the meals she took with the family were always silent and tense ; andrew was usually in his laboratory `` experimenting ; '' nerissa rose late and made frequent social calls on the neighboring gentry ; and the duke of blackheath , never pleasant , often aloof , and always more than capable of making juliet feel as though she was a burden on his time and attention , continued to evade her question about making charlotte his ward i have not made up my mind yet , miss paige , do not continue to harass me about it .