Page 9 of A Duke to Undo her (The Husband Hunt #1)

Chapter Six

“Are you well, Josephine?” Vera asked as they returned to the drawing room with the other ladies after dinner, the gentlemen remaining to sit over their port. “You look a little drawn.”

Josephine took in her sister’s concerned expression and smiled, guessing that Vera was among those who had witnessed her embarrassing incident with the ladle.

“I’m only tired, Vera. There is no need to worry. Mr. Emerton looked after me very well at dinner, you know.”

“Mr. Emerton is a nice young man,” Vera commented approvingly. “His mother seems a very good sort of woman too. Have you met her yet? I can introduce you now, if you wish. Norman and I spoke with her at dinner.”

Josephine shook her head, shrinking from the thought of meeting Nerissa Emerton in the aftermath of the ladle incident, even though she knew she should take the opportunity.

“Not yet, I’m going to the retiring room,” she said quickly. “Maybe when I come back.”

She hoped that a few minutes alone would fortify her for such an intimidating conversation and allow her to renew her best intentions towards ladylike behavior.

While remembering perfectly well where the retiring room had been pointed out to her earlier, Josephine rather found herself attracted to the darkness and peace of an unlit corridor nearby.

She often needed to take these moments for herself in company, enjoying the fun of a gathering, but quickly becoming tired and overwhelmed if she found no time or space for solitary reflection.

Picking a spot beside what seemed to be a bronze statue of a shepherd boy, Josephine sighed and leaned back against the wall, trying to empty her head of the evening’s annoyances and stress.

She wanted to daydream of Benedict Emerton, his perfect dress, his clear blue eyes and his smooth blond hair…

Briefly she recalled the day they met and the golden halo that had seemed to surround his head. With the noble black horse also behind him, he had truly seemed like an illustration from a book of some magical knight or prince, come to rescue a damsel from a dragon and carry her back to his castle.

As Josephine tried to hold the image in her head however, and to think of Mr. Emerton in other aesthetically pleasing places and poses, another less welcome visage intruded itself in her mind.

Whatever memory or fantasy Josephine tried to construct around the fair younger brother after this, the glowering face of the elder appeared there too, its presence more intense than the other.

How dare Cassius Emerton intrude even in her own head?!

The sound of heavy male footfall nearby made Josephine abandon her frustrated daydreams and stand up straight, wondering whether to hide in the shadows or go directly to the retiring room.

Was it a servant or perhaps Lord Kemp? She didn’t want to be caught sneaking around when her behavior had already been marked as odd.

“What in the world are you doing lurking behind that statue?” demanded the stern voice of Cassius Emerton, as though he had been conjured up by the mere act of Josephine thinking about him, even if against her will.

“What in the world are you doing snooping out here, Your Grace?” she countered defensively. “You’re meant to be having port and cigars with the other gentlemen. I thought I was alone.”

“I’m on my way back to the dining room but decided to investigate the suspicious figure I could see skulking in the shadows. Obviously, I should have known it was only Lady Josephine Thomson up to her usual tricks and not some burglar after Lord Kemp’s valuable bronzes.”

With a sinking heart and anticipated humiliation, Josephine realized that he would likely go back to the dining room and regale the gentlemen there with a further tale of her outlandish behavior. There was no point in playing the perfect lady card any more.

“Why must you try to monopolize and control Benedict so much?” Josephine demanded accusingly instead, going on the attack since defense appeared impossible.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay away from my brother?” the duke said, his audible breathing making Josephine conscious of how close they were in the darkness.

“Didn’t I make it clear enough that I wouldn’t?” she shot back with equal force.

“You were the only one monopolizing Benedict at dinner tonight, Lady Josephine. As far as I could tell, you spoke scarcely a dozen words to anyone else at the table.”

“Shouldn’t you have been attending more to the worthy and virtuous ladies in the party rather than watching me?” Josephine continued to fight against him while unable to deny anything he had said.

Had the duke moved even nearer now, or had Josephine done so?

Either way, they were standing only a step apart, like two boxers squaring up to one another for a physical fight.

Cassius Emerton was tall and well-built and if he bothered to make himself personable, she supposed he would even have been handsome.

Not that she cared when he made himself such a bore…

At this proximity, Josephine detected again that faint scent of cologne and overheated male skin that she had noticed when she confronted him in the park.

The duke’s breath stirred a few loose strands of hair at Josephine’s temple and her belly contracted with an intensity that was both shocking and mystifyingly pleasurable.

“Watching you…?” he muttered, staring straight down at her face with an expression that was simultaneously bewildered and bewildering.

