Not Just a Wallflower (A Season Of Secrets #2)(14)
Author: Carole Mortimer

‘—such a gratuitous display,’ Eleanor completed challengingly as she straightened out of the dowager’s embrace, her chin held proudly high, sparks of anger in her eyes now rather than tears as she glared across at him. ‘If you will both excuse me, I believe I will go to my room and tidy my appearance before dinner.’ She sketched a brief curtsy before leaving the parlour with a swish of her skirts.

‘Royston, what on earth was that all about?’

Justin closed his eyes momentarily before opening them again to look across at his grandmother, sighing deeply as he saw the reproach in her steely blue gaze. ‘You no doubt wish for me to go to Eleanor and apologise for my churlishness?’

The dowager gave him a searching glance before replying. ‘Only if that is what you wish to do yourself.’

Did he? Dare he follow Eleanor to her bedchamber? Allow himself to be in a position, a place, where he might be tempted into kissing her, making love to her once again?

‘Obviously not,’ his grandmother said acidly at his lengthy silence. ‘Ah, Stanhope.’ She turned to greet the butler warmly as he arrived with the brandy and tea. ‘Wait a moment, if you please, and take this cup of tea to Miss Rosewood in her bedchamber.’ She bent to pour the brew into the two delicate china teacups.

Justin was still fighting an inner battle with himself, aware that he had been overly sharp with Eleanor just now, and that he did owe her an apology for his behaviour, if not an explanation. For he had no intention of admitting to anyone, not even himself—least of all himself!—the real emotion that had washed over him when he had first looked upon all those flowers and realised they were tangible proof of the admiration Eleanor had received from so many other gentlemen the evening before.

Jealousy…

* * *

Insufferable, impossible, cruel, heartless man! Arrogant, hateful, hateful man!

And Ellie did hate at that moment. Hated his cynicism. His sarcasm. His mockery. His overbearing arrogance. His—

‘I have brought you a cup of tea…’

Ellie turned sharply, from where she lay on the bed, to look across at Justin as he stood in the doorway to her bedchamber, aware of her reddened cheeks and the soreness of her eyes from the tears that she had allowed to fall the moment she entered the room and which had been flowing unchecked ever since.

Tears of frustration and hurt, at the unfairness of his accusations.

Tears of pain and humiliation, at his unkindness about the flowers that had been sent to her today, and which she had so enjoyed receiving.

They were also tears which Eleanor had never intended for Justin to bear witness to!

She sat up and began dabbing at the evidence of those tears with the lace handkerchief she had retrieved from the pocket of her gown. ‘Are you sure you should be in here?’

His answer to that was to step further into the room and close the door behind him. ‘I have brought you a cup of tea,’ he repeated. ‘And I will bring it across to you if you promise not to throw it over me the moment I place it in your hand!’ he teased gently.

Ellie replaced the handkerchief in her pocket. ‘You are an exceedingly cruel man.’

‘Yes.’

‘An insufferable man.’

‘Yes.’

She frowned. ‘Hateful, even.’

‘Yes.’

Ellie blinked at his unexpected acquiescence to her accusations. ‘Why do you not defend yourself?’

He sighed deeply. ‘Possibly because, on this occasion, I know you are correct. I am all of the things you have accused me of being.’

Ellie eyed him guardedly, looking for signs of that sarcasm or cynicism she had also accused him of to herself just minutes ago. He met her gaze unblinkingly, the expression in those blue eyes neither cynical nor sarcastic, but merely accepting. ‘I do not understand…’

‘I am merely agreeing with you, Eleanor.’ He crossed the room until he stood before her, the delicacy of the saucer and teacup he held out to her looking slightly incongruous in his lean hand.

She reached up slowly and took the cup and saucer from him. ‘That is what I do not understand.’

He looked down at her beneath hooded lids as he gave a shrug of those broad shoulders. ‘I have no defence, when everything you accuse me of, I undoubtedly am.’

‘And that is your apology for such insufferable behaviour?’ Ellie asked.

