Page 52 of A Duchess Mistaken
“Lord Christopher, I would love to hear about this soothsayer of yours,” Caroline said, ever the nice one. “Are they truly as marvelous as you say?”
Christopher gave her devilish wag of his eyebrows. “Would you like to know for yourself? I could take you to see her.”
“Could you?” She sounded eager. Admittedly, Agnes was a little intrigued at the prospect herself.
“Of course,” Christopher stated with a nod. “Her shop is not too far from where we are. We may make a detour from finding you a new shawl to pay her a visit.”
“Lead the way then!” Paul said far too eagerly.
Christopher seemed inspired by his enthusiasm and did just that, taking charge of the group. Paul was right on his heels and Caroline let out a small giggle as she hurried to keep up.
The others were trailing behind, engrossed in their own conversations to pay any mind to what the unmarried lot was talking about. Agnes realized a beat too late that she and Johnathan had fallen in between the two groups.
“You do not seem very impressed by the feats of this soothsayer,” Johnathan commented after a moment of silence between them.
Agnes watched the excited group of three ahead of them with amusement. “I am a lady of fact, John. I do not pay heed to such mystifying ideas.”
“Then perhaps I should not admit to you that this soothsayer is indeed as wondrous as Christopher says.”
Agnes raised her brows at him. “What a surprise. I did not expect you to care about such things, let alone believe in them.”
“I am a man of varying interests,” he admitted with a shrug.
“Then have you used the services of his soothsayer before?”
Johnathan nodded.
Agnes, intrigued, couldn’t help walking a little closer to him, peering closely to see if he was telling the truth or not. To his credit, he kept his face quite still. “And what did they say of your future?”
“That one day I shall find myself at the mercy of a badgering lady who does not know when she is being made fun of.”
Agnes gasped. Letting out a horrified laugh, she slapped Johnathan lightly on the arm as he chuckled. “I do not know whether to be cross or impressed.”
“Both, perhaps? It is not every day that one manages to outwit a lady such as yourself.”
“Count yourself lucky then because it shan’t happen again.”
“On the contrary, I believe that I have many opportunities to do so in the future.”
“Quite confident of you to say. An admirable trait, I suppose, if not a foolish one.”
“I’ll choose to focus on the fact that you find me admirable.”
He rested his hand on his chest as if he was touched by her words. Agnes rolled her eyes, ignoring the flutter of her heart at how wide and full his grin was. It was her first time seeing him let his guard down so fully, with childish abandon that brought out a different side of her. She adored that smile, adored the way his eyes grew brighter as they crinkled in humor. She adored the manner in which one side of his smile tilted up before the other, the way his entire body seemed to relax with that one simple act. Agnes hadn’t noticed how tense he was before.
“We have arrived,” Johnathan announced, pulling her from her thoughts.
She looked ahead to see the others ducking into a small, nondescript store that bore the words “Madame Hendrix” on the front and nothing else.
“Madame Hendrix must have a name that speaks for itself,” Agnes commented. She lingered, looking back at her parents and Lord and Lady Reeds. “Will you be joining us?” she asked them.
Solomon waved her inside. “Your mother insists that I purchase that reticule we saw a while back.”
“And by insist,” Mary spoke up. “I only said that it was rather nice and would match a few of my dresses.”
“I know what that means,” Agnes said and Solomon nodded as if he too understood the implications of such simple words.
She didn’t bother sparing the earl and countess a look, not caring what they did. As long as they didn’t bother them with talk of wedding and marriages, they could have been nonexistent for all Agnes cared. She didn’t wait for their response, simply turning and ducking into the shop.
