Charming the Duke (18 page)

Matilda’s mental list of yea’s and nay’s concerning the Duke of Thornsby was heavy on the negative. He had dismissed her as a charwoman, lost two orphans, engaged himself to a woman of questionable character, and had accused Matilda of shocking immoral behavior. The converse was admirable habits towards Alice and Jonah, and it was clear he thought highly of his sister, although her marriage he was not so pleased with. He was intelligent of that she was now sure. Thornsby was handsome beyond compare in the kingdom, but Matilda refused to consider it a virtue as such. Thornsby was altogether confusing. Intriguing, and interested in her.

But there was clearly something else. Something unidentifiable but true and real all the same. Ethel had said some things could not always be discerned through study or conjecture. Some attraction, he to her, and she to him, that Matilda could not fathom. She would attend the ball. She would attempt to understand her feelings and his. And for the fraction of a second she allowed herself to revel in this newfound rapturous feeling, Matilda would wonder about the color of her shoes and dress. How Mimi would style her hair. Wonder how she could possibly wait until the ball to see him.

* * *

Thornsby walked to Winterbourne as he had dismissed his coachman earlier. For the life of him he could not understand his own behavior. Matilda’s family was the strangest group of featherheads he’d ever met, other than the dragon-like dowager whom they treated as the head of the family. Matilda herself was independent, and if he married her, he’d best diffuse the notion she’d ever fade into the background of his life.

There it was again. That notion of marriage that came to mind as often as he saw or thought about Matilda. He’d misunderstood her husband test, but he was also certain there was more to it than she’d revealed. She was as reluctant of him as he was eager. Was his impatience due to his impending birthday and the requirements of his father’s will or some other far-reaching notion? Something he’d not considered. Inviting her to the Benford Ball had slipped out of his mouth without reviewing all the implications of escorting Matilda to a ball such as this. Once home he plopped down in his study to consider it all further when Athena swept through the door.

“Would a knock be too much to ask?” Thornsby said as his sister seated herself. “Where is Andrew?”

“Off buying us a town home,” Athena said as she settled into the chair. “You look quite distracted, Freddy. What is it?”

“Nothing to concern yourself with, Athena,” Thornsby said. He would not look his sister in the eye.

“Nothing to do with Matilda Sheldon?” Athena asked.

“She is going to accompany me to the Benford Ball with the grandmother as chaperone.”

Athena stared wide-eyed and then considered her brother’s frown. “You have solved the issue of your inheritance, then.”

“My inheritance? Well, yes, possibly, although Matilda remains recalcitrant to say the least to my suit. I have considered my upcoming birthday, though,” Thornsby agreed.

“What are the other considerations then?” Athena asked. Thornsby stared at her. “You said yourself you have considered your inheritance, but I do not think that is the only reason you have asked her.”

“No, it is not the only reason.”

“Well . . .” Athena plied.

“I have just been sitting here considering it all, Athena, and, truth be told, I’m not sure why,” Thornsby admitted.

“You don’t?” Athena said with a laugh.

“Enlighten me, Athena. As I’m sure you will do with or without my asking,” Thornsby said.

“You’re in love with the girl, Freddy. Admit it,” Athena said with a swish of her skirts and a humph.

“In love?” Thornsby said. “I hardly know her. Her family is full of half-wits at best. Many would think she is not overly attractive, although I find her very handsome. She dresses in the most unconventional manner outside of the dress she wore to the Hollingberry’s.”

“The night you kissed her,” Athena said.

“Yes, I kissed her that night. That idiot Berfine twirled her off, staring at her low-cut dress.”

“Matilda is uncommonly bright. I’m sure she saw through Berfine’s advances. And you were jealous.”

“Jealous?” Thornsby said with a laugh. “Hardly. Berfine is no match for me.”

“Yet Matilda has resisted you. How do you account for that?” Athena asked softly.

Thornsby glanced at Athena from under his brow. “She has some odd notions that marriage is not for her. Although with some encouragement from her grandmother, mother and apparently you, she is at least considering it.”

Athena sat quietly for a moment. “Are you attracted to her Freddy?”

“Unaccountable yes. Her orphanage. Her notions, however strange.”

“I mean physically, Freddy,” Athena said.

