Page 45 of Duchess By Condition
She followed him outside and allowed herself to be handed up and into the carriage. Sitting there, with her hands tucked into her lap, she stared out the window and tried to divert her thoughts from what was happening. She tried to pretend that she was sitting in the carriage by herself, that she was going over to Agnes’ house for a normal meeting of their book club instead of a dinner with a gentleman who had uprooted every facet of her life and left her feeling as though nothing would ever be normal again.
He joined her in the carriage, and it began to move, pulling away toward its destination. Violet kept her focus on the window, but she was aware of every movement Jonathan made. He shifted in his seat, and he cleared his throat—she noticed all of it. It was as if everything he did was a performance specifically for her benefit, meant to make her notice him.
Finally, he spoke, breaking the silence between them. “The gown really is lovely,” he told her. “It brings out your eyes.”
She recalled thinking the same thing about the first one when she had tried it on. “I’m grateful to you,” she said. “Not just for the gown itself, but for choosing the same fabric. That was thoughtful.”
“Well.” She glanced at him and saw that he was smiling. “I know nothing about the design of ladies’ gowns. I thought it best to just let go and trust someone else’s expertise when it came to that.”
“Well, I’m thankful that you did.” She managed a smile in return. “I was intentional about this choice.”
“Yes, I thought you might have been.”
“You did change the design, though,” she noted.
“I hoped you wouldn’t mind that,” he told her. “I didn’t know what the original design was, and I told the modiste to create the finest thing she could, and that cost was no object. She said it wouldn’t match what you had originally chosen, and I said that if you didn’t like it we would just have something else made. But this looks so good on you. I hope you’re happy with it.”
“I’m very happy,” she assured him. “I might have chosen something like this myself, but I didn’t feel as though I ought to…well.”
“What? Why not?”
“It was just a more expensive choice than I would have made,” she confessed. “I chose a more affordable style.”
“Well…it’s good that Noah picked the less pricey one to destroy,” Jonathan said.
Violet laughed. “I suppose you’re right about that,” she allowed.
“I hope you’ll keep this one, because I really do think it looks wonderful on you,” he said. “And the cost is nothing to concern yourself with, Violet, truly. I had the money to spare.”
“I will keep it,” she assured him. “I love it. It’s a very extravagant gift, but…I do like it very much. Thank you. I’m sure my friends will admire it greatly when we see one another tonight.”
He smiled at her. “I’m looking forward to getting to know your friends a bit better.”
“Well, you already know Agnes, don’t you? That was my understanding.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “And she’s lovely. But I really only know her as Gabriel’s wife. I don’t know that much about her outside of that. And I’m excited to do so.”
“I think you’ll like her a great deal once you get to know her better,” Violet said, and the awkwardness that had sprung up between the two of them dissipated a bit. She told him about her friends, their characteristics, and the book club the three of them had formed. She shared how long she had known them. She held back some of the more interesting details, such as Agnes’ wild personality—she wasn’t sure whether it was a good idea for him to know all of those things just yet. Maybe it would be better for him to meet everyone slowly and grow to like them before he heard the details of who they were.
But on the other hand…
Was Agnes’ story any wilder than Violet’s own? She had always seen Agnes as her carefree friend, the one who was willing to get into messes and cause chaos. But wasn’t Violet in her own share of chaos now? Fighting a battle to inherit a house? Living with a gentleman? Trying to become a mother to a child?
It all seemed more wild and reckless than anything Agnes had ever done when she thought about it in those terms. Perhaps Agnes was no longer the renegade of their little group of friends. Maybe there had been a shift, and maybe now Violet would need to accept that she herself was the one doing things the group would talk about, things the others would be taken aback by.
The very thought of it would once have horrified her.
Now, though, she had to admit that she found the whole thing rather intoxicating.
Her life was full of excitement these days, and she had no idea where it was all going to take her. But the one thing she did know, she reflected to herself as they rolled along, was that life had altogether ceased to be predictable.
CHAPTER 25
“So you’re actually heretogether,” Gabriel noted.
He and Jonathan and Nathaniel had made their way out onto the garden patio for pre-dinner drinks, and each of them had a glass of scotch in his hand. Jonathan’s was barely touched. Though he usually enjoyed a drink with his friends, tonight he found the whole idea of relaxing difficult . He could see now that it had been foolish of him, but he hadn’t anticipated these questions. He had assumed that tonight would be easy, a break from the tension that had built between Violet and himself as of late.
He’d been foolish to think so. He couldn’t remember what state of mind he had been in that had made him believe tonight wasn’t going to be a matter of concern for his friends, but they had given him a hard time the last time they had all seen one another, and of course, they were going to do it again. Of course, they wouldn’t have given up on the thought that there was something for them to take note of and talk about when it came to him and Violet.
