Oh. He justsensedan argument brewing.
"Can I help?" he asked, injecting some cheer into his voice.
Mr. Washam was watching her too, his brows knitted in concern.
"Lord Winters," she said firmly; firm enough that made it clear she wanted his full attention. "We have to talk about today. I don't appreciate how you handled our meeting with the Duke, talking over me like that. It was uncalled for."
"Aurora, dear," Mr. Washam warned.
She bit down on her lip. "No, Father, this needs to be said. I gave myself time to think, so please know that what I'm about to say isn't said in anger. Don't disrespect me by assuming that I don't know what I'm talking about."
Elmore didn't reply. Instead, he cast a nervous glance towards Mr. Washam, before his eyes landed back on Aurora. She'd been by herself for an hour, before coming to him with her concerns? He was almost hurt, but the tickle of irritation in his stomach took the forefront of his thoughts.
Aurora grabbed one of the chairs by the corner table; she also dragged it across the living room to his armchair, so that they were face to face when she sat. Each movement was purposeful. Slow.
Then, "we agreed that this would beourproject — between all three of us. Wealsoagreed that as I was in charge, I would lead the meeting. Now, perhaps you find it perfectly acceptable to interrupt somebody's discussion and take control, but it wasn't for you to decide."
Elmore bristled. Not for him to decide? If he had left things as they were, the Duke would have lost all interest! He had stepped in to save the project and regain the Duke's attention, not...not whatever Aurora thought he was doing.
He would have said so, too, had Aurora's glare not been so deadly. It left no room for argument, and told him tolisten.
"More so, you tried to pass the idea off as your own — cutting me off and proceeding to explain exactly what I planned to say, only giving me none of the credit. The Duke didn't even realize I was a part of the project at all until Father corrected him; because you made him think that you were the project leader."
No. Absolutely not. Elmore wasnotgoing to take these insults; Aurora's belief that he wanted to slight her was ridiculous. Intolerable! She was acting like an offended child about to throw a tantrum, and he'd had enough of it.
"You sat you've had time to think about this," he snapped, "but you're still spouting utter nonsense? All I did washelp,and it's a good thing that I did considering the Duke wasn't even listening."
"Both of you, calm down," Mr. Washam cut in. He rose from his seat to put a hand on Aurora's arm, standing between them with a firm expression on his face. "Don't you see that fighting like this isn't helping? The meeting went well, and we should be happy."
"How can I be happy, when he stole my work?" Aurora challenged.
"I didn'tstealanything." This was too much; whatever patience that Elmore might have had was quickly waning. She was angry, and he was trying to understand; but there was no need for this foul attitude.
Aurora was tense in her chair. She was barely even moving, her shoulders hunched with barely contained anger. He had seen her angry before, usually because of him; but this was something new even to him.
"Nobody believes that I can do anything; at the botanist's meeting I'm talked over or ignored, and the Duke didn't care about a thing I had to say until the same thing came from someone else's mouth. Now you're doing exactly the same, underestimating my knowledge, myabilities,for something that I can't help."
He scoffed. "And what can't you help?"
Aurora threw her hands up in defeat.
Mr. Washam stepped back to give her space; but also, Elmore suspected, because he knew that nothing would calm Aurora down.
"You know what," she replied, arms folded across her chest. Elmore hadn't realized until now that she was shaking, arms folded tightly in an attempt to hide it from them.
Guilt twisted in Elmore's gut, but why? He was innocent in this, it wasAurorathat was reacting out of turn, treating him like the enemy. It was all she'd done since they met.
He forced his voice to calm as he spoke, but still felt a twitch of irritation in the back of his mind. "I'm afraid, Aurora, that I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about. Please explain it to me so that I may understand."
She rolled her eyes, eyebrow twitching. "Now you're just condescending. Youknowwhat I mean; you underestimate me because I'm a woman, just like the Duke did. You think I'm incapable of hosting my own presentation, so you took it over. Do you remember the first day that we met? You spoke to me about bergamot as if I had no clue what it was, even though I'm the daughter of the Duke's personal botanist."
How ridiculous! How could she think that he was prejudiced? Elmore had done nothing except save this project; if you thought about it, it washimthat had convinced the Duke to consider it at all.
"It isn'tyouthat made me step in, Aurora. It was the way the Duke reacted. I could see that he wasn't interested, and something had to be done."
Aurora fell silent. Still standing to her left, slightly away from them, Mr. Washam was watching the encounter quietly. He was smart to stay out of it; Elmore wished he had.
When she didn't reply, Elmore took the chance to add quietly, "I hate that the Duke ignored you too, but he did and there's nothing we can do to avoid it. He's too old and too set in his ways to change now. The best —only —thing we could have done was change our tactic. So I did."