Page 38 of Snapdragons
“What are you two planning to offer?” Henri asked.
Miss Seymour shook her head. “You’ll have to wait, just like everyone else.”
“Have you at least told Puppy?” Lucas asked.
“It was his idea,” was her answer.
And for reasons Niles couldn’t explain and did not choose to explore, he was inordinately pleased that she’d acknowledged that.
She hooked her arm through his and gave Henri and Lucas a look of cheeky challenge. All Niles could manage was a look of worried confusion. He tried to silently ask his friends if he was now on shaky ground, if this was more of Miss Seymour’s attempts to turn his head.
Were they going to intervene? Stage a daring rescue?
“Off with you two,” Lucas declared, shooing them away.
Apparently, Niles was on his own. He took that to mean he didn’t need to be concerned. Hewas; he simply told himself he didn’tneedto be in that particular moment.
“They are fun to tease,” Miss Seymour said as she and Niles walked into the music room.
It was a nearly exact echo of what Stanley always used to say when Niles would ask him why he bantered so often with the Gents. “Because the lot of you are fun to tease,” he would answer.
“Perhaps they will choose being teased as their performance this evening,” Niles said.
The smile she tossed at him, a simple and fleeting one, hada most unexpected effect. His heart hopped a bit in his chest. But he was quick to shake that off. It was just that he was wholly unaccustomed to ladies smiling at and favoring him. His inexperience might lead him to believe foolish things when he knew perfectly well that her smiles earlier had been part of a scheme.
They looked through the few bits of music Digby had. Niles wasn’t certain why Digby had a pianoforte at his house. He didn’t play, and he lived alone.
“I don’t know that I could play any of these without weeks of practice.” Miss Seymour looked up from the parchment and at Niles once more. A hint of embarrassment tiptoed over her features, and just as it had earlier that evening, the sight tugged at him.
“I would need time as well,” he assured her. “It seems we both understated our ineptitude.”
“I think we should insist that Mr. Layton simply didn’t provide enough variety in his musical broadsheets.”
Niles nodded. “I like that strategy: blame Digby.”
Miss Seymour put the music broadsheets back in the drawer where they’d found them. “What should we do for our impromptu performance now?” she asked, turning back to him.
“I suppose we had best gather the horses.”
She smiled at him again, and his heart reacted once more. That foolish organ had no idea it needed to be on its guard. “You are funny, Niles Greenberry.”
He didn’t think anyone beyond the Gents had ever said that about him.
“Perhaps we could tell a few jokes for our performance,” Niles suggested, laughing a little in spite of himself.
“I suspect that is what Lord Jonquil is going to do.”
He acknowledged that likelihood with another nod. “We do call him the Jester.”
“Do you have names for the ladies in your group as well?” she asked.
“Julia—Lady Jonquil—is called Our Julia, and Violet is sometimes called Lily. Nicolette has become known amongst us asLe Capitaine.”
“You are so fortunate to have such wonderful friends.” She tapped out the first five notes of a scale. “I’d love to have that.” She finished the scale, then began another.
“You remember your scales.” Niles moved to stand next to her and, two octaves below where she was playing, tapped along with her, getting only one note incorrect.
“You remember too,” she said.
