Page 9 of Her Heartless Duke

“I have had enough of your mockery, Daniel.” Isaac’s voice was low, but there was no mistaking the undercurrent of bitterness in his tone.

She heard angry footfalls blunted by the thick carpet and then, her brother called out, “Where are you going?”

“Out.”

Sucking in her breath, Olivia stepped further away from the door and into the shadows just as she saw Isaac stomp out of the room angrily with a drink in hand. She quickly peeked inside and saw her brother still seated on the chair with a similar glass in hand. Both men appeared to be greatly cross with each other.

Without another word, she hurried after him, barely catching a glimpse of his broad back before he turned a corner and walked out the open French doors into the balcony in angry strides. Quietly, she followed him outside, keeping to the shadows, half-afraid that if he saw her spying on him in a moment of vulnerability, he would be livid and less inclined to listen to what she had to say.

She saw that he had set his drink on the stone ledge a little towards his side. He had braced his hands on the railing, his handsome face turned up to a star-filled sky. A light breeze ruffled the wavy dark hair that he preferred to keep in a longer style than what was fashionable amongst the gentlemen of the ton.

He looked rather forlorn that it was almost tragic.

“Your Grace…” she murmured as she began to approach him. She reached out to him with a hand and at her touch, his entire body stiffened.

He whirled around so quickly that Olivia nearly fell back in surprise.

“Olivia? What are you doing here?”

The look of shock on his handsome features was warranted, she was sure of that.

What am I doing here?Olivia wanted to ask herself the same question.

She knew she had no business following him out onto the balcony. She knew that for all the charming facade he presented to Fiona earlier, he was never the same when he returned from the Peninsula.

She also knew that he would very likely laugh in her face if she told him what she wanted of him.

But still, she squared her shoulders as best as she could and met his unwavering gaze.

“Your Grace,” she said, hoping her voice did not tremble like the rest of her body did. “I have a proposal for you, if you would like to hear it.”

CHAPTERFIVE

His brow furrowed into a frown. He probably did not get a lot of young ladies approaching him with proposals—it was simply not done. They were more likely to cast longing glances at him from across the ballroom, fluttering their lashes to catch his attention.

“You might think that I am being very forward, approaching you like this…”

Good heavens, she was babbling like a veritable lackwit! This simply would not do!

Olivia sighed, then looked him right in the eye, finding herself momentarily distracted by the seemingly endless depths in them.

“I can help you talk to Lady Vivian.”

She saw him stiffen, his gray eyes narrowing at her, searching her for the smallest hint of deception.

I would not blame him for that after the way Daniel coaxed him to come here, she thought to herself, inwardly cursing her brother for his bumbling of the whole affair. Isaac was only right to doubt her unexpected offer.

“It would seem that you and your brother are fond of dangling the very same carrot before me,” he sneered at her.

“Daniel is… well, he is a gentleman,” she pursed her lips. “There are some things only ladies are privy to. For example, I already knew that Lady Vivian would not be able to come to the Townsend ball tonight, even if she wanted to.”

His brows snapped together. “And how would you know that?”

“Just this afternoon, Lady Vivian’s maid asked mine for the recipe for a rosemary tea I liked to take for headaches,” she told him plainly. “I have mentioned it to her on occasion and it is a somewhat potent brew. That she could only send her maid and not ask it of me herself tells me that she most likely had taken to bed with a headache.”

It was a lie, although not in its entirety. Shedidhear from the servants that poor Lady Vivian had taken to bed with a headache after feeling faint in Regent Street earlier that day. She didnot, however, ask Olivia’s maid for a recipe to a tea that might help with it.

She could only hope that she sounded convincing enough to fool Isaac into believing that she and Lady Vivian were close friends—close enough for Olivia to plead his case to her on his behalf.