Eleanor never said a word.
"She doesn't love me," he said, just as Astley was leaving the room.
"You fool," Astley said savagely. "You utter ass."
"You're hardly an uninterested bystander," Leopold said.
"I do love her. But what I see in her eyes when she looks at you... I never saw that before. She used to desire me. She loves you. But that doesn't matter, does it?" He turned around, his eyes bright with scorn. "You've made your choice."
"I can't marry whom I wish—"
"Just what I told her all those years ago," Astley said, stepping into the corridor. "Precisely those words." And he was gone.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Eleanor thought she had lived through nightmares before, but the torment of dinner that night surpassed any anguish she had felt when Gideon left her. Lisette's father, the Duke of Gilner, had returned, and contrary to Lisette's prediction was enchanted to give his daughter's hand to the Duke of Villiers.
He didn't turn a hair over the question of the duke's illegitimate children, just said cheerfully—and in front of the entire table, "I'm sure my little girl has told you that she can't bear young of her own, so this is perfect."
Eleanor had been looking everywhere except at Villiers, who was sitting across from her, but at this she peeked from under her lashes, just enough to see that Lisette had not bothered to inform her future husband of this fact. But of course he nodded as if the news were of no account.
Perhaps it wasn't. After all, he wanted a mother for the children he already had. Surely an heir was less important. That thought led to bitterness, so she took a deep breath and pushed the question of Villiers's children aside.
"It seems we both have reason to celebrate," her mother said archly, from her position at Gilner's right hand. "Our dear children are matched—and so suitably too!"
For all his liberal notions, the duke didn't seem quite as pleased with her mother's announcement, once he realized that Gideon's wife was barely in the grave. He was a nice man, Eleanor thought.
Too nice, perhaps. If he'd placed more of a curb on Lisette...She sighed. There was no use thinking about it.
Anne squeezed her hand under the table. "Almost through," her sister whispered. "One more course."
Eleanor gave her a lopsided smile. "I'm so glad you're with me."
Anne leaned over and said in her ear. "You'll see. We'll get revenge—on both of them. I have plans."
Eleanor didn't care.
At that moment she heard the scribble-scrabble of sharp claws on the parquet. Her heart stopped. It couldn't be. It—
Oyster tore around the corner into the dining room, going so quickly that she heard his claws scrape the wood.
"Oh, no!" she yelped, as loud as Oyster himself.
Lisette was sitting to the left of her father. She leaped up, jumped on her chair and screamed. Of course.
Eleanor was running around the table, trying to catch her puppy, and only learned afterwards what happened. Apparently Oyster bounded onto Lisette's chair as if he'd grown wings.
"He's trying to bite me!" Lisette screamed.
Anne said later that it looked as if he was planning to lick her slipper.
Whatever Oyster's intention, he had only a second before Lisette, without breaking her scream, scooped him up and threw him with all her might across the table and through the air. He didn't even have time to bark as he sailed over Gideon's head and slammed into the wall.
Time became slow, like honey pouring from a spoon. The puppy slid down the paneling and collapsed in a boneless heap of too-large paws. "Daughter!" Gilner roared. Still Lisette screamed.
Eleanor found herself on her knees by Oyster, tears streaming down her face. She was afraid to move him. Not that it mattered. He didn't appear to be breathing. Then Villiers was there, sliding one huge hand under the puppy's neck and the other under his body. "We'll take him into the library," he said, straightening.
He must have caught Lisette's eye.
"Don't look at me like that!" she screamed. "You have no right to look at me like that!" "I'm not—"
Villiers said.
"You are, you are! You look at me the same way that bastard son of yours looks at me!"
There was a curious silence in the room, and a feeling that Eleanor suddenly remembered from Lisette's tantrums all those years ago. It felt as if the air in the room was in short supply.
Villiers didn't say a word, just shifted Oyster closer into his arms. His paw flapped lifelessly and Eleanor's tears came harder. Her sister's arms went around her, pressing a handkerchief to her cheek.
"It's your fault!" Lisette shrieked, turning to her father.
He was on his feet as well, looking miserable and exhausted. "Be quiet, Lisette," he said, his voice heavy.