The Eternal Shadow

Chapter 10

X

Francesca Cavendish looked on aghast as Sir Guy of Gisborne walked away.

The initial shock was quickly replaced with mortification. Due to the dynamics within her family, she was so used to being at fault that her first thought in any situation was that she was to blame and so it was in this case - why else would he have left so abruptly whilst she'd been speaking? She felt tears welling in her eyes and frantically blinked to stop them from falling whilst swallowing hard to remedy the lump painfully lodged in her throat.

Luckily, her relatives were too busy watching the retreating man to notice her distress. As they then began conjecturing what could've caused him to leave, she was silently questioning all that she had said and done in an attempt to figure out how she'd offended him.

Lydia remarked that she had seen nothing in his behaviour the past few days to signal that he was distressed and Francesca found herself agreeing with her. Indeed, although he'd been as introverted as ever, his demeanour giving little away other than his usual stern reserve, he had not seemed angry or upset. On the contrary, Francesca thought back to the look he had given her the other evening after the concert as she'd interrupted Vaisey, and a wave of warmth swept through her - he had seemed so relieved, so grateful, so... happy... or as happy as she had ever seen him in the short time that she'd known him...

But now...

She felt the tears threatening to fall again and for a few moments was terrified that she would not be able to stop them. Above all, she avoided her cousin's eyes for although she knew that her father and sister were unperceptive, (or perhaps uncaring was the accurate term), Lydia was a different story. Francesca knew from experience that one concerned glance from that lady would most probably be her undoing and so took utmost pains to exert herself. Fortunately, exerting herself was something she was good at and so as she brought her eyes to meet her cousin's, her expression gave nothing away other than the confusion that one naturally felt in such situations.

Natalia, not one to hold back when it came to voicing her opinion, declared that she found Guy rude, ill-tempered and surly. It was a declaration that nobody could dispute for what he had just done pretty much confirmed that his manners were not what they should be and as for the other two charges against him, well, he was renowned for those.

Vaisey started laughing, amused no end by Natalia's pouting expression, "Well missy, you must forgive my lieutenant, he has quite the temper you see and I can only imagine that all this talk of balls and 'offers' doesn't sit all that well with him, especially since you sent him packing."

Natalia was caught off guard by this comment and her jaw dropped open, she was unused to anybody contradicting her.

"Now then Vaisey..." Lord Cavendish raised his voice in warning, unhappy that anyone should say anything about his eldest. Vaisey was unimpressed; it seemed absurd to him, he'd said all kinds of things about the youngest daughter and Cavendish had not so much as raised an eyebrow.

Francesca wondered if Vaisey had a point. It couldn't be easy for Guy to be around Natalia, considering her rejection of him, and when one added to that the gossip that had been circulating about Guy and herself, she could well understand that it had maybe gotten too much for him. Perhaps something had also happened between them in the interim, something she had not been privy to, that had caused him to fly off the handle, she knew how cruel Natalia could be and who knows what fresh insult had been added to injury. When one looked at it from this perspective, she couldn't blame him if he was heartily sick of both sisters.

But why now?

Perhaps Vaisey was also right in thinking that the topic of conversation had angered Guy, after all, who wants to hear about 'offers' when their own advances have been spurned? The thing is though, they hadn't been referring to Natalia's offers as he'd stormed off, they had been talking about hers (or lack of them, that is). Also this wasn't the first time that Natalia had boasted about receiving offers (to dance or otherwise) in his presence – Natalia was not somebody who had much of a clue when it came to behaving with tact or humility, she was far too vain for that and had never given him a second thought whilst talking about her numerous suitors in the past.