Page 77 of Dare to Love a Duke
He rapped gently on the door.
She looked up. Her frown eased and transformed into a smile as she unfolded herself and rose to standing. “An unexpected pleasure.”
“I don’t intend to disturb you.” He moved into the room, pulled by her nearness.
“If you arrived banging pots and pans, followed by a parade of trumpets, you wouldn’t disturb me.” She tapped her fingers across his chest, and tiny flares of heat flashed over his skin. “Is there a reason for your visit?”
One of her brows lifted and she glanced at the bed.
Arousal surged, but he tamped it down. He captured her hand in his and kissed her fingertips, then startled a laugh from her when he gently bit one finger.
“What I require is you fetching your coat and hat, and accompanying me on an outing.”
“Dare I ask what this outing might be, or do you prefer a surprise?”
“Sometimes surprises are welcome, but they can also wreak havoc.” He thought of the letter that had reached him in Cornwall, summoning him back to London, and his father’s deathbed. A spur of unexpected grief rose up. It could strike at any moment, without warning, speeding him back to the moment when the physician had announced that his father had breathed his last.
Rather than shove his sorrow aside, as he might have done even a week ago, he now breathed through it, giving it space to simply be. Gradually, it receded—but it would always be a part of him, his father’s absence as much a fact of life as the sun overhead, casting shadows.
“Are you well?” Lucia asked gently, her voice breaking into his thoughts.
He inhaled, nodding. “You and I are going to a fair on the outskirts of the city.”
She tilted her head, her brow furrowed in thought. “The last one I went to was Bartholomew Fair four years ago with Kitty. Still have this.” She walked to a cabinet and produced a souvenir silver spoon with an engraving on its handle.
“That spoon shall be alone no longer,” he declared, “when we purchase it a companion today.”
She set the spoon aside and regarded him with curiosity. “You’re a man of significance and consequence. Surely your responsibilities demand your company and leave little time for country outings.”
“Madam,” he said gravely, “between you and them, there’s no choice to make.”
A smile spread across her face, dispelling grief’s shadow. “They can go to the Devil?”
“There’s a lass. Now get your coat.”
Chapter 18
The fair sprawled in a field to the west of London, a motley collection of booths, tents, and outdoor amusements that resembled a patchwork quilt of humanity. Noises of every variety tumbled over one another—drums and fiddles vied with barkers shouting for visitors bundled into heavy coats to visit their attractions—while the scents of roast meat and penned animals were thick in Lucia’s nostrils. It was chaotic and cacophonous and she adored it.
“This is so much like thefierein Napoli,” she said to Tom as they ambled from booth to booth, her hand tucked in the crook of his elbow. “I wish you could see it. So much life and color.”
Bittersweet memories made her throat ache, and she blinked hard to push back tears. She ground the heel of her hand into her eyes as if she could hold her melancholy at bay.
He gazed at her attentively, then frowned. “We can leave,” he said, concern edging his voice. “Find our entertainment elsewhere, or return home. Wherever you’re happiest.”
The melancholy dissolved, like the fog from the Gulf burning away as day progressed.
“Your concern is appreciated,” she said truthfully. How long had it been since someone other than Kitty or Elspeth had cared about her feelings? “But the weather’s so fine and pleasant, and,” she added, cheeky, “the company is tolerable.”
A corner of his mouth turned up, and his look was warm. “Couldn’t ask for a lovelier day or companion, even if she is an insolent wench.”
The fair bustled around them, yet she lost herself in his eyes. Was it possible to feel one’s heart growing larger and larger? Was it not a machine that remained fixed in size? Yet hers seemed to swell, as though it could fill her body.
“Ample warning,” he said as he led her toward a booth selling ribbons, “I’m determined to spend a disgusting amount of money on you today.”
Giddiness flipped in her belly—for all that she prided herself on self-sufficiency, the idea of a gentleman showering her with pretty things was tantalizing.
Still, she said on a laugh, “I’ve no need of trumperies and gewgaws.”