Thornsby face colored. “Really, Athena.”

Athena lifted her brows in question.

“I’m not comfortable talking about this with you,” he said finally. Thornsby realized Athena was not to be deterred. She would sit and stare at him until he finally answered. “Yes. Yes. And yes. Matilda’s life has somehow intertwined itself with mine albeit with no effort on her part. I think about her. What she’s doing or thinking. What her desires are. What it would be like to talk to her about all this and more if we woke sharing a pillow.” Thornsby rose and faced the window. “What her hair looks like down. What it would be like to touch her.”

“And you have no notion that love is the reason for this, Freddy?”

Thornsby shrugged. “I have never imagined myself in love with anyone, Athena. I have no way of knowing.”

Athena rose and went to the door. “Stop playing the Duke for a moment, Freddy. Stop
being
the Duke. Allow yourself to be just be a man and for Matilda to be just a woman. The answer will bear itself out, I imagine.”

Chapter Thirteen

T
hornsby was as nervous as he’d ever remembered being on the night of the Benford Ball. If this was love, as Athena asserted, what if Matilda did not love him? What if these feelings were one-sided, and Matilda sat at her dressing table, even now, considering everything but him. Was she thinking what a bore he was? A false, empty man willing to tie himself to Millicent Marsh? Did she wonder why she’d ever agreed to accompany him and was at this minute counting the hours until she came home? Or worse? Was she not thinking of him at all?

Jonah and Alice both sat in his room. Alice was reading aloud while Crumsby dusted his black evening clothes.

“
Erstwhile
, Alice, the word is
erstwhile
,” Thornsby said. He turned to the children, now sprawled on his bed. “What do you think?”

“About what, sir?” Jonah asked.

“About how I look for this evening?”

Crumbsby rolled his eyes, gathered his things and left the room.

Alice looked at him, cocked her head and replied. “I like it better when you wear the gray coat.”

“I can’t be wearing that old thing tonight. The elbows have holes, and I have to hide it from Crumsby for fear he’ll put it in the rag box. I’m going to a ball, and there is a lady I’m taking . . .”

“Miss Sheldon?” Jonah asked.

“Yes, Jonah, Miss Sheldon. Now what do you think she’ll think of me?” Thornsby asked again.

“You look like the proper gentleman. That’s what Mr. Withrow would say,” Jonah replied.

Alice looked down at her book. “What, Alice? Is something out of place?” Thornsby asked.

She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t think Miss Sheldon puts much stock in how you look, sir.”

“Why do you say that, Alice?”

“She don’t look none at your clothes, sir, or mine or anyone’s. She just don’t care much about those things. When she looks, sir, she looks, well, right at you. Made me feel like she was listening to me. I’m guessing she’d rather you listen to her than look at her.”

“I suppose you are quite right, Alice,” Thornsby said. It would explain why Matilda dressed in her brown dresses and sensible shoes and melted into the wall when her sisters were about.

Alice stood on the bed. “It wouldn’t hurt to tell her she looks pretty, though. Girls like that, you know.”

“I imagine they do,” Thornsby said as he lifted Alice into his arms. “When was the last time I told you how pretty you are?”

Alice smiled shyly and shook her head.

“Well, you are very pretty, you know. I’m going to be fighting off young boys trying to court you very shortly,” Thornsby said. Alice buried her face in his shoulder, and it occurred to him he would be doing that exact thing. When he gave in to daydreams of Matilda as his bride, they inevitably included Jonah and Alice. He didn’t know when it had happened, but he rarely thought of these two as an obligation any longer. They were a part of his life every bit as much as he imagined his own children would be.

Jonah was bouncing on his feather mattress, and Thornsby held out his hand to steady the boy. “Let’s go to the museum tomorrow afternoon,” Thornsby said.

Both children shouted as he had been telling them about this trip for weeks. He had put it off, but maybe Matilda would join them.

“Will you be very late tonight, sir?” Jonah asked.

“Yes. You’ll have to satisfy yourself with Withrow for our story,” Thornsby said.

Jonah moaned. “I fall asleep right off when he reads.”

Thornsby laughed. Alice climbed down and took her brother’s hand. She turned and looked over her shoulder. “Better not keep Miss Sheldon waiting, sir.”

