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“I shall tell it, but I know my friend well enough to know that he will not find it as merry as you ladies.” Sebastian flashed a smile at everyone before looking toward the duke. “Although deep down, I know he finds my stories very amusing, he will not laugh only to spite me. Still, I shall try,” he sighed while smiling.

Gabriel stepped farther into the room, taking up a central spot, his hands clasped behind his back. As Sebastian retold the story, he cast glances at Eleanor out of the corner of his eye to gauge her reaction.

“I came straight from an art gallery,” Sebastian said as he walked around the room, taking on the same posture as if he were still there. He made it look as if he were admiring art on the walls of the drawing room. “I found a particularly captivating piece—not a good piece at all—but one so bad that I considered purchasing it for my own walls.”

Eleanor sat with her hands in her lap, and she looked toward the lord as much as possible to be polite without fully turning her head.

“As I was staring at this piece, a member of the public sidled up to me, who was also taking in the art in the gallery.” Sebastian laughed to himself. “We got talking to each other, and I proceeded to mock the dreadful piece for at least ten minutes. It was garish, and that is putting it mildly. And not once did the man laugh at anything I said.”

“Wait until you hear the end,” Charlotte interjected eagerly, covering her mouth with her hands.

“I took his silence as a challenge, and I made it my goal to have him laugh once, which he did not, beating me at my own game,” Sebastian continued. “So, we descended into the most awful silence, which I found rather amusing too.”

Gabriel stood with his hands clasped behind his back. He was looking at Sebastian, but watching Eleanor, who had shown no sign of emotion during the story.

“Then I found out who I was talking to,” Sebastian said.

“Oh, you’ll never guess!” Charlotte exclaimed.

“He was the artist,” Gabriel guessed.

Sebastian sighed and walked from the wall to meet his friend in the middle of the room. “Well, that ruins my story, not that you found much amusement in it.”

Nor did Eleanor, though I clearly heard her laughing at the first telling of it.

“I tried to buy the piece from him,” Sebastian continued, “but he would not sell it to me at that price. I mean, I can hardly blame him.”

“Only someone as charming as Lord Fairfax could get away with something like that,” Margaret said.

Gabriel wasn’t sure exactly what she meant, but she was gleeful in her assessment of the situation. As was Charlotte. He could see why the story would be amusing, but he didn’t feel like laughing out loud, and neither did Eleanor this time.

“And would you look at the precious gift Lord Fairfax brought for Eleanor,” Margaret said. She sounded smitten with the man already.

Gabriel walked over to the table where many gifts lay, mostly flowers. He picked up the small silver box and could smell it without opening it.

“A vinaigrette,” he noted.

“Lady Eleanor will be doing a lot of traveling and attending many events this Season,” Sebastian noted. “Something to ward off foul odors from the streets or any faintness she might experience from exhaustion.”

“A thoughtful gift,” Gabriel noted. “Still, I don’t expect she will travel through the fouler-smelling areas of town, and I don’t intend to have her faint in my company. Although some women do feel faint around me.”

Gabriel grimaced. The words had tumbled out before he could stop them. There was no need to say such a thing. He noticed that Eleanor smirked at the words.

“Ah, so you do still have a sense of humor,” Sebastian observed. “I must take my leave so soon once again. Lady Eleanor, it was a complete pleasure to spend this time with you, and I very much look forward to spending more time with you in the future. I will be attending all the best events this Season, so our paths will surely cross.”

He made his way over to Eleanor and took her hand, kissing it and bowing deeply. Then he let her hand go, straightened up, and wore his charming smile. Eleanor’s gaze flickered toward Gabriel, observing what he thought of the interaction; she was unable to read him.

That was when Sebastian took his leave.

“I shall walk you out,” Gabriel told him.

He needed to get out of the room before he made a fool of himself. He knew that Sebastian was not the right man for Eleanor, but he still could not figure out what it was about him that made that so.

He would need to, or Eleanor would find herself with the wrong man, and it would be his fault.

CHAPTER 12

Eleanor watched the two men leave the room. Then she looked at the table full of gifts brought for her. Her head spun with the magnitude of it all. When she imagined her debut Season with the duke by her side, she imagined a few gentlemen dancing with her at events, and then the duke approving of one of them.