Page 7 of Seven Days with her Duke (Hearts of Whitmores #3)

CHAPTER 7

P erhaps he had made a mistake after all taking Eleanor to the dinner party. But it was too late for Dominic.

“What a delightful surprise,” Lady Eliza Reginald said with a beaming smile when the two of them arrived. “We are trading one duke for another. Welcome, Your Grace. And my lady,” she added after a short delay.

Eleanor gave a polite curtsey. “Thank you, my lady. We’re delighted to attend this evening.”

“Come, come. The Harpers have arrived, but I fear we are still waiting on the Duke and Duchess of Wakefield.”

He felt more than saw Eleanor perk up. She straightened her spine, and her smile turned genuine. “I’m certain they shall join us soon. What a delightful party we shall have this evening.”

Because there would be other people there, he noted, and not because of him. That was for the best. The less time they were together the better.

Their hostess guided them over to the parlor where he let go of Eleanor and greeted Lord Reginald. The gentleman was rabid about innovation, and in truth, Dominic had many questions that he was confident the man could answer about farming, repairs, and estate sales.

“I would be more than happy to share anything I know,” the lord reassured him. “A good thing it is, then, that we are seated together for supper. If only my dear wife would ring that bell.”

As though she had heard him, a bell was rung.

They all turned to see Lady Reginald standing beside a servant. She clapped her hands with a beaming smile. “Supper is ready. Shall we?”

Turning toward Eleanor, Dominic paused when instead a tall young lady reach his side. She’d been formally introduced upon her arrival as Lady Charlotte, a vaguely familiar face with some similar features of Eleanor’s family.

“It would appear we have mismatched pairs this evening, Your Grace,” she offered brightly as Lord Reginal made his way to Eleanor.

Dominic’s gaze followed her. “Indeed.”

“If you like, I am more than happy to cause some sort of fit should you like to walk in hand with the lady whom you arrived with?” the lady inquired. Her hand gently touched his sleeve. “Your Grace?”

“Hm? Oh, ah, yes. Your Grace.” He bowed his head. “I beg your pardon. I find myself rather distracted this evening.”

Her eyes opened wide. “I had hardly noticed.”

Pursing his lips together, he raised an eyebrow and properly took her hand on his arm. “Something tells me you have a sharper wit I should be defending myself against. What a shame I have no defense against my dearest friend’s cousin.”

As they started walking into the dining room, Charlotte glanced behind them where Eleanor walked. “Which cousin do you speak of?”

“I grew up with all of them. I’m fond of all of them,” Dominic felt the need to add. “Losing Roger was difficult for the entire family. I counted him a friend as well as Nicholas and Eleanor.”

“I am sorry to have missed such an opportunity. But I must admit my husband knows of you and I have heard many a tale through the years of the naughty neighbor boy, who I am informed could only be you,” she murmured with a low chuckle. She nodded as he helped her to her seat beside him.

“Perhaps tonight’s party shall rectify such a loss,” he said with a cheerful wink, eager for some quick wit to distract him. “I have many a tale I can share of embarrassing woes and something tells me you could very well have something to exchange in turn.”

It would have been an easier distraction if Eleanor wasn’t seated across the table from him.

At the head of the table, on his other side, was Lord Reginald. His wife sat at the end. On Eleanor’s other side sat Lord Adrian, Charlotte’s husband. Catching a quick look between the couple, Dominic darted his gaze away only to look to Eleanor.

She was looking about the room with a curious glimmer in her eyes, though she moved slowly and calmly. A stately young woman. What a proper lady she had become. Relaxing in his seat, Dominic couldn’t help but admire her.

Then those dark eyes fell upon him. She blinked slowly and, in that moment, stole his breath. But he couldn’t look away.

Servants coming around them was what broke their concentration. Dominic attempted to ignore the pounding of his heart as he playfully conversed with Charlotte and learned from Lord Reginald. It should have been a fair dinner party. He enjoyed them well enough. He could flirt shamelessly and take something from the evening.

But Eleanor was right there. She sat just in front of him, regularly glancing his way. Or so he thought; he couldn’t tell. Most of the time when he watched her, she was engaged in conversation with Adrian. The two of them nearly looked like friends.

