Page 7 of A Chance to Dance with the Duke
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Meg peered out the window of her family’s home, sighing with relief when the carriage that had paused in front of their house began to rattle down the cobblestone street once more.
“I’m safe,” she said, turning to smile at her friends who’d come to join her for tea.
Really, they’d come to cheer her up. But they were politely pretending that they’d all just happened to be in the neighborhood and had dropped by on a whim.
“Safe.” Ann repeated the word with a soft laugh. “You make it sound so dire.”
“It is, rather…” Meg sat on the settee beside Jane, Felicity pacing past them to look for herself out the window. “I’m beginning to feel as though I’m being hunted.”
Felicity whirled around with a grin. “Hunted by the Duke! Why Jane, that sounds like one of those dreadful romantic novels you’re always reading.”
Jane dipped her head with a blush, but she was laughing softly at Felicity’s teasing.
“Perhaps I would like a romantic novel,” Ann said, her gaze wistful. “I’ve never read one before.”
Jane and Felicity shared a look, but it was Meg who shook her head. “I do not think you’d enjoy them, Ann. You’re much too…”
“Pragmatic,” Felicity finished.
Ann frowned. “I am not.”
Felicity’s brows shot up in surprise. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of, Ann. I’m pragmatic as well, while Jane and Meg are more fanciful and romantic by nature. It’s not a bad thing to be realistic.”
“But I can be romantic as well,” Ann protested.
Meg leaned over and patted her friend’s knee. “Dear, you once compared the marriage mart to a horse auction, and claimed you’d rather be sold as a mare than a wife.”
Ann pursed her lips as Felicity’s head fell back with a loud laugh. “You did say that, Ann.”
Ann frowned at her friend. “Yes, well…I was young then.”
No one pointed out she’d made that remark only three months’ prior.
Ann huffed. “Very well, perhaps I’ve r-recently had a…a ch-change of heart.”
The stutter was minor, and for that Meg was exceptionally glad. It tended to worsen when she was agitated or the center of attention, but since they’d come to form their odd little wallflower friendship, Ann had grown ever more comfortable speaking around them.
Jane was studying Ann closely, and when she spoke her voice was earnest. “Does that mean you no longer see marriage as a tedious duty that must be borne like an illness?”
Felicity snickered and Meg pressed her lips together to hide a smile. She’d forgotten that Ann had said that as well.
“Oh, very well,” Ann sighed. “Perhaps romance is not for me.”
Meg’s eyes narrowed on the redhead, her curiosity piqued. “Ann, have you developed feelings for someone or?—”
She stopped speaking abruptly at the sound of a commotion at the front door. She stiffened with fright.
Felicity darted over to the window, and called back quickly. “It’s only your father.”
Meg sank back into the settee with relief.
“Really, Meg,” her younger brother Charlie’s voice came from where he sat, tucked away on the window seat on the far side of the room, his tone far too condescending considering he was only nine years old. “Most young ladies would be overjoyed at the prospect of a visit from a Duke.”
He’d been reading and she’d nearly forgotten he was there. Meg pointed toward the door. “To your room, Charlie.”
He frowned. “You cannot send me to my room.”
