Page 38 of A Lady’s Rules for Seaside Romance (The Harp & Thistle #3)

While Lady Mary paced around the room, presumably irritated that she had not figured out a way to attend the masquerade, Victor stared at the clock on the table beside him.

It was now only a few minutes until midnight.

The duke was talking about sailing, a pastime he enjoyed, but Victor had discovered early in the season he could not stomach it.

As the duke and Freddy talked about a recent sail in which a family of dolphins followed them, Victor took one last opportunity to figure out what to do about the masquerade.

He had spent days trying to find a costume so he could sneak over as the Phantom.

He had contacted several stores in town, offering high sums for a quick costume, but unfortunately, with the impossible time constraints, they didn’t want their names attached to a hastily made and shoddy costume, no matter what sum he offered.

The clock rang for midnight.

“Oh, would you look at the time!” The Duke of Chalworth jumped up with unexpected spryness. He stretched his arms up and yawned. “Mary, Freddy, time for bed.”

Mary halted in her pacing. “Oh, yes, I am quite ready for bed,” she said.

Freddy looked between his sister and the duke with a deeply furrowed brow. “But—”

“But nothing.” The duke began to rush them out by gently nudging their backs toward the door. They were both much taller than him, making the scene humorous. “Your mother wanted you in bed at midnight. Made sure to remind me of that multiple times,” the duke explained.

“But you let us stay up late every year they go to the masquerade!” Freddy argued over his shoulder. “I thought we would stay up and have sweets like last year!”

“Not this year.”

“Don’t be so difficult Freddy,” Mary quipped. “Mama said bed at midnight , and we must follow the rules.”

From his seat, Victor raised an eyebrow up to her. She noticed but simply closed her eyes at him and spun around to give him her back before walking away with her brother.

“Goodnight, Mary! Goodnight, Freddy!” The plump, white-haired gentleman cupped his hand around his mouth as he called after them. Then he quickly shut the door.

Victor rose and began heading over to the duke. He opened his mouth to ask if the duke would be headed to bed as well when the man shushed him.

Victor’s eyebrows raised, but he kept quiet.

The duke stilled for a long moment—it appeared he was listening to ensure Mary and Freddy had followed his direction—then slowly and quietly opened the door.

Chalworth stuck his head through the opening and was apparently satisfied by what he had or hadn’t found because he then motioned to Victor and whispered, “Come with me.”

Now quite curious, Victor followed the duke. They went up the stairway, down the long hallway, and into Chalworth’s private quarters.

The duke shut the door behind them, hurried over to his bed with a face filled with glee, and went down on his hands and knees to reach for something under the bed.

“Your Grace!” Victor said, a bit horrified. “Please, let me get that for you.”

However, the duke didn’t stop what he was doing and instead pulled out a large box from under the bed. He rose up to his feet—slower this time—leaned back against the bed, and crossed his arms.

“Open it.” The duke indicated to the box on the floor.

It wasn’t enormous, a square of about three feet by three feet. Victor lifted the paperboard lid and found tissue paper beneath it. As he set the lid to the side, the duke continued talking.

“Before you lift that tissue paper up, I have something to say,” Chalworth said.

Victor gave the duke a questioning look.

“My daughter and her husband didn’t get their heads on straight until I got involved.”

Victor looked off to the side, trying to figure out what the man meant. His gaze returned when he had given in to being perplexed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I know.” The duke’s eyes glittered with mischief. “When Vivian started to realize she was developing some feelings for Dantes, she wouldn’t do anything about it. She was convinced it was only a friendship.”

There was a long pause and Victor realized the duke was expecting a response. “All right?”

“At the time, I didn’t know who had captured her attention, but I knew someone had and it was serious.

She was constantly distracted, which she had never been before.

So, I put a friend of mine’s attention on her.

I knew my daughter well enough to know she would have danced around the issue for her entire life if she had been able to.

As you know, she didn’t have the time to do so. ”

Victor remembered she’d had to get married within a certain timeframe to keep the inheritance her grandmother had given her. “No, she didn’t.”

“As soon as I inserted myself, everything came together.” He paused. “Well, eventually. Either way, I knew when it was time to nudge her in the right direction. So I did.”

Victor stared, waiting for more. “And you are telling me this…why?”

The duke pushed away from the bed and took the few steps over to Victor, who remained crouched by the box. “Because I see it happening again. See this as my nudge to you.” The duke held an inviting palm out to the box and Victor began pulling back the tissue paper.

He stilled. Beneath the paper was a large, wide-brimmed, dark-blue tricorn hat with one large, white, fluffy ostrich feather and long, black, curly wig attached.

What in the blazes? Victor set the strange hat to side.