A humourless smile curved his lips. ‘No.’

‘Because you offer no apology,’ she realised. ‘Only tea.’

‘Is it not the panacea to all ills?’ he drawled as Eleanor took several sips of the steaming brew.

‘I believe I should have appreciated an apology more!’

‘Would you?’ he asked enigmatically.

Where had all her anger towards this man disappeared to? Ellie wondered crossly as she continued to sip her tea. Because, she realised, she was no longer angry. Or tearful. In fact, a part of her felt decidedly like smiling. Or perhaps even laughing at the incongruousness of seeing such a guilty-little-boy expression on the face of one as impossibly arrogant as he was. It was also totally illogical, in view of the way his sarcasm had hurt her just a few short minutes ago.

Except…

That ridiculous expression aside, she very much doubted that Justin had ever bothered himself to take tea to a woman in the whole of his privileged life before today. The fact that he had done so now, and to her, was in itself an apology of sorts. Not the grovelling appeasement that some would have made in the circumstances, but from this arrogant duke, Ellie recognised it was as good as another gentleman having got down upon his knees and begged her forgiveness.

She placed the empty teacup and its saucer on the bedside table. ‘Thank you. I do feel slightly better now.’

‘Good.’ He moved to sit on the side of the bed beside her and took one of her hands in both of his much larger ones. ‘And I do sincerely apologise for my bad temper to you just now, Eleanor.’

Ellie, already disconcerted at the touch of his hands on hers, now looked at him in surprise. ‘You do?’

He nodded. ‘I was boorish, to say the least. I was a little…unsettled after seeing Litchfield, of all people, beside my grandmother’s carriage in the park. But I accept I should not have taken that bad temper out on you.’

Ellie’s heart had begun to beat faster at his sudden proximity, her cheeks feeling warm, her breathing shallow, and he surely must be able to feel the way her hand trembled slightly inside his? ‘I really do not think it quite proper for you to be in my bedchamber. The dowager duchess—’

‘Made it plain to me just now that she, at least, considers me to be nothing more than an uncle to you and, as such, feels it is perfectly permissible for me to visit you here,’ he revealed drily.

The utterly disgusted expression on his face that accompanied this revelation only made Ellie feel like laughing again. How strange, when just minutes ago she had felt as if she might never laugh again…

Justin was completely unprepared for the way in which Eleanor’s lips now twitched with obvious humour, before it turned into an open smile, to be followed by husky laughter. ‘I fail to see what it is you find so amusing?’

‘That is probably because—’ She broke off, still smiling as she shook her head. ‘The thought of you being considered in an avuncular role by any young woman is utterly ridiculous!’

Justin scowled. ‘I could not agree more.’

Those green eyes danced. ‘Your reputation in society as a rake would be ruined for ever if that were to become the general consensus!’

He stilled. ‘My reputation in society is that of a rake?’

‘Oh, yes.’ She nodded.

‘And is that what you think of me, too?’ He frowned darkly. ‘That I choose to spend all of my days and nights bedding young women at every available opportunity?’

‘Well…perhaps not all of your days,’ Eleanor allowed mischievously. ‘You do, after all, have to find the time in which to attend to your ducal responsibilities! And there was gossip, yesterday evening at the ball, that not all of those ladies have been quite so young or available…’

‘I am accused of bedding married women, too?’

She raised auburn brows at his harshness. ‘You sound surprised that your affairs are quite so widely known.’

‘What I am surprised at is that you were subjected to overhearing such errant nonsense!’ He released her hand and stood up to restlessly cross the room before standing stiffly in front of the window. ‘Who made these scurrilous remarks?’

She looked puzzled. ‘I am not sure that I remember who exactly…’

A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw. ‘Try!’

She gave a slow shake of her head. ‘The remarks were not made to me directly, I merely overheard several people speculating as to who your current mistress might be, and which husband was being made the cuckold last night.’

