Page 84 of Anything But a Duke
“Not that hard, apparently.”
“Don’t lose her,” Nick told him in a serious tone. “Don’t apply your rules and strategies to this and attempt to turn it into some kind of fair exchange.”
Aidan was on the verge of confessing that he had done precisely that.
“If this is right, you’ll know and she’ll know. Nothing will need to be forced or arranged.”
“I know it’s right. I’m not certain she agrees.”
Nick crossed the room until they were face-to-face. “Then that, my friend, is where you begin.”
Diana pressed gently as she rubbed the graphite over the envelope Aidan had given her. She’d vowed to help him, and she meant to keep her word.
A chemical test had revealed a nearly unnoticeable depression in the paper, and she prayed this simple technique would cause whatever might be imprinted to emerge. She used a brush to sweep away some of the dark flakes and gasped when a few faint letters became visible.
AJand anSwith a space between them that she soon realized was anO. A man’s name.Joseph. No, there was more. AnIwas almost indistinguishable but made an undeniable mark at the end.Josephimight be part of a surname orJosephine, a lady’s name, which meant nothing to her. She hoped it might mean something to Aidan.
She could send a note with the information, but what she truly wished was to see him again.
Her nerves were frayed, her body ached in places it had never ached before, and her heart was full to the point of bursting. Inside her heart, she held an impossible mix of joy and anxious uncertainty.
Being with Aidan had been beyond what she ever imagined it could be. Leaving him in the early hours of the morning was the most difficult choice she’d ever made in her life.
She’d stroked a strand of hair from his forehead, traced her fingers along the line of his cheek, his jaw, his nose. She’d kissed him as softly as she was able, then dressed and tiptoed away when every step made her wish to turn back.
In the space of a few hours, she’d come to understand why people were willing to risk anything, do anything, for what she’d long imagined was poetic nonsense.
Love. Was that what was filling her heart this morning? Was that why she couldn’t manage to focus on her work and thought instead of Aidan? One night with him and everything had shifted. She’d made him promise not to think of the future, and yet this morning she could think of little else.
She could no longer imagine a future that didn’t include Aidan. The man had been on her heart and mind since the day they’d met, and now she felt he was a part of her.
But how could it work? She could conceive an idea and build and tweak and struggle until it worked just as she imagined, but she couldn’t fathom how she and Aidan Iverson might make a life together.
What they felt for each other would only get in the way of his goals. She wasn’t the noblewoman he needed to achieve the belonging he’d been seeking for so long.
And none of her own ambition had waned either. Glancing around the room, she took in her five completed devices and felt a surge of pride that she had achieved exactly what she’d set out to do. But the prospect of success didn’t fill her up as she’d expected it to.
No matter how many devices she sold to Mr. Repton, no matter how many people used her machine, she knew she wouldn’t be satisfied with the work alone.
Now there was more than toiling in a workshop and seeing one of her devices in a shop window; there was the simple bliss of being held and wanted, the joy of being in Aidan’s arms. She wanted that too.
Gripping the lever, she applied her weight and moved the metal bar back and forth until she felt resistance. Lifting the tube of her machine, she drew up the collection of dust she’d deposited on her workshop floor. The mechanism worked just as expected and she turned to make a note regarding this final test.
Her wrist bumped against a small pile of post she’d left unopened. The name atop one envelope caught her notice. It was from Mr. Repton. She tore inelegantly to get to the letter and her jaw dropped as she read.
She’d sent him a note to let him know she’d completed the five models he’d asked for. She and Aidan had been waiting for confirmation that he wished to purchase and ship them to his shop in America. But he’d done more.
She read the lines again and again to make herself believe the words. The joy of it rushed through her, and more than anything she wanted to tell Aidan.
I have sold all five of Miss Ashby’s cleaning devices to eager customers and only await the matter of delivery and payment. I am certain we can come to fair terms when we meet again next week.
Out of the corner of her eye, Diana noticed movement and a shift of light in the hallway beyond. The clip of heels on marble grew louder as they approached, telling her she’d soon have a visitor.
“Miss Grinstead to see you, Miss Ashby,” the housemaid said from the conservatory threshold. “Shall I send her in?”
“Yes, do send her in.” Diana didn’t imagine even a visit from her dearest friend could alter the course of her wayward thoughts and the spectrum of emotions she’d passed through this morning, but she was eager to see Grace nonetheless. If nothing else, she understood her better now. Diana no longer questioned why her friend would risk scandal to follow her heart.
Grace wore a stunning green frock of shimmering satin and one of her elaborate hats with a veil pulled over her face. That struck Diana as odd, but as she rose to greet her fashionable friend with a welcoming hug, she understood why.
