He felt just the slight hint of a blush tinging his cheeks. "I've meant to... but there hasn't been much time to really sit and talk and when there has..."
"You've gotten distracted," Hugh finished for him, grinning at Alex's discomfiture. Alex cleared his throat, searching for his usual indifference and finding that it was harder to slide the blank expression over his face than it used to be. Fortunately, Hugh understood. "I know how that can be. But you should make the time now that the wedding's over. If I'd made the time to truly talk to Irene, perhaps things wouldn't have ah... gone quite the way they had this Season."
Remembering that horrifyingly awkward scene in the garden, Alex shifted uncomfortably. Just thinking about that night made his skin crawl. He still didn't understand what had come over Irene, although she’d explained what had gone on in her head; her actions that night had been shocking. Most of the time he could forget about it when they talked now, but he still held back from the way their friendship used to be. Not just out of respect for Hugh and Grace, but also because it made him anxious.
"It'd be easier if, when I did tell her something, she actually believed me," he muttered.
"Well then maybe it's you that needs to listen, instead of talking," Hugh said, shrugging. They both looked across the room at Grace. "She's stubborn and when she gets an idea in her head, it can be the devil to knock it out again. When she and Eleanor were younger, our Cook at the time told them that if you eat a pie just out of the oven, before it’s had the a chance to cool, it's poison. Eleanor didn't believe her, but Grace still won't eat a fresh made pie."
Now that was something Alex definitely hadn't known about his wife. The very silliness of it made his lips twitch, wanting to smile. "She's never said anything about it to me."
"She wouldn't, it's just one of her habits now," Hugh said, grinning. "I daresay she doesn't even realize she still does it... it's just an idea that got stuck in her head."
So what idea did she have stuck in her head about Alex and their marriage?
He was just about to excuse himself from Hugh when a seductive waft of feminine perfume made him turn his head. Beside him was Lady Astor, a beautiful young widow who had just recently come out of mourning her much older husband. She looked like delicate springtime, all soft creams, pinks and golds. Even her doe-like brown eyes were soft looking as she smiled up at him, completely sincerely and with open invitation.
"Lord Brooke, Viscount Petersham," she said, with the tiniest curtsy that allowed her to dip just enough to lean forward and show off rather splendid cleavage.
"Lady Astor," they chorused together. Alex's bow hid his wince.
"You look splendid this morning," Hugh said, somehow managing to strike just the right note of admiration in his voice, without making it sound as though he was interested in her personage.
"Thank you, Viscount," she said, obviously pleased by the compliment. She glanced at Alex, her lashes lowering as if inviting him to compliment her as well. When he didn't immediately speak up, it didn't seem to faze her at all. "The wedding was beautiful, I'm so glad I was able to come to Bath for it. Quite the event of the Season. Those who stayed in London will be sorry they missed it."
They exchanged meaningless social niceties for another few minutes, Alex shifting away every time Lady Astor tried to reach out and touch him. He didn't want her damn hand on his arm. It didn't take very long for her to smile and excuse herself, having finally gotten the hint.
Unfortunately, that seemed to be the cue for the other women to take their own run at him. Alex held himself stiffly aloof, although he had to be polite, and let Hugh do most of the talking. Unlike himself, Hugh had a wife who felt secure in their relationship, one who wouldn't mistake the necessary social graciousness for something more than it was. His own situation was more precarious.
When he next glanced across the room, and saw that Grace was watching him with an expression of surprise and wariness on her face, he was even gladder that he'd decided to be so aloof to the flirtatious ladies.
******
It was like a game of cat and mouse.
Grace watched Alex, but only when he wasn't watching her, making sure that their gazes never crossed. Part of her mind was busy with the conversation going on around her, while the other was completely occupied by observing Alex. She was still trying to decide whether or not to trust him.
Last night had been... wonderful. Terrible. Her body ached to repeat it. Her heart ached to believe in it.
"Are you going to be alright on his estates?" Eleanor asked her softly, leaning in so that the other women around them couldn't hear what she was saying. They were involved in their own conversation anyway, so none of them were trying to listen. While the ton hadn't lost interest in the continuing saga of Lord and Lady Brooke, this morning they were far more interested in the Earl and his new Countess. "I'm not sure if I'll be able to talk Edwin into leaving the Manse once we get there... considering..." She gestured discreetly at her belly.
"I think I'll be fine... I don't know." Grace let out a huff of air. She'd told Eleanor everything she'd found - and hadn't found - in Alex's study last night. Although she hadn't told Eleanor about what had come after Alex had disciplined her. "I just... I want to believe that maybe this is real, that maybe he does feel something for me... but I’ve been wrong before, why would I be right this time? I don't think I can go through that again, Nell... it just about killed me the first time. Why would I set myself up to fall a second time?"
Eleanor grasped her hand, her serious blue eyes filled with earnest sincerity. "Maybe you should confront him. You've been doing everything you can to find out his motives, except actually asking him. If he knew why you left him, why you don't trust him now, maybe it would help."
"Or maybe he'll see me for the little fool that I was," Grace said bitterly, wincing. She didn't want to talk about that with him because she was too afraid he would ridicule her.
So she was afraid to question him because he might turn out to be a man she couldn't love, and at the same time, she was afraid to love him anyway because she hadn't confronted him. Maybe she really was a little fool.
"Talk to him," Eleanor whispered, squeezing her hand. "I wish I had talked to Edwin sooner. I kept hinting around what I wanted from him, because I wanted him to say what he felt in his own words, but he didn't realize what I needed to hear. I thought the declaration only mattered if it came, unasked for, from him... but if I had asked, he would have told me. He would have reassured me until I believed it, the way he did as soon as he realized what I wanted. I was too stuck in wanting something specific from him, instead of appreciating what he was doing to show me how he felt."
Nodding, Grace admitted to herself that, in some ways, she'd been unreasonable ever since Alex had shown up in her life again. Not that he'd been entirely reasonable. Hence, the kidnapping her to Bath. She hadn't been ready to listen before.
Watching as yet another woman stepped away from Alex and Hugh, a look of disappointment on her beautiful face, Grace knew that she was ready to start listening now. Alex was making an effort to show that he could be the same kind of caring husband that his friends were to their wives; eschewing the company of other women, staving off the flirts, and showing that he was serious about this reconciliation. More serious than Grace had originally thought, certainly.
"I'll talk to him. But not tonight."
Eleanor made an exasperated noise. "Why not tonight?"