Luke waved away her question. “My valet. Not here. Sick at home, poor man.”
Mark sounded amused. “So we’re his replacements?”
Ellen asked at the same time, “You bring your valet to the opera?”
Luke winked at her. “I’m a fop. It’s too much work for me to hold my own refreshments, so I make him stand in a corner and hold them for me.”
Ellen laughed, shaking her head in confusion. Luke was utterly delightful but incomprehensible at times. She sat in her chair and the brothers joined her, one on either side.
“This is my favorite of Gilbert and Sullivan’s.” Luke sighed with satisfaction as the electric lights dimmed and the red curtain rose. He was one of the few people, Ellen learned, who came to the opera to enjoy it, and not watch others in Society.
“Mark has never seen it,” she whispered.
Luke gasped in mock horror and slapped a hand to his heart, whipping his head to glare at his brother. “Sir! And you call yourself an Englishman.”
Mark merely rolled his eyes and set his chin in his hand. “Shut it or I won’t be able to watch it tonight, either.”
Ellen and Luke acquiesced, but they did whisper their thoughts on the basses to one another. At intermission, Mark stood. “I see one of my old commodores over in the box across the way. He’s waving me over. Do you mind if I step away?” He glanced at Ellen, who gave a stiff nod.
Luke nodded. “I understand completely about those sorts of things. Go on.” Luke was a captain working in the War Office.
Ellen sagged with relief as Mark slipped out the door. Her feelings for him were so muddled, and whenever he was near she couldn’t make heads or tails of them.
Luke glanced at her. “Trouble in paradise?”
She’d forgotten he was so perceptive. “Oh, nothing major.” She pasted a smile on her face. “Just little adjustments now he’s out of the Navy.”
He nodded sagely. “He seemed nervous back in October, when he was going to you.”
“Dreading it, you mean.” Ellen laughed when Luke tugged atthe collar of his shirt in consternation. “We’ve been honest with one another, I assure you. He’s explained exactly why he left for the Navy and why he was dreading seeing me again. He has also decided he was wrong.”
Luke sighed in relief. “Glad he’s come to his senses. I, for one, never thought you were dull.”
Ellen smiled. “So glad to have a champion.” She paused. “Goodness, we haven’t seen one another in…five years?”
“At a ball, wasn’t it?” Luke mused. “And before that it was…” He trailed off, uncomfortable again.
“You can say it,” Ellen said quietly. “I’d rather people mentioned her than pretended she never existed.”
Luke flashed her an apologetic look. “I didn’t visit as much as I should’ve. After.”
Ellen forced a nonchalant shrug. “You were a first year at Sandhurst at the time. It was hard to sneak away to London, I’d imagine. You did more than Mark, anyway, with those awful flowers.”
“Those tulips I delivered were hideous.” Luke grinned. “I bought you tulips because Mark said they were your favorite flower and I saw how you treated his bouquet, but those tulips were wilting by the time I’d arrived.”
Ellen shook her head. “Wait, you were there when I received Mark’s sympathy bouquet?”
“Who do you think delivered them?” Luke’s grin widened. “I didn’t know girls had such good arms. I should’ve had you on our cricket team!”
She blushed. “I didn’t know you were in the room.”
“You weren’t noticing much at that time,” Luke said kindly. “I wasn’t offended. Frankly, I was relieved!” He laughed. “And to think I was the one who chose the purple hyacinths. I believe you called them Satan’s color as you stomped on the remains.”
“What?” Ellen turned in her seat to face him squarely. “Start over. From the beginning.”
Luke blinked. “I…”
“We spoke about this today and I want to understand.”