"Send the Plain One, He'll Reject Her," They Laughed — But the Duke Could Not Take His Eyes Off Her
Chapter 6
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"When I was small, I asked him if he was frightened of the dark. And I'll never forget his answer. He said, 'Hettie, the dark isn't empty. It's full of things you never bothered to listen to properly: birds, voices, rain, the way a person breathes before they say something true.' He told me that losing his eyes had taught him to love the world with everything else."The Duke stood very still in the copper light. "Was he happy?" he asked at the end."He laughed every single day," said Hester. "Mostly at the vicar's wife."And the Duke of Halsingham smiled fully for the first time since she'd met him. And Hester, who had never once in her life had a man smile like that at her, had to look very hard at the beech leaves for a minute or two.After that, it became their habit. Each morning, while the other ladies slept late, the Duke would sit in the library with his eyes closed—"resting them," he said to anyone who asked—while Miss Larkin read him the newspaper, the estate letters, and in the evenings, poems from her grandfather's little book. Her voice, low and clear, became the sound he listened for in every room. That was why his face kept turning towards her at dinner. He was not looking; he was listening for her.One person in the house was not fooled for a moment. The Dowager Duchess watched it all from behind her diamonds and said nothing.But on the eighth day, she stopped Hester in the corridor and looked her up and down with eyes like a hawk."You read to my son," she said."Yes, Your Grace.""Hm." The old lady's mouth twitched. "He used to hate being read to. Said it made him feel 90. Carry on, Miss Larkin."And she swept away, leaving Hester entirely unsure whether she had been warned or blessed.Hester was not the only person at Halsingham Park who had begun to notice the Duke's secret. And the other one did not wish him well at all.Mr. Rupert Vere began with small things: a chair moved six inches out of its usual place in the morning room; a glove dropped at his cousin's feet to see whether he would step over it; a letter handed across the breakfast table with a cheerful, "Do read this, Nat. It's from one of your old army friends. Terribly amusing."The Duke held the letter. The whole table waited. Hester saw his fingers tighten on the paper."Oh, Your Grace, you've been writing since dawn," she said lightly, before she could think better of it. "Your eyes must be full of wind. Shall I read it for you? I do love an old soldier's letter. My uncle says they all spell like hens."The table laughed. The moment passed. And Rupert Vere looked at Hester for the first time slowly, the way a cat looks at a mouse that has unexpectedly bitten it.That evening in the drawing room, Rupert made his real move.