He didn’t like that.

A gentle nudge on his elbow distracted him. “You’re glaring at my husband,” Charlotte noted delicately. “Would it help if I were to assure you that he has no aims on Lady Eleanor?”

“I’m not… Of course he doesn’t,” Dominic muttered. He glanced over at Eleanor as their host asked her about her brother. She was shy with the man, struggling to answer. “I would never…”

“Does Nicholas know?”

He whipped his head around. “I beg your pardon?”

Tilting her head, Charlotte let out a small huff of amusement before she leaned forward to whisper to him, “If you insist on looking at Lady Eleanor like you are now, I’m afraid I must request you first speak with her brother.”

That made him force a laugh. A loud laugh that rang false in his ears, catching some folks attention from down the table line. “You’re a clever lady,” was all he could tell Charlotte.

Across from them, Eleanor glanced at him with a tense glance, then turned back to Lord Reginald. As Dominic sucked in a deep breath, he heard her answer.

“I th-think that a horse race would be very exciting. I’ve been riding since I was a child, and I… I think it’s nice.”

She was flustered. It was obvious in her stammering and the way she kept glancing his way. Did she want his help? His heart reached out to her. As he thought up a reason to excuse them from yet another event, he felt a hand cover his.

“I think you should stop staring,” Charlotte said so quietly he had to read her lips. “You’re making her nervous.”

“I wouldn’t do such a thing,” he started to say before wondering if he could be wrong. It wasn’t likely. But it wasn’t impossible either. He hesitated before grudgingly nodding.

The following five courses were complicated for Dominic. He couldn’t avoid looking at Eleanor if he tried. The tension between them didn’t soften as he had hoped. Eventually, he couldn’t concentrate on speaking with Charlotte just as Eleanor fell quiet and merely responded with head gestures for the remainder of their meal.

When the ladies left for their parlor and tea, the men lingered behind with drinks and cigars. It should have brought Dominic some ease. Instead, he grew terse and annoyed with little to say until they went to finally join the ladies.

“If I might offer some encouragement?” Lord Adrian inquired on their way into the parlor.

Dominic slowed, raising an eyebrow. “Unless you have words of hope regarding estate matters, I fear I don’t know what you’re about to discuss with me, Your Grace.”

“You’re a fool.” The man was surprisingly blunt. “Don’t be a cad. Especially not with her.”

The two of them looked into the parlor where Eleanor had already stationed herself in a quiet corner beyond the pianoforte. It only took a moment for her to look up and meet his gaze, going still.

“Mind your manners,” the other duke reminded him before moving forward to greet his wife who spoke with their hostess.

Everyone mingled about the room. Attempting to do the same, Dominic smiled and drank and teased the other guests. But still his eyes returned to Eleanor. Though he convinced himself it was she who watched him, he wasn’t confident that was the entire truth.

There was no dancing that evening, much to his disappointment. And his relief. If he had taken Eleanor again in his arms, he wasn’t certain what he might have done.

Dominic eventually returned her to her home with little conversation between them. He told himself this was for the best, saying a polite farewell before riding his horse home. But he hardly slept a wink through the night, thinking about black eyes glittering like stars for him.

Once he again he returned to his study the following morning.

“A distraction,” he told himself. “That’s all I need.”

The first letter he opened was new from yesterday. Nicholas was writing, having decided to delay his return by two days. He wouldn’t return until the following Thursday.

Meaning I shall be escorting Eleanor around for another full wheel. That can hardly be difficult. Nothing could go wrong. At all.

He reminded himself that there was no social function for today, and what a relief that was. Having time away from Eleanor would surely put his mind to rights. Eleanor was practically family. A little sister. That was all. Whatever was changing between them was nothing real.

Sorting through other papers, Dominic was attempting to straighten a pile and keep them from falling when there was a knock.

“Your Grace?” His butler, Rhinehard, peeked through the door.

“Yes, Rhinehard? Come give me a hand, would you?” They shifted the pile an inch but it took all four hands. “What is it? Please don’t tell me I’ve been invited to an affair this evening because I haven’t got the head for it.”