The clock chimed quarter of the hour and Thornsby jumped. His nervousness, temporarily suspended, roared back with a vengeance. He flew out of the room, past Jonah and Alice and staring servants, only stopping to drop a kiss on each of the children’s heads.

Alice sighed as she stood with Mrs. Plumsbly at the top of the steps and watched the Duke race across the foyer. “He loves her, you know.”

Mrs. Plumsbly nodded. “’Bout time, I’d say. And sure better than the last one he picked.”

* * *

Matilda scrubbed her hair and body early in the day. She grumbled each time someone came into the room while she was dressing. Inevitable it was her mother or Mimi or Alexandra or Juliet. She’d torn her silk hose and broken the heel off of her satin shoe. She was in a frightful fit. If she were to consider Thornsby, then she’d best try and listen to him. Try and imagine if she’d want to listen to him for the next forty years.

Matilda had had a terrible argument with Ethel and her sisters. Her mother had sided with her. Matilda flatly refused to wear a dress her sisters and grandmother considered the height of fashion. She had no need of the Duke staring at her breasts and still trying to make sensible conversation. Matilda chose a pale blue gown that had been hanging in her wardrobe since the day she brought it from the dressmakers. The pale blue of the satin fabric complemented her eyes. It was completely void of any trimmings or lace. Square necked, with capped sleeves; it was low-cut enough to be suitable for a ball but not so much that she felt the need to tug at the edge. It cinched tight around her waist with a scalloped edge at the hem. The day Matilda saw the silk was the first time she’d actually been excited at the dressmakers. Small diamond designs were sewn onto the fabric in exactly the same shade as the fabric. It was understated and elegant as far as she was concerned.

“Matilda wants to wear this dress, and it has been hanging here for ages untouched,” Frances said. “Undoubtedly, she has been saving it for something special.”

“It is very beautiful, Matilda,” Juliet said, “but there are no bows or ribbons or feminine things at all.”

Ethel shrugged. “Dresses rarely are able to make a woman feel feminine and beautiful nearly as well as the right man is. I daresay Thornsby will make you feel that way with a one look.”

“He is terribly sophisticated,” Alexandra said, hands under her chin.

“That he is, my dear,” Frances said as she attached single pearls to Matilda’s ears.

“It is almost eight-o-clock,” Matilda said. “I should be getting downstairs.”

“Make him wait a moment,” Ethel said.

As it turned out Matilda waited anxiously with her family in the drawing room. The Duke was late by twenty minutes. Matilda was almost certain he’d changed his mind. In fact, she was considering taking the dress off and climbing into bed the very moment the footman opened the door.

Thornsby strode past the earl, her mother and sisters, and walked straight to her. “I’m sorry to be late. I was talking to Jonah and Alice and lost track of the time,” Thornsby said. He bowed low over her hand and ran an approving eye over her outfit. “The dress is perfect for you, Miss Sheldon. Shall we go?”

Matilda did not hear another word spoken by her family in the foyer. Her stomach was a knotted mess, and her hands clammy in her white gloves. Ethel followed behind. Frances wiped her eyes as Fran slung his arm around his wife’s shoulder and sighed. Juliet and Alexandra were starry-eyed.

“What were you talking to Jonah and Alice about, Your Grace?” Matilda said now seated beside Ethel in Thornsby’s carriage.

Thornsby chuckled. “They were deciding if I looked well enough to escort you to the ball.”

“You look wonderful,” Matilda said before she realized she uttered the words.

Ethel harrumphed.

Matilda sat and stared at him, although secretly, while Thornsby chatted with Ethel. He was everything she’d always said she was not interested in and more. Cropped jet, black hair outfitted in a formal dark jacket. Square jaw, straight nose, piercing green eyes above broad shoulders. And she was going to the Benford Ball with him. She had no idea how she’d manage. How did one hide amongst the ferns with a man like Thornsby on her arm?

Matilda found out shortly one did not hide when on the arm of The Duke of Thornsby. One stood center stage. Matilda licked her lips and tried desperately to inch behind Ethel. Thornsby would have none of it. He propelled her forward and made the introductions, not releasing her hand.

“Would you care for some refreshments? Miss Sheldon? Ma’am?” Thornsby said finally.