‘I assure you—’ Justin broke off, realising he was angry once again, but this time at remarks made in Eleanor’s hearing as to what society thought of him—a reputation which had not bothered him in the slightest until he had heard it from her lips… ‘I wish you to know that I have the deepest respect for the married state, and as such have never shown the slightest inclination to bed a married woman. Nor,’ he continued grimly, ‘do I have a “current mistress”.’

Ellie could tell by his expression that by repeating such gossip she had somehow succeeded in seriously insulting him. ‘I did not mean to give offence, your Grace.’

‘I am not in the least offended,’ he denied.

‘I beg to differ…’

His expression softened slightly. ‘I am not offended by anything you have personally said to or about me, my displeasure is for those people who obviously have nothing better to do with their time than make up scandalous and inaccurate gossip!’ His voice had hardened again over the last statement.

Ellie realised that his displeasure at hearing of society’s opinion of him was completely genuine.

Gossip, which Ellie, in view of their own recent intimacies, had found extremely hurtful to overhear. So much so that just imagining Justin having a mistress, and that he had gone to be with her once he had left the ball, had only added to her inability to sleep the night before.

But Justin now appeared to be denying it most vehemently.

Too vehemently to be believed?

Somehow she did not think so. Justin was all of those things she had accused him of being earlier—he could be cruel on occasion, insufferable and hateful—but at the same time she knew him to be a truthful man; indeed, it was that very honesty, his bluntness, which was usually to blame for all of those other, infuriating traits!

As such, if he now said he did not have a current mistress, married or otherwise, then she believed him…

It was an acceptance which made her feel as if a weight had been lifted from her chest. A weight she had not even realised had been there until it was removed…and which once again caused her to question her feelings towards this unattainable duke. A question she knew, even as she asked it, that she shied away from answering!

She rose to her feet. ‘I am sure the dowager duchess has been most forbearing, but perhaps it is time for you to rejoin her in her parlour?’ She linked her gloved hands tightly together in front of her. ‘I really do have to change before dinner.’

‘You have not said yet whether or not you believe my denials.’

She shrugged. ‘Does it matter whether or not I believe you?’

Justin narrowed his lids as he noted the challenging tilt of her chin and the directness of her unreadable gaze.

He also realised that his own mood just now had been a defensive one. A feeling which was surely totally misplaced; it should not matter to him what his young ward thought of him, or his reputation. ‘Not in the least,’ he finally drawled.

Her gaze dropped from his. ‘As I thought.’

Justin gave her a terse bow before striding across to the doorway. ‘I will see you at dinner.’

‘What?’

He paused to turn, his hand already on the door handle. ‘I said we will meet again at dinner.’

She blinked. ‘I had not realised her Grace had invited you to dine here this evening.’

Justin smiled. ‘Of course…you were not present just now during the last part of my conversation with my grandmother.’ He stood with his arms folded across his chest. ‘If you had been, then you would know that it is my intention to dine here every evening for the foreseeable future. Breakfast, too, on the mornings I rise early enough to partake of it. I may be absent for the occasional luncheon—as you say, I do have other ducal responsibilities in need of my attention.’

Ellie gasped. ‘I do not understand…’

His smile widened. ‘It is quite simple, Eleanor. After years of my grandmother’s interminable nagg—er, helpful suggestions, I have decided it is time that I moved back into the ducal home. As such I, and my belongings and personal staff, will be taking up permanent residence at Royston House as from tomorrow morning.’

Chapter Ten

‘Why are you so surprised by my decision, Eleanor?’ Justin asked as Ellie could only stare wide-eyed and open-mouthed across the bedchamber at him in the wake of his announcement. ‘After all, you are responsible for alerting me to the fact that Dr Franklyn made yet another visit to my grandmother this morning.’

That might be so, but she certainly had not thought it would result in his decision to move into Royston House!

No doubt the dowager duchess was beside herself with pleasure at this unexpected turn of events, but it was equally as unthinkable to Ellie that she would have to suffer this disturbing man’s presence every hour of every day ‘for the foreseeable future’!

She moistened suddenly dry lips. ‘Well, yes, I did do that, of course. But I did not mean it to—I had not expected—’