Page 59 of His Temporary Duchess

“Let us get one thing straight,” he said as he looked down into her beautiful face. The sight of it did nothing for him now. “I am not interested in rekindling things, and nor will I ever be? Understand?”

The corner of her mouth curled up, but her eyes remained oddly cold. “We shall see.”

Eleanor did not know how such a perfect night could have gone awry so quickly. And it was all to do with Lydia.

“He’s dancing with her,” she whispered to Luke, who had seen her standing alone after Sebastian had left her so abruptly and had been kind enough to ask her to dance. “People will talk.”

Luke glanced around them, where people were indeed looking and talking about this new chain of events. “It’s nothing to worry about,” he said as calmly as he could, but Eleanor knew he was lying. “You don’t know what he was doing.”

“She crooked her finger to him and he came running.” Eleanor’s nostrils flared. “And now he is dancing with her.”

“Perhaps out of irritation that we’re dancing,” Luke said wryly. “He always did have a jealous streak.”

“If itisjealousy, he is not executing it well.”

“No one ever claimed men were the wisest of creatures.” Luke sighed, meeting her burning gaze with his steady one. “It’s impossible to know what he’s thinking without being privy to his thoughts. Your best course of action is to ask him. And, meanwhile, don’t look at him. Don’t pay him any attention. People will talk more. When this is over, you must go and greet him as though nothing is wrong. If you wish to confront him, do so at home.”

Eleanor’s head throbbed. How had she thought coming here would be a good idea when she ought to have known Lady Lydia would be present too?

She’d been so determined to put the lady out of her mind that she hadn’t fully allowed herself to consider the possibility that Sebastian had never gotten over her. After all, he had never told Eleanor that he loved her. They had come close, and their intimacy hinted at it, but he had never outright said the words.

Perhaps because he could not.

Perhaps because if he did, it would be a bald, bare-faced lie.

Perhaps because he was still in love with Lady Lydia. All these years, he had kept her notes. Instead of merely keeping them, perhaps he had taken them out and looked at them, smoothing his fingers over the words and remembering.

Now that Lady Lydia had changed her mind, did that mean Sebastian would want her back?

“You are thinking too much,” Luke murmured. “Don’t let the thoughts get to you.”

Thethoughtssent hurt fracturing through her. Her breath trembled. She didn’t know if she wanted to rush to Sebastian, demanding that he tell her the truth of what lay in his heart, or ignore him until he volunteered the truth of his own volition. If he saw her pain, would he be more or less likely to speak?

“Smile,” Luke offered. “Let no one else know what you’re thinking, Your Grace. You are a Duchess.”

His formal address stirred her out of her melancholy, and she straightened her spine. If Sebastiandidlove another woman, that was not her responsibility to repair. He must choose for himself, and until then, she would have to keep her distance from him.

“That’s it,” Luke said supportively. “I’ll invite him to dine with me at White’s tomorrow. We’ll speak and I’ll bid him to be honest with me. Whatever he may pretend to feel about me and our friendship now, I know he still cares.”

“His problem has never been a lack of care,” Eleanor sighed. “It has been that he cares too much, and does not know how to regulate his emotions, and so he denies their existence altogether.”

“Foolish and short-sighted, yet understandable.” Luke cleared his throat. “Give him as much grace as you can, Eleanor, and I will speak with him. Then, everything will go back to how it was.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

White’s, as always, was obnoxiously busy. Sebastian strode through the filled tables and hazes of cigar smoke until he saw his friend.

Formerfriend, he corrected himself. He did not have friends any longer.

Except he knew even to himself that such a claim was false.

“Sebastian!” Luke rose as he spotted him, a grin upon his face, and Sebastian was transported back in time to when they were both mere boys, navigating the world until Luke left and that had been the end of everything.

Or, well, so Sebastian had thought. So he hadintended.

“Sit,” Luke offered, waving to his seat. “Drink?”

“Please.”