Below the hat was a blue tabard, similar to a tunic, with a white embroidered cross on the front and back.

He looked up at the duke with furrowed brow.

“Keep digging,” Chalworth said.

Victor lifted the tunic out and below it was the final item: a full-face white mask.

“A musketeer!” The duke clapped with excitement.

“Luckily for you, you can wear any trousers and shoes you like, as I don’t think we’re the same size in that regard.

” The duke was significantly shorter than Victor.

And rounder. “Though to be most historically accurate, you would need those old-style boots that go up to your knee and fold over, but I doubt you have those handy.”

“A musketeer,” Victor repeated. “And musketeers wore full face masks?”

Color rose high on the duke’s cheeks. “No, but a mask is required for Lord and Lady Bell’s masquerade. I always preferred to have my face fully covered.”

“Ah.” Victor set the mask to the side and was already thinking about which of his linen shirts could go with it. “Why are you lending this to me?”

“So you can go to the masquerade, of course!”

“But I don’t want to go,” Victor lied. However, it was what he had been telling everyone.

The duke chuckled. “Mr. McNab, very little gets past me.” He raised his white eyebrows. “Very. Little. Like I said, this is your nudge to get moving.”

Victor began placing the items back in the box. He tried not to show it but was feeling relieved that this problem had been solved, though he was a bit put out that the duke had had to figure it out for him.

“And what do you believe you are nudging me toward, Your Grace?” Victor stood with the box and put the lid back on.

The duke knit his hands behind his back, opened his mouth, and paused. “All I’ll say is, you are taking much longer than Vivian, and I have lost patience. Now, I’m intervening, even though you don’t have a timeline to follow like she did.”

Victor clenched his jaw but thought it best not to respond.

Chalworth began leading Victor to the doorway.

“What exactly have you concluded, Your Grace?” Victor asked this in an unamused voice.

Yes, he was grateful to have a costume. But he didn’t like the fact that someone to whom he wasn’t even related was meddling in his personal business.

The most personal business, at that. He had promised Anne he would wait as long as it took. And that fact remained.

The duke twisted his mouth in thought but began talking. “I’ve seen you watching my son’s wife from afar for a very long time.”

Fear jolted through him. Victor tried to keep his face frozen, but he felt his nostrils flare just a bit. And he saw the duke catch this. “Nothing has happened—on that, I swear.”

“Yes, I know. That’s the problem.” They came to a halt at the doorway and the duke looked him over.

“My grandchildren mean the world to me. Freddy is a marquess already and next in line to the dukedom. However, no matter how old the children are, they need a father in their life and they look up to you more than any other man. In my opinion, it’s even better that someday you’ll be a duke yourself. ”

Victor felt the corners of his mouth tug down.

“I know you well enough to know you’re a good man. I love my son, but I have come to love Anne like a daughter as well. Bernard is gone. I want to see her happy with someone who loves her.”

Victor’s shoulders tensed. “I never said I l—”

“Do you love my grandchildren?” The duke crossed his arms and that jovial air that was always around the stout man melted away and a darkness surrounded him.

His eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched. Victor blinked—he knew that darkness well himself and was surprised to find it in someone so different from him.

“And think hard about your response, Mr. McNab, for I will remember it for the rest of my life. I may also remind you again that Freddy and Mary both look up to you and love you themselves.”

Victor swallowed. “They do?”

People other than his brothers loved him?

Him ? He had never really thought about this before.

Despite his parents’ imperfections, he did know he’d been loved by them.

But it was never something he’d really thought about as an adult.

And he had never been loved by a woman before.

Love simply had never been a big part of his life.

Though he was beginning to feel less certain about that.

The duke nodded. “Now. What say you?”

“I… Of course I do.” Victor felt embarrassed at exposing such a hidden piece of him.

Chalworth looked him over and nodded once. “One day, you’ll have to be able to say that word, of course. But for now, I’m satisfied. Now, I know you’re the lad who’s been admiring Anne from afar. The one she calls ‘the Phantom.’ Correct?”

Victor’s grip tightened around the box. “Yes.”

“Good. Tonight is your only chance to approach her fully concealed. And that is something I think she would appreciate.” He tapped his temple upon seeing Victor’s raised eyebrows.

How had the duke known of Victor’s belief that approaching Anne as slow as a snail was the best way?

“Like I said, I know far more than you give me credit for.” The duke then nudged Victor out the door like he had done to his grandchildren earlier.

“Go now, Mr. McNab. I may be too old for Lord and Lady Bell’s masquerade nowadays, but you aren’t.

However, you don’t have an eternity waiting for you, either. ”

The door slammed shut before Victor could say anything, but the duke was right. Love didn’t wait forever for anyone, and he was ready to get the rest of his life started.