Page 47 of Duchess By Condition
“And that’s why you won’t allow yourself to get close to her?” Gabriel asked shrewdly. “It sounds as though you’re saying you would like to, but for her own good, you won’t.”
“That’s not what I’m saying,” Jonathan said. “I’m saying that because it would go against what was best for her, I don’t even have to ask myself these questions. I don’t have to think about what I would want, because I know that I’ll never go after anything like that. The determination as to what’s best has already been made, so there’s no point now in trying to figure it out.”
He turned and walked back toward the house, knowing that he was being rude, but tiring of the conversation. There were other people here besides his friends, people who wouldn’t have these well-meaning questions about him and about Violet, whowouldn’t try to figure out what the two of them meant to one another. And if they did, because they weren’t friends of Jonathan’s, he would be more than happy to simply feed them a lie or snap at them for overstepping. There would be no need to actually have a conversation about it.
Back in the house, he looked around and saw Lady Agnes and Lady Dorothy standing beside a table full of drinks and chatting together. He made his way over to them.
When he arrived, they stopped talking at once, which irked Jonathan. It made him feel as if they had been talking about him, and for the first time, he was forced to wonder whether his friends and hers were talking about the same things.Heaven forbid they ever get together—but of course they will, for Gabriel is married to Lady Agnes! They probably discuss these things all the time.He winced at the thought and turned away. Though he’d looked forward to the prospect of getting to know these ladies a bit better tonight, he suddenly found that he couldn’t bring himself to approach them at all.
He looked instead for Violet. She must be around here somewhere. He had known she would be fine out of his hands for a short time, at least, because this was her friend’s home. She came here all the time. But she wasn’t with her friends, and he was suddenly concerned.
And then, all at once, he saw her.
She was standing with her back to the wall on the far side of the room, and the reason he had missed her at first was that a manstood in front of her. A man Jonathan didn’t know, and he was standing far too close.
The anger he had felt at the realization that Noah had continued to play pranks after being told to stop was completely and dramatically eclipsed by what he felt now. He was incandescent with rage. He wanted to grab that man, whoever he was, with both hands and throw him out the nearest window.
As he stormed over, a small voice in the back of his mind reminded him that this didn’t make any sense. That they were just talking. As far as he could see from here, nothing untoward had happened, and he was borrowing trouble by being as angry about it as he was. But he didn’t care. That was just a tiny voice in his mind. The louder voice, the one that mattered, wanted nothing more than to get this man far away from Violet.
She did look uncomfortable, which somewhat justified him, he thought. She was pressed up against the wall, her eyes cutting to the left and the right as if hoping she might be able to disappear. He drew level with the man and stood close to him, as close as the man was standing to Violet, trying to force him to feel the same discomfort.
It worked. The man took a step back, staring at him. “Can I help you?”
“You can leave,” Jonathan said shortly.
The man looked at him a moment longer, but he must have decided the fight wasn’t worth it. He turned and walked away.
Violet released a breath. “Thank you,” she said. “I didn’t know how how I was going to get away from him.”
“Was he bothering you?”
“He didn’t do anything terrible. He just…you saw how he was standing. And he kept telling me how lovely I looked in the gown. I think it’s possible his intentions were harmless.”
Jonathan didn’t care what the man’s intentions had been. He only cared what their impact had been. As long as no lines had been crossed, he wouldn’t feel it necessary to confront him.
Instead, he held out his arm to Violet. “Would you like to come for a walk with me in the garden?”
His heart pounded—he thought she might tell him no—but she didn’t even hesitate before taking his arm and allowing him to lead her out.
CHAPTER 26
“Why are we going this way?” Violet asked, for Jonathan had turned left the moment they had stepped out the door. “The main part of the garden is in the other direction—you must know that, right?”
“I do know,” he admitted. “But I left some friends of mine over there a few moments ago, and I’m in no hurry to encounter them again. To tell you the truth, they were bothering me.”
“My friends were bothering me too,” Violet murmured, wondering whether perhaps the two of them had had similar experiences. Lately, it seemed as though all her friends wanted to talk about was Jonathan and his place in her life. It wasn’t a question Violet had an answer for, and she wished they would leave the subject alone.
She sensed more than saw the darkening of Jonathan’s mood as he walked beside her. He had released her arm once they’d reached the path, but they were still so close to one another thatit felt as if their emotions swirled around both of them, pulling them both in, like weather. Like they were standing under the same raincloud.
“Were your friends treating you badly?” he asked her.
She was startled—she wouldn’t have phrased it as anything close to that. “No,” she said. “We just had a bit of a conflict when we spoke, but I wouldn’t have even called it an argument. Why do you ask that?”
“Seeing you on your own with that man made me wonder why they would leave you in such a precarious position,” he said shortly. “I would have thought any good friends would come to your aid, seeing you like that.”
“Well, I don’t think they did see me,” she said quietly. “I tried to get their attention a few times. I looked over, but they weren’t looking my way. And of course, you can’t call out to them. I couldn’t yell that I needed help, because that might have angered that man, and then I don’t know what he would have done.”
“Did you know him? Was he familiar to you?”
