dances, entreating the light-footed Mr. Emerton to dance with Lady Rose next, since her partner in the earlier measures had proved embarrassingly inept.
All other potential dance partners were rejected and she could barely drink the champagne that her sister pressed into her hand, nor show any interest in Madeline’s conversation about other guests.
At last, as the quadrille was ending, Josephine saw a slight stir in the entrance to the ballroom, and felt her heart skip a beat when she observed the dark hair and deep blue eyes of the Duke of Ashbourne, escorting his fair-haired mother into the ballroom.
Cassius looked somber tonight, and as sad as Josephine felt, but this only drew her to him even more. The longer he had avoided her, the more it felt vitally important that they talk to one another. Tonight, she would not allow him to run away again, no matter the cost.
“…my sister is resting, sir. Perhaps Josephine will dance later…Josephine?”
Vera broke off from declining an unwanted dance proposal for her sister, as Josephine began to pull at her arm.
“Let us go and greet Duchess Nerissa,” Josephine urged. “Look, she has arrived with the duke.”
“Why, yes, certainly,” agreed Lady Elmridge, baffled but unable argue with this forceful display of good manners towards their hosts.
Her eyes fixed on Cassius Emerton, Josephine saw immediately the moment when he spotted them coming towards him. A flash of something like pain crossed his darkly handsome features before he composed his face into an expression of polite blankness to briefly acknowledge another guest.
“There is no hurry, Josephine,” her older sister reminded her as Josephine steered through the crowd towards her targets with steely resolve. “The ball has only just begun and I don’t think the dowager duchess is planning to go anywhere.”
Josephine was barely listening, her entire attention now on the tall dark man in evening dress beside Duchess Nerissa.
She saw that one button on Cassius’ waistcoat was fastened wrongly and his stock already slightly askew.
As they drew closer, he pulled at his collar unconsciously, as though he was already feeling the heat of the ballroom, his eyes drinking in Josephine with an almost tangible intensity.