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“Then let me help you,” Gabriel suggested.

“I can’t be helped,” Eleanor claimed. “I’m beyond helping, and you can’t help me…”

“Why not?” he asked.

“It’s…not something you can help me with.”

Gabriel wished he had some lemon cake to offer Eleanor, but he wasn’t sure that would work this time. Whatever she was going through ran deeper than the surface emotion she showed.

“Is it Lord Fairfax?” Gabriel asked. “Did he do something to you?”

“What? No,” she replied, shaking her head. “He hasn’t done anything untoward.”

“Has he made his intentions clear toward you?” Gabriel asked, needing to know. “Does he mean to pursue you now? I know he is fond of you.”

“I don’t know,” Eleanor said hesitantly. “Perhaps he has, but I’ve not been paying attention to him properly. He did mention a trip to Cornwall.”

Gabriel’s left eye twitched. “A trip to Cornwall?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t remember if he invited me. We were dancing, and he was talking, but I was looking for…I was looking for you because you were supposed to be here with me, and you weren’t.”

“I was late, and I apologize for that. I have no excuse.” Gabriel clamped his teeth together briefly. “You won’t go to Cornwall.”

“I won’t?” Eleanor asked, the fight rising within her. “You forbid me?”

“Do you wish to go to Cornwall?”

Eleanor bit her bottom lip before answering. “I don’t know.”

“If Lord Fairfax asked for your hand, what would your response be, Lady Eleanor? If he invites you to Cornwall, then it won’t be long before he makes it official and begins courting you. Do you wish for him to ask for your hand?”

Gabriel had to force himself to maintain eye contact. The answer was hers to give freely, and he had to face it.

“If he did ask for my hand, then I should accept it, shouldn’t I?” she replied.

The words struck Gabriel like an arrow to the chest. “Are you asking me or telling me?” he asked.

“I’m telling you…that I don’t want to wait around for something that will never come.”

“You mean love?” Gabriel asked. “That’s what you want? That’s what every woman wants.”

“Really?” Eleanor placed her hands on her hips. “How many people really fall in love before they are married? How can you really know someone when you don’t get to spend any real time with them before you are married?”

Gabriel had to take some time to consider the question. “I know many couples who are in love. The system works.”

“The system works?” Eleanor gave a derisive laugh. “And that’s what’s wrong with it all. It should be based on emotions, real feelings, and not what the system dictates.”

Gabriel took a step toward her, intrigued. “Then what do you suggest?”

Eleanor threw her arms up in the air. “I don’t know. I don’t have an answer to the system. I just don’t agree with how it works. I mean, how do you know if you are truly compatible with someone until you have been together?”

Gabriel’s voice almost faltered as he asked the question. “So, you wish to be intimate with a man before you marry him? You want to taste his lips before you make your decision.”

Eleanor held his gaze, her breath quickening. For a moment, the look in her eyes told him that that was exactly what she wanted, but she didn’t say that.

“No, that’s not it,” Eleanor managed, coughing to clear her throat as the words almost stuck. “I’m not necessarily advocating for change, but questioning what we have.” Eleanor licked her lips, then quickly followed up the thought. “I don’t mean what we have. What we, as a society, have.”

“What do we have?” Gabriel challenged. He reached out and touched the frill at the end of her dress sleeve before pulling his hand back. He was supposed to be the one in control.