Page 34 of The Best-Kept Secrets
“Almost five minutes.”
Oh dear. “She was truly upset, then?”
“I think she was stunned more than upset. And once the five minutes of silence ended, she launched back into her litany of complaints. Duke insisted I save myself and run.”
“She ought to be more considerate of him,” Eve said.
Nia began the task of undressing. “Are you going to tell me what happened between the two of you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You and Duke look at each other as though the moon and stars hang in each other’s eyes.”
Eve hadn’t the first doubt she looked at him that way. She’d never been adept at tucking away her thoughts or feelings. But Duke was an expert at it. She didn’t know if she ought to feel flattered that he might be allowing some tenderness toward her to show or if this was an instance of Nia seeing more than was being revealed only because she knew Eve so well.
“I’m needing help with this.” Nia motioned to her gown. “I don’t know if I’m overly tired or if my mind has decided to live in a state of frustrating stupor, but I cannot seem to unfasten it tonight.”
Eve climbed out of bed, wrapped her knit shawl around her shoulders as a guard against the cold air, and crossed to her sister.
“The carriage rides have left me a bit stiff at the end of the day,” Nia said. “I ought to borrow Mrs. Seymour’s approach and be very vocally upset about it.”
“You should,” Eve said, making quick work of helping her sister slip free of her traveling dress. “Wait until you feel the sheets. They aren’t truly scratchy but neither are they as celestially soft as clouds; thus, you will have every right to be upset about them.”
“Perhaps Mrs. Seymour won’t grumble about the linens to her abigail tonight,” Nia said.
Nia and Eve soon had themselves tucked comfortably in for the night.
Nia, however, did not fall quickly to sleep. Lying on her pillow, looking quite tired, she took up the topic Eve thought she had managed to avoid. “What has you on such close terms with Duke?”
“I came to know him better while we were at the inn.”
“So did I,” Nia countered, adjusting her position with slow movements, apparently searching for a more comfortable position. “But there’s something different between the two of you.”
In an uncharacteristic bit of closed-lippedness, Eve didn’t offer to her sister all that had happened in the kitchen. She wasn’t ashamed of it, neither did she think Nia would run about spreading the tale in every willing ear. Eve wasn’t worried about a scandal or Nia laughing at her.
Explaining how she and Duke had grown close likely required revealing at least a little of what they’d talked about. Duke hadn’t given her leave to share his plans and worries. Her parents had required that she not shareherswith Nia.
Ambiguity was likely her best approach. “I am not confirming anything you are hinting at, neither will I deny that I’ve grown very fond of Duke, very attached to him. But I am refusing to get my hopes up, both for the sake of not wishing to endanger the friendship I have with him and out of a desire not to break my own heart.”
“Allow yourself to hope, Eve. We may be poor, but even poor ladies are entitled to a few dreams.”
But so many of hers had very recently been whisked away. “I don’t mean to abandon the possibility entirely, but I think it would be wisest if I tiptoed toward this dream rather than leaping.”
Nia pulled the blanket more closely around herself. “Though you are holding your breath, worried that this tenderness growing between you and Duke will prove as insubstantial as dandelion fluff,Iam entirely convinced that it won’t.”
With a grin, Eve said, “My dear sister, I sincerely hope your optimism proves more accurate than my caution.”
“So do I, Eve. So do I.”
Chapter Fourteen
If Duke never again traveledwith his grandmother, it would be too soon. Most days, she had at least slept through part of the journey, offering him a momentary lull. But on the final leg of their trip, she remained awake and, he was quite certain, never stopped voicing her displeasure with every aspect of life.
That would have been unpleasant enough, but her unending diatribe meant that for the second day in a row, Duke didn’t have any opportunity to talk with or laugh with Eve. Though Nia slept on and off, Grandmother never closed her eyes for longer than a blink. Thirty-six hours earlier, Duke had held Eve in his arms and kissed her. He’dkissedher. He was still shocked at his own impulsiveness when he thought back on it. But he didn’t regret it. He only hoped Eve didn’t either.
He’d not been afforded a chance to truly speak to her. Under Grandmother’s critical eye, he couldn’t so much as momentarily hold Eve’s hand.
It was making the needed patience with his grandmother very difficult to come by.
