Chapter 6

'Good gracious Lord!' Mrs. Smith cried as Eleanor and Nathan entered the dining hall, Nathan, soaking wet with a heavy blanket wrapped around him. 'My lord, what happened?'

Eleanor waved away her concern, taking her seat at the table before Nathan could speak and fought to keep the smile from her face. 'A minor accident, Mrs. Smith. His Grace tripped on a rock and fell into the lake. It is of no consequence.'

Eleanor heard Nathan mutter coherently under his breath as he accepted a towel from one of the maids who had rushed to his aid when they had come in.

'Are you alright, my lord?' Mrs. Smith asked, concern flashing across her face. 'Did you hit your head? You ought to be looked at by a doctor. You could catch pneumonia!'

Nathan shook his head firmly and sat down at the head of the table, drops of water still clinging to his black hair. He was undoubtedly drenched and Eleanor almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

'There will be no need for that, Mrs. Smith,' Nathan told her. 'I shall change out of my clothes later. Right now, I am absolutely famished and cannot go another second without eating.'

Mrs. Smith argued only to be cut off by Nathan who insisted that she let him be. It was only after he reminded her of her little grandson who probably had not had his lunch yet that she finally left him, albeit reluctantly. Eleanor wondered how a Duke could befriend a housekeeper and care for him the way he obviously did her. It was quite evident from the way he spoke to her; from the lack of authority in his words and his knowledge of her grandson. Eleanor was quite perplexed - in a good way, of course - about it.

'You may take your leave,' Nathan announced right after a maid had placed his food in front of him. The command, undoubtedly intended for all the servants who stood around the room, was carried out immediately until Eleanor was left alone with her husband. However, she did not miss the sly smiles and red tinted cheeks of some of the maids and the few chuckles from the footmen.

'What was that for?' she hissed as soon as the door closed behind the last person. 'Now everyone will think we're holed up in here doing indecent activities!'

Nathan ignored her and took up to cutting the food on his plate into small bite-sized pieces.

'Nathan,' Eleanor called testily. Still, he refused to acknowledge her.

'I don't understand why you asked everyone to leave if you were just going to ignore me the entire time,' she said again, hoping to catch his attention. Fortunately for her, he looked up at her statement, shooting her a cold glare which made her wince. Even drenched, he looked intimidating.

'I sent everyone out for a reason,' Nathan said. 'You will come to know of it as soon as you finish eating.'

Eleanor frowned and looked down at her food. 'You haven't poisoned my food, have you?'

Nathan left out a short bark of laughter before hiding it behind a cough. 'No, I haven't. Although I can't say the same for the maids or the cook.'

Eleanor gaped at him, her eyes widening with each passing second.

'Well, you can't really blame them,' Nathan said, shrugging, after noticing her surplused expression. 'Everyone knows you're a fright to deal with.'

Nathan yelped as Eleanor grabbed a dinner role from the bread basket and threw it at him.

'Outrageous!' Nathan cried, rubbing his shoulder where the roll had hit him. 'Good God, are you even a woman? What would the ton say if they saw England's darling behave so? Such impropriety!'

'Say one more thing against me and you'll come to know of the other meanings the word has. And I am not talking about the pleasurable one,' Eleanor said, glaring at him before she commenced eating.

Nathan, wise man he was, did not retort or utter anything as silence filled the space between them, only broken by the clank of cutlery against the china.

'Eleanor,' Nathan called out to her once the both of them was done eating. 'I have to tell you something.'

Eleanor signed. 'Nathan, I can see you're quite bothered that I pushed you into the lake. If it means to you that much, I apologise.'

Eleanor looked at Nathan who had an amused smirk on his face. His hair was relatively dry now and his shirt no longer clung to his chest as it had before.

'That's not at all what I was going to say, Eleanor, but I appreciate the apology,' Nathan said chuckling and Eleanor frowned once more. The infuriating man! He had made her apologise even when she had not felt the least bit sorry for her actions. She wanted to push him into the lake once again, simply because she was - simply put - quite mad.

However, Eleanor gathered her remaining dignity and instead asked, 'What were you going to say?'

Nathan's smirk fell and he lowered his voice to a whisper. 'I did not want to say it in front of the staff because, as you had said before, they are huge gossips and would only spread what I'm about to tell you like wildfire.'

'What is it?' Eleanor leaned in and asked, curiosity gnawing at her insides. Nathan was being too secretive about it which itched Eleanor to the point where she wanted to touch every last region of the itch to make it go away. In this case, she needed to know everything about this secret if she wanted to be relieved of her itch.

'We are leaving England in a week's time,' Nathan whispered, his voice laced with seriousness.

Eleanor jerked back her head and narrowed her eyes. She looked at Nathan disbelief washing her as she realised he was indeed saying the truth.

'You must be joking,' she said, letting out a soft chuckle. 'We have only just been wed. Why are we leaving England so soon? Newlyweds only do so if they are to go on their honeymoon!' she argued, mostly to herself.

'Well,' Nathan said hesitantly, 'that will be the pretence under which we depart.'

Eleanor gaped at him. 'And why are we going to leave England?'

'Remember the work I had told you about the week before?' Nathan asked in all seriousness. 'Back at the manor for the dinner party.'

'Of course,' Eleanor said. How could she not remember the heated conversation that they had had without the presence of a chaperone, with her pressed against the cold walls of the alcove? It was where she had decided to marry him in return for her freedom. She still did not know how he was going to grant her that but she could only hope that he would keep true to his word.

'Well, as I said before, the reason for the hurried marriage was because I needed to be at India for my work. We need to leave in a week.'

'A week! I hadn't realised it would be so fast.'

'I would have liked for you to be more comfortable with me and with the prospect of being married to me before we took on the journey,' Nathan said, staring warmly at her. 'But, I received news just a few days before about a recent development and I have to be there as soon as possible. A week is as long as we're going to get before we have to leave.'

Eleanor nodded glumly but in all honesty, she was actually excited. India was an exotic land that she had only ever heard stories of. The colours, the spices, the people, the land...the stories she had heard from her father of his time there had all seemed too magical and extraordinary for her to believe. It was nothing like the drab city life of a London socialite such as herself. Through the years, she had become an expert at masking her emotions and being the epitome of propriety but deep down, she had always wanted to be wild and free. It was one of the reasons she detested the idea of marriage. A husband would simply be a hindrance to her ideas of freedom and equality which she had long before learned to bury deep. Her mother had certainly made sure of that, she thought with bitterness.

'I can make the journey,' Eleanor told Nathan. 'I'll be ready to leave in a week.'

Nathan smiled at her - very genuinely - and held her hand which she had placed on the table and squeezed it gently. Eleanor blushed at the action.

'Thank you Eleanor,' Nathan said softly, continuing to apply pressure on her hand. 'I know marriage was the furthest from what you wanted and I am deeply sorry to have taken advantage of you. I know I may seem like a rough, hard and callous man but I do feel guilt in making you do this. I really am sorry and I hope you know how grateful I am that you accepted to help me.' Nathan looked almost sorrowful at the end of it that she could not help but forgive him.

Eleanor smiled and covered their now intertwined hands with her other. 'You do not have to be sorry, Nathan. I am doing this for me. You may have been the catalyst but in the end, I am doing this purely for my sake. Don't be sorry.'

Nathan's smile grew sadder but he continued to hold her hand and they sat in silence, enjoying each other's presence and the comfort it provided the other for the rest of the afternoon.