Page 104 of His Duchess of Scandal
“I am certain you will make an elegant bird,” he called out to his daughter.
Hermia laughed when Phoebe flapped her arms.
“I will! And you and Hermia? Will you fly with me?”
“Little bird, we will fly wherever you go,” Hermia assured her.
Charles’s arm tightened around hers. “Come on, we should get settled,” he said. “She will be occupied by the birds for some time. She has still not stopped speaking about the menagerie. Apparently, she wishes to tell all her friends about it.”
“Friends?” Hermia felt a little cruel echoing the sentiment.
But Charles understood.
He chuckled. “When she goes to the ballrooms,” he said. “I do not think she understands that it is still several years away. While it will pass far too quickly for us, it will not for her, I imagine. But soon, she will be a debutante and miss the days when the world could stop for a while and let her watch a puppet show.”
Hermia sat down on a patch of grass that overlooked the lake where Phoebe and her governess ambled along. She thought of the lecture she had once given to Charles about Phoebe growing up and needing her father when she debuted.
She did not regret it now, but she was glad that it had sunk in.
“That is most true,” she admitted. “I do not think the other ladies in the ballroom will speak of menageries and roaring like lions.”
Charles chuckled.
“Although,” Hermia continued, “I dare say that if any of them do, then they will become Phoebe’s best friend, no doubt.”
“Did you ever make a friend in the ballrooms?”
“I did,” Hermia replied. “Lady Redham. She was actually spoken to first by the naval officer I told you about.”
“And you two have been friends since?”
“Indeed. I honestly do not think I would have gotten through the last several years without her. I dare say she kept me sane.”
Hermia kept a gaze on Phoebe, who was chasing after birds, sniggering to herself.
“I am the Mistress of Birds and Storms!” Phoebe announced.
“Well, at least she listened to your story.” Charles chuckled, and the two of them watched the spritely girl. “Heavens, she really takes after me a great deal. My parents were always cross with me. It is why I despise myself for being cross with her. Forbeinglike them.”
“I am certain it is different,” Hermia said. Before Charles could argue, she went on. “The difference, Charles, is that you learn from the times you are… impatient with her. You have listened to me, and you have brought her joy after those harsher reprimands. Yes, there has been coldness and punishment where there should not have been, but you are learning. Iam proud of you. And I believe Phoebe has also noticed the difference. She comes to you more now. She feels as though you are someone she can grow closer to, I think.”
Charles still looked a little hesitant, but he nodded nonetheless. He caught her gaze and reached out to link their fingers. With that hold, he pulled her closer, smiling into another kiss.
Hermia didn’t close her eyes until his lips pressed against hers. It had been a week of them sharing breakfasts in a new room every day. The parlor, the drawing room, the library, even the music room, where Hermia had performed a small tune on the harp.
It was not her most proficient instrument, but Charles had seemed to enjoy it nonetheless. He had fed her eggs afterwards from his fork, grinning and kissing down her wrist.
Now, he pressed more kisses to her mouth as if she were the only thing he had ever wanted to look at, pay attention to, and she kissed him back like he was the center of her world.
That was until a shout went up from the governess right up ahead.
“Lady Phoebe, you must get down from there at once!”
“You cannot make me!” Phoebe shouted back, cackling. “I will do as I please and be free and fly like the birds.”
Hermia and Charles’s attention snapped to the end of the path where they had left Phoebe. Only, now she had half scrambled up a tree, her legs hanging on different branches, her hands struggling to reach high enough to go where she wanted.
“Lady Phoebe, I understand, but this is terribly dangerous.Please,come down from the tree. This is not a prank anymore.”
