Kind Ella and the Charming Duke_A Historical Regency Romance
Page 30
For her entire courtship with Christopher, Clara had never once questioned her on his intentions. Surely the two women had discussed it and even talked of the future that Emmeline and Christopher would have. And yet, in those last weeks, Emmeline wondered if her friend had not, in fact, been trying to convince her that her courtship was not a serious one. She had even suggested that Emmeline might turn her attention elsewhere in the search for a husband. And if Emmeline had not been as determined to look away from Clara’s curious behaviour as she had been to look away from whatever it was which troubled her when she thought of Christopher, then she might have seen that something was amiss.
“Emmeline, I want to go. Please, let us go now whilst the musicians are playing,” Rose said, and Emmeline thought she could see fear in her sister’s eyes.
“Rose, whatever is the matter?” Emmeline said pointlessly, knowing that whatever it was she felt it as greatly as her sister did.
“I do not like it. I want to go.”
“I am afraid we must stay,” Emmeline said, almost as if she was resigned to her fate. Whatever that fate might be.
Emmeline straightened up, standing taller than she had done in her life. She knew that something was coming, and it would be something unavoidable. Whatever it was, however bad it was, she would weather it with her head held high.
She continued to look around the room, deciding that she would look in the direction of Christopher and Clara no longer. Her eyes fell upon the dark and brooding figure of the Earl of Addison. Hunter Bentley stood entirely apart from everybody else, his black hair and close-cut beard seeming to convey his mood exactly. She did not know the Earl of Addison well, but knew of him and had been introduced before. And yet, despite her lack of true knowledge of the man, she felt at that moment as if they were somehow connected. But why?
As the musicians began to come to the end of the piece they were playing, the many occupants of the drawing room began to shift a little. From the corner of her eye, Emmeline could see Tristan Lennox, Christopher’s father, making his way to stand at the head of the room where the musicians were. He strode with purpose as if he had some announcement or other to make. And yet, although she could see his movement, Emmeline could not shift her gaze from the Earl of Addison. He had lost his father recently, as had she, and she wondered for a moment if that was why she felt suddenly in sympathy with him; in sympathy with the man she did not really know.
And then, with a certain amount of horror, she remembered the all too fresh gossip that surrounded him of late; the gossip surrounding the fact that the woman he had clearly loved had betrayed him and married another. At that awful moment, Emmeline knew with certainty what was to come.
“Ladies and gentlemen, my wife and I would like to thank you all for being here this evening. Much apart from it being a welcome late summer soirée, the evening holds something a little more special for us all.” He paused for a moment, and Emmeline felt sure that he had looked briefly in her direction. However, she kept her eyes on Hunter Bentley, who seemed to be absentmindedly studying the floor of the drawing room. “And it is with great delight that I find myself in the glorious position to be able to announce the engagement of my dear son, Christopher Lennox, to an old family friend, the lovely Miss Clara Lovett.”
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