Josephine felt her skin flushing bright red although it would hopefully be invisible to him in the dimness. Why was he still standing here like this? What could he even want from her?

Did the Duke of Ashbourne feel Josephine's breath on his face too?

Her eyes were somehow drawn to his lips although it felt almost indecent to even look at that well-shaped but unsmiling mouth.

They were both breathing harder than they should be and Josephine felt bewilderment at this on top of all the other strange sensations running through her body.

How strange and wild his eyes looked, when Josephine forced her gaze back up to his again. She could not imagine what lay behind them, and both longed for and shrank from the idea of finding out.

Abruptly, Cassius Emerton straightened up, took a step back and turned on his heel, departing without another word.

Josephine sank back against the wall, panting, and put a trembling hand to her heart. What in the world had just happened? And what if it happened again?

“I hate him! I hate his messy hair and his untidy clothes and I hate his rude manners and his presumption and…”

“What was that, dear?” called out Vera, passing Josephine’s room as her younger sister brushed out her hair at the dressing table, muttering against Cassius Emerton under her breath as she did so. “Shall I send you a maid?”

“No, I was just talking to myself. Good night, Vera!” Josephine answered, biting her lip, as Lady Elmridge put her head around the door.

She was glad that she hadn’t been completely overheard. Vera and her husband simply wouldn’t understand. Josephine was not sure she understood herself.

On the coach ride home after dinner and even now, readying herself for bed, Josephine could not get the Duke of Ashbourne out of her head. He seemed to be everywhere her mind turned, needling her and blocking her hopes of future happiness.

Nor did she have the comfort of feeling better tomorrow, expecting that matters like the ladle incident or her lurking in the shadows of the hallway would have been well laughed over by him among the other gentlemen over port.

They would in turn pass these little anecdotes on to their wives, sisters and mothers, and they would laugh directly at at Josephine in turn.

Indeed, the sinking feeling of negative anticipation was still with Josephine the next morning when she rose and came downstairs to breakfast, taking her seat without a word.

“You seem to have got out of bed on the wrong side today,” observed Norman with a smile. “Well, cook has made a batch of her best crumpets and they’re still warm from toasting. Butter one of these and the world will look far better, I promise.”

Vera laughed and pushed the butter towards Josephine as her husband passed the wrapped basket of crumpets. Josephine sniffed the air and smiled appreciatively, young and healthy enough not to lose her appetite over minor worries.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t as well-behaved as I would have liked at dinner last night,” she admitted after swallowing a first bite of crumpet. “I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“About what?” Vera asked, puzzled.

“Oh, that silly misunderstanding with the ladle,” realized Lord Elmridge. “Is that what you mean? Don’t fret over that. People laughed at the time but then forgot all about it. It was funny but hardly the scandal of the season, little sister.”

“I expect they didn’t really forget,” Josephine said dubiously. “I shall be teased about my manners next time I go out, I expect.”

Lord and Lady Elmridge exchanged a glance and shrug of incomprehension.

“Josephine, dear, I think you worry too much,” Vera assured her. “The ladies I spoke to found you quite charming. No one said anything about your manners at all.”

“Maybe the gentlemen did though,” suggested Josephine, looking to Norman. “Although they never tell on each other, I suppose.”

Norman laughed aloud.

“Your imagination runs wild today, Josephine. I believe the ladle might have been mentioned once by some fool young man but the Duke of Ashbourne closed that nonsense down by inviting thoughts on whether the draft labor bill would get through parliament by the end of the year. Our conversation over port ended up being very worthy and I won’t bore you with details. ”

“Oh?” replied Josephine, surprised by several details in this account.

“I can’t imagine the Duke of Ashbourne is interested in gossiping,” Vera commented. “He is very different to his younger brother, isn’t he, Josephine?”

“Yes, he is,” she agreed, filling her mouth with more crumpet to avoid having to talk while she mulled over all this new information.

Cassius Emerton, despite his dislike for her, had done nothing to mock or injure her name before the other guests. In fact, he had even diverted someone else’s attempt to make a joke at her expense, even if only because he found such behavior beneath him.

“Do you think he will ever accompany Mr. Emerton here for tea?” Lord Eldridge speculated. “I should like to know Cassius Emerton better, I think. He seems an interesting character.”

Josephine shook her head.

“Afternoon tea is as lightweight and trivial as gossip for an important man like the Duke of Ashbourne,” she pronounced only half in jest, making her relatives smile. “He does not have time for such things.”

Or for lightweight and trivial people, like me, she added to herself.

“Dear me. Well then, we shall make do with Mr. Emerton and be glad of him,” Norman answered.