The man hesitated, making him pause. “What is it?”

“You have a guest who insists on speaking with you, Your Grace. I’m afraid they won’t leave until they’ve spoken their bit. I didn’t think you would desire them being spotted on your front step, so I brought them in, and now they won’t leave.”

Dominic liked a candid fellow even if he didn’t like the words. “Who is it?”

“Dinah Rose.”

He blinked, the name slowly coming to mind. After all, he had been in Italy and about the continent for five years. It had been a long time since he’d enjoyed the company of Dinah Rose. She was an opera singer who had made her home in London. More than that, she’d been his mistress for a year before his departure.

Faintly he recalled he’d left her a letter and a more-than-fair sum when he took his leave. There had not been a proper farewell.

No one had a farewell, rather. If I couldn’t have the one I needed, then I didn’t bother with anyone else afterward.

“Your Grace?”

Breathing through his nose, Dominic slowly nodded. He supposed he should have expected someone to come back. She hadn’t been his only mistress in his misspent youth. Still, it was not entirely planned. “You asked her to leave?”

His butler nodded cautiously. “You didn’t say you were receiving. But her carriage is outside, Your Grace.” There for the entire street to see. Neither of them liked that insinuation. “She’s been asking where you’ve been.”

That made him jerk his head up to inquire, “Is this not the first time she stopped by?”

“The third,” Rhinehard admitted. “We had hoped she would give up. The prior times were in the evening when you were not at home. But it appears she will not give up. The woman is quite insistent.”

“Request she take her leave and any time that she returns, simply tell her I am busy. Eventually, she will––”

Dominic cut his words short with a frown as he looked in the doorway to find the opera singer there. The tall lithe blonde stretched an arm overhead and pouted her stained pink lips. “What a poor reception I have today.”

Hastily moving back, the butler glanced between them. “Your Grace?”

“Alert our lady’s carriage she will depart momentarily,” Dominic requested. As the older man hastily left while gingerly circling the opera singer, Dominic moved around his crowded desk to eye Dinah.

It was true she was beautiful. Alluring. No doubt she’d enjoyed herself while he was gone. Dinah wasn’t known for her patience. But she was very talented and always hungry for more of everything. Once, she was everything he had wanted. But he had been a boy then.

Taking his silence as desire, Dinah sauntered in with a flirtatious swing of her hips. She pursed her lips again into that pout before reaching for him, tracing a finger over his forearm.

“How busy you are,” she moaned. He heard the irritation and whine in her tone. “I cannot believe you’ve returned here and haven’t come to see me. Don’t say you’re avoiding me, Dominic.”

Hearing her use his name had been attractive once. Now, it made his eye twitch. He brushed off her hand like she was nothing more than a gnat. Though he had no intention of being rude, he was not eager to see how ignorant she was behaving.

“I’m not avoiding you. While it’s true I have been back for a few weeks, Dinah, I have had no reason to come see you. We are different people now and there is much more in my life than old affairs. I’m not seeking a mistress. Why are you here, bothering me?”

That made the woman straighten up. Her face hardened. “Because you left me. You ran from London, ran from your grief. I could have helped you and soothed you. We could have had five glorious years together. I was a fine mistress; we both know it. You’re back now, and I know we belong together. But why you’re playing escort to a silly young chit––”

He moved away from the desk and stepped forward, making her step back. Infuriated by her words, he tightened his jaw.

“Enough,” Dominic said through gritted teeth. He pictured Eleanor’s anxious expression from the night before and his chest clenched. Dinah had no right to any part of her. “I don’t want to hear another word from you. You have no right to be here, to be lauding about in my street, and you certainly have no right to speak to me this way. Whatever we had ended long ago. It’s been five years, Dinah. Leave, and don’t you dare come back.”

Snatching her hand back, Dinah stared at him for a good minute before she finally huffed. Up went her nose as she turned away from him.

Already Dominic had shut her from his mind. He rubbed his face and turned back to his letters. The woman wasn’t worth an ounce of trouble. He had more important matters to attend to now.

With any luck, I shall never have to see her again.