Chapter 470: Anyone Else But Him

Chapter 469: Anyone Else But Him

Lyria’s POV

Duke Valenridge did not so much as spare Jim a second glance before making his way towards me, his hair falling loosely about his face.

"Your Highness," he greeted me, inclining his head. "Has our good official been giving you trouble?"

"N-no, n-not at all," I r-replied. "J-Jim and I h-have merely b-been c-conversing."

"Have you, indeed?"

There was a faint amusement in his voice, and he glanced towards Jim, whose countenance had grown no more welcoming for the Duke’s arrival.

"I a-asked Brayden to f-fetch you, b-because of the s-spring, Your Grace."

Duke Valenridge’s attention returned to me. For the briefest moment, his gaze lingered upon my face, and then he nodded as though I had merely informed him that the weather had changed.

"I see," he said.

That was all.

I had expected him to have questions for me, perhaps regarding what had transpired between Jim and myself whilst we were alone, but he said nothing further of the matter.

Turning towards Jim, he continued, "I know how the spring may be reached. The ordinary path lies obstructed, but there exists another way."

"Why’s it got ter be you?" Jim grumbled.

The question escaped him with such evident displeasure that I found myself regarding him in some surprise.

Duke Valenridge, for his own part, merely raised an eyebrow.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Why you?" Jim repeated, looking distinctly as though the question had been troubling him this considerable while. "Why’s it got ter be you wot found the spring? Couldn’t it ’ave been anyone else?"

A laugh threatened to escape me, and I pressed my lips together in an attempt to contain it. There was something so remarkably personal about his present objection that I could not help but find it amusing.

"Jim," I b-began, failing rather m-miserably to s-suppress the smile that had f-formed upon my lips, "y-you are b-behaving as t-though His Grace w-were y-your enemy. One m-might almost i-imagine that you r-resent the very f-fact t-hat His G-grace was the one w-who d-discovered it."

"I do," he declared, without the smallest hesitation.

My amusement faltered for a moment, for I had not anticipated he should agree quite so readily.

"Y-you d-do?"

"Could’ve been anyone else," he insisted, his gaze fixed upon Duke Valenridge with evident displeasure. "Anyone at all. But no. It’s got ter be ’im."

"I had rather supposed," Duke Valenridge said calmly, a smirk upon his face, "that we were making some progress towards friendship, Jim. After all that has passed between us, I should have hoped you might have grown somewhat more charitable towards me."

"We was never friends."

"Were we not?"

"No."

Jim folded his arms, his expression hardening, as though the Duke’s suggestion had offended him more deeply than anything else said thus far.

"An’ since when could common folk befriend nobles? I ain’t never ’eard of such a thing."

Duke Valenridge laughed, then lifted a hand to his hair, which had fallen forward about his face, leaving the bun at the back of his head as the sole remaining indication that it had once been properly arranged.

I had been watching him, and so my attention remained upon him as he drew the band from his hair and allowed the beautiful red strands to fall more freely about his shoulders. He passed his fingers through them, gathering the unruly strands away from his face, before drawing them back once more and securing them neatly at the nape of his neck.

It was an entirely ordinary gesture.

There was nothing particularly remarkable in a gentleman arranging his own hair, and certainly nothing that ought to have occupied my attention for so considerable a span.

Nevertheless, the very moment I perceived I had been watching him, I turned my gaze away with such haste that I very nearly gave myself a crick in the neck for my trouble.

Good heavens, what was the matter with me?

I had always known His Grace to be a handsome man. It should have been impossible not to perceive it, given his striking features, and the confidence with which he carried himself. Yet that was scarcely reason enough for my cheeks to grow warm, merely because he had taken a moment to arrange his own hair.

He had done nothing more than gather it into a bun. And yet it seemed to have done rather more to me.

When at last I dared look towards him again, he had already turned his full attention to Jim, apparently quite oblivious to the small commotion he had occasioned within me.

"I am rather well acquainted with persons of every manner of circumstance," he remarked, his voice low. "Some are of considerable standing, whilst others possess neither wealth nor title whatsoever. I have even known those whom society should dismiss as beggars, and perhaps criminals besides, and I see no cause why their circumstance should render them unworthy of my acquaintance."

Jim’s nose wrinkled.

It was a small movement, but the distaste upon his countenance was so plain that I could scarcely have mistaken it for anything else.

The Duke marked it, of course.

"I perceive you find that difficult to credit."

"I do," Jim replied.

"Then perhaps you ought to acquaint yourself with a wider variety of persons. You may discover that there are virtues to be found in places where you should least expect them."

Jim looked as though he should sooner discover a nest of vipers beneath his own bed, than take counsel from His Grace.

Contrary to Jim’s sentiment, there was something in what His Grace had said that gave me pause. He had made friends of criminals? Was this, perhaps, in keeping with the tale of Blackmere, and how it too was said to welcome rogues and persons from every quarter? And there had been a sadness in his voice as he spoke, though one not attending as closely as I was should scarcely have marked it at all.

Were His Grace a man more forthcoming, more honest upon a great many matters, particularly those concerning his own territory, I might have asked him outright. But in the few weeks I had known him, I had arrived at the conclusion that he was not.

Just then, Duke Valenridge turned towards me.

"Your Highness, I fear our friend has little desire to discover the spring after all. He appears quite unwilling to labour alongside me, and I should not wish to impose upon his sensibilities, by offering my assistance where it is so plainly unwelcome."