Page 4 of Only a Fortnight with the Duke
CHAPTER 4
“ L ady Emmeline!”
Lydia and Margaret rushed to her side the moment they saw her. The latter took a quick inventory of Emmeline’s flushed cheeks and panicked eyes. “What happened?” she breathed.
“I…I said what I had to say,” Emmeline told them plainly, looking between them as she tried to process the conversation she and the Duke had just engaged in. A scowl crossed her face as she remembered all he had told her. “Would that I could never look upon a man again after that,” she complained.
“I am afraid that your presence has already been requested by one such creature,” Lady Lydia informed her, nodding her head to the left. Lady Clark followed the brunette’s gaze and saw Lord Bancroft approaching her. “He came to ask where you’d gone off to a few minutes after you disappeared.”
“Yes, we let him know that you were taking a turn about the room to search for dance partners,” Lady Margaret added with a giggle. Their antics and smiling faces cooled Emmeline’s nerves, and when her friend approached them, she smiled and nodded her head to greet him.
“Lady Browning. Lady Creassey.” He spoke to Lydia and Margaret first, a polite smile lighting his fair face, but his eyes belonged to Emmeline alone. “Lady Clark, I must say that I am disappointed.”
“Whatever for, Lord Viscount?”
Reginald extended his arm out to Emmeline for her to take, then turned his head to regard her friends. “I apologize for my intrusion upon your merriment, but I will be borrowing your acquaintance for a time while I lecture her on the importance of keeping one’s dancing engagements.”
It was remarkably routine that Emmeline would dance first with Lord Bancroft. The pair and their families were widely known to be well-acquainted with one another. But on this night, at this ball, his interruption of the festivities was especially welcome. Emmeline excused herself from her friends’ company and fell into step beside the viscount as they walked together along the edge of the room where they were not likely to be disturbed by others.
“Had you much luck on your quest?” he asked her, glancing down at the dance card still hanging from her wrist, empty. “I spoke to your father when I first arrived. He complained that you had not danced once all night.”
“I have only just recently met a gentleman I would consider dancing with,” she teased, an easy smile making its appearance. “You know very well that I am quite selective these days.”
“As well you ought to be. I have always said that young women need to be discerning. You would not want to become careless and agree to a dance with a gentleman who might step on your toes.”
“Or turn me the wrong way!”
“Precisely. What have you filled your time with while you waited for a suitable partner?”
“Idle gossip and youthful hijinks.” Lord Bancroft chuckled, and Emmeline returned his humor with a brighter smile, though when his gaze lingered on her for a bit too long, Lady Clark worried that he could see right through her and knew, despite her pretending, that something was wrong. “Lord Bancroft?”
“Yes, Lady Clark?”’
“Have you made the aquaintances of the two Dukes Blackwood and Newbridge?” Reginald tilted his head to one side, as if he were considering his answer.
“I have, of course,” he answered at last, his eyes watching her from aside. “We are quite close in age. Why is it that you ask?” There was a certain hardness to his voice that had not been there before. It worried Emmeline.
“Well, I…” Emmeline’s voice trailed off, and as her eyes wandered the room while she thought, she found Simon once more. He was watching her closely, and when she saw him, their eyes locked. Emmeline turned away quickly, a new furrow in her brow and a flush upon her cheeks. “No reason, really. They have been the talk of the ball, although if you ask me–”
“Hold your tongue, my dear Lady Emmeline,” the Viscount said evenly, a playful glimmer in his eye as he stopped her at the corner of the dance floor just as a quartet was starting and held his hand out in invitation. “Whatever remark you wish to make, you can make another time in the privacy of your own home. The time for idle gossip this night is over, and I wish to dance.”
Emmeline was a little irritated with his dismissal of her opinion, but she felt that he was right, in the end. She took his hand and followed him happily to the dance floor. Once it was noted that she was dancing for the evening, her card filled up quickly and she spent the entire evening engaged with young gentleman. Reginald made sure to occupy her during more intimate dances like a waltz, as he had done for many years, and Emmeline found herself feeling quite grateful to him for the protections he’d often offered her in silence over the years. Toward the end of the night, they both expressed that their feet were sore, and together went off in search of her father so she might retire for the evening.
“Lord Bancroft, I could not have asked for a better friend than you,” she admitted. “I hope that we will spend much of this season together in the same manner as today.”
“That is my hope as well,” he answered, though Emmeline noted a strange distance in his tone and presence that she rather thought she did not like. “You are a pleasant dance partner indeed, Lady Clark?”
“What of your other dance partners?” she pressed. “The Lady with the raven hair who you danced with I have not met before. She was very pretty. Was her conversation interesting? You seemed to be enjoying yourself.”
“Ah, yes. She is the daughter of one of my father’s old associates. She was fine, but by no accounts was she close to you in countenance or charm, Lady Clark.”
“Lord Bancroft,” Emmeline pressed, a mischievous glint in her eye, “Are there truly no young ladies who have caught your eye here tonight? I feel as though the whole ton was in attendance.”
Reginald smiled kindly at her. “Not that I can recall, Lady Clark, though I might feel differently in the morning when I have had some sleep.”
“Emmeline, my dear!” The Earl of Stanton spotted Reginald and Emmeline before they had the chance to see him. He approached them, nodding his head toward the Viscount. “And Lord Bancroft.”
Emmeline watched the two men exchange a meaningful look, and remembered how they’d attended to some business or other in the morning. It must have brought them both great fortune indeed, she thought, examining their expressions. She reached out to her father and held both of his hands in hers.
“Papa, Lord Bancroft has escorted me here to find you so we might make our way back home for the night, lest I fall over from exhaustion. I have danced myself to exhaustion just as you had hoped.”
“Well done, girl!” he exclaimed with a loud, bellowing laugh. “Go on and find your friends to tell them goodnight. I will go to the front and fetch the carriage.”
Lady Emmeline nodded, hugged the Earl, and took her leave of the two men. She found Lydia and Margaret sitting together in chairs against the wall, their heads bowed together as they spoke. Lydia saw her first and looked up with a half-formed grin beneath concerned brows.
“Our Lady Clark has made her way back to us,” she announced to Lady Margaret, who smiled pleasantly up at the blonde. “We have not seen you since we turned you over to Lord Bancroft. Did you enjoy your evening?”
“I did, indeed,” Emmeline answered, smiling. “Though it started quiet poorly, the end was nice.”
“You were more popular tonight than you were last season,” Lady Lydia giggled. “Perhaps you will wake up tomorrow with a marriage offer, and then you will not have to see the Duke again for you will spend the season quietly in love instead.”
Lady Clark swatted her away playfully. “Certainly not. I spent most of my time with Lord Bancroft, in any case, and he does not seem eager to make anyone an offer anytime soon. Each time I broach the subject of his marrying, he is famously dismissive. I will be spending many evenings in your company yet, my dear friends.” She bent down to embrace them each. “I am off for the night. I came to wish you well.”
“Good night, dear Lady Emmelnie,” Marianne said warmly. “We will see you again soon. Be mindful of who is behind you on your way out.”
Emmeline giggled, but nodded her head.
“Of course. I will see you both soon.”