Page 85 of The Best-Kept Secrets
“Here you are.” Seeing her dimple made him realize how seldom she had smiled the last few days.
“You’ve been quite thoroughly breaking her heart, Duke.”Uncle Niles’s declaration rang anew in his mind.
She moved quickly toward him but stopped when she spotted his uncle. “I’ve interrupted, haven’t I?”
Uncle Niles shook his head. “You are most welcome, Miss O’Doyle.”
“Which actually puts me in mind of something I need to tell you,” Duke said. “I asked about having a letter franked.”
Eve watched Uncle Niles with hesitant hopefulness.
“I must apologize,” Uncle Niles said, “for not thinking to ask you sooner if you’d been able to send word to your parents. I will happily frank any letters you wish to send, Miss O’Doyle. Please do not hesitate to write to them.”
“Thank you, Mr. Greenberry.” She then turned to Duke. “I had such a wonderful conversation with the three ladies.” Those captivating eyes of hers danced and sparkled once more. “I’ve been so worried that the only options available to me were horrible ones.”
“I cannot imagine they would propose anything truly awful.”
“Your aunt said that Nia can remain at Fairfield until she is well enough to travel, no matter how long that takes.” Eve sighed. “I’ve been worried that the journey would prove too much and she would grow worse. But I also wasn’t in a position to ask if she could remain.”
“I wish you’d told me you were worried about that,” he said. “I could have assured you that my aunt and uncle, and Colm, for that matter, would not only have insisted that she remain but would also likely have been a little hurt that anyone would think they would toss out an ailing person.”
Eve gave him a dry look. “And when could I have asked you, Duke? While you were refusing to acknowledge my existence? Or ought I to have waited until after you told me to solve my own problems?”
Uncle Niles didn’t quite manage to hold back a snort of laughter at that. “She’s not wrong.”
Duke couldn’t argue with that. “Would it help if I told you my idiocy was inspired by a noble cause?”
Eve smiled once more, amusement dancing in her eyes. “Noble stupidityisbetter than the alternative, I suppose.”
“I am legitimately sorry for that ‘noble stupidity.’”
Though she didn’t stop smiling, there was still hesitancy and a little pain in her expression, and it struck him right to the heart.
“You’re still wary,” he acknowledged. “And that’s fair. I’m simply grateful you haven’t disavowed me entirely.”
“If I had, I wouldn’t be able to tell you that I have secured a position already.”
“You have?” A multitude of reactions swam around in his mind: relief, excitement, nervousness, confusion.
“Mater has been looking to hire a lady’s companion,” Eve said. “She offered the position to Daria during the Season, and we all assumed it was nothing more than an act of generosity to help her escape her parents. But Mater said she was and is still in earnest.”
“A miracle,” Duke said. “And I cannot imagine any lady treating her companion with greater love and kindness than Mater will.”
Eve clasped her hands together, pressing them to her heart. “I would, of course, still rather be at Tulleyloch, but this will save my family. And that is worth having to be away from them.”
As if speaking of family conjured them, Duke’s parents chose that moment to barge into the library. Whatever Father intended to say as he entered died on his lips. He and Mother eyed Eve with obvious misgiving.
Mother spoke first. “I realize the door is open, but this arrangement still seems a bit more isolated than ought to be permitted.”
“Mr. Greenberry is in here,” Eve answered without sounding the least cowed by the clear criticism. She motioned to Uncle Niles at his desk.
Mother and Father looked that way in near-perfect unison. Uncle Niles offered the smallest dip of his head in acknowledgment. Then they looked back at Duke and Eve, their gazes lingering a little too long on her.
“My uncle can provide you with the ink and parchment you need to write the letter you’d hoped to write.” Duke was grateful to see understanding immediately fill her gaze. He’d offered her an escape, and she took it.
With Eve across the library, talking with Uncle Niles, Duke looked to his parents. “I am assuming you came searching for me specifically.”
“We have thought about and discussed your behavior last evening,” Father said.
