Page 73 of Her Heartless Duke
Bennington… where have I heard that before?
His gaze swiveled to the back where he saw a group of young ladies whispering amongst themselves, as young ladies were wont to do. Once in a while, one of them would cast surreptitious glances across the ballroom and when one girl in particular moved away, he sawheramongst them.
Lady Vivian.
That night, she was dressed prettily enough in a lilac gown with her hair studded with pearls. To his utmost surprise, however, he felt… almost nothing at the sight of her—certainly nothing like the roaring madness that screamed through his blood the moment Olivia walked into the same room with him.
If they are also competing in the second batch, perhaps they know where Olivia is…
He strode toward the group and greeted them politely, “Good evening, ladies… Lady Vivian.”
The group fell silent and for a moment, their eyes danced between themselves, making for a most uncomfortable situation.
Damn it, I should have just asked someone else!
“Ah, good evening, Your Grace,” Lady Vivian smiled back politely.
Make small talk, make small talk, he chanted in his head.
He cleared his thoughts. “Lovely evening, is it not? How have you been?”
Her cheeks colored a little and she ducked, shyly averting her gaze from his. “I have been well, Your Grace. And you?”
“Wonderful. I…”
What was he going to tell her? Was he supposed to announce to her how much he had changed?
No, perhaps he should tell her that he had found someone else—and almost immediately, Olivia’s lovely face floated front and center in his mind.
“What I meant was that it was wonderful seeing you again,” he amended. “Much better than just written correspondence, although they were much appreciated, my Lady.”
Lady Vivian’s brows furrowed in confusion. “I beg your pardon, Your Grace, but I’m afraid I do not quite understand.”
“Ah… I simply meant the letters, my Lady. Thank you for responding to them so kindly. Frankly, I did not expect much in return, so I was more than pleased that you took the time out of your day to reply. However, to your last response, I think it would be best for me to say it in person, but I—” Isaac paused when the much-expected flicker of recognition did not cross Lady Vivian’s face.
She blinked. And then blinked again.
The small group erupted into whispers.
“Your Grace, I do not know what you mean,” she enunciated slowly. “I have never written a letter to you—certainly not recently.”
Isaac saw her cheeks color once more and instead of finding the scene before him adorable, he felt cold dread sinking in his gut.
“You… never wrote letters to me?”
She shook her head regretfully. “Perhaps you have mistaken me for someone else, Your Grace.”
Lady Vivian was clearly denying writing those responses to his letters, but what about those letters that Olivia had delivered to him? Those were signed with her very name, the handwriting resembling hers so closely.
“Ah, perhaps it was because you handed them to—”
The small shake of the head from Lady Vivian cut off his words once more.
A chilling thought crossed him just then. Could it be that Olivia had lied about those letters? That they were not from Lady Vivian at all?
That was the only explanation for this conundrum—Olivia herself must have been writing those responses to him all along and to do so, she must havereadall those letters that he had intended for Lady Vivian’s eyes only…
Had she made a fool of him the entire time?