Page 31 of A Spinster to Heal the Duke
"You do not take a tone with me," he rebutted.
They stared at one another for a moment then they each began walking quickly.
At Reedley Manor, the Duke offered to carry Anne's large basket of cuttings, but she refused.
"No, thank you," she replied. "If you were not here, I would be carrying them myself."
"But I am here, and I am offering," the Duke insisted, but Anne began to reach for the door as he attempted to assist her with the basket.
Instead, the Duke quickly turned his efforts to the door and opened it for her.
"I did not mean to offend you this afternoon," he said, blocking her path and looking at her directly.
He towers over me,she thought, looking up at him and then lowering her gaze from his eyes to a button on his coat.
"No, it was more likely that I was too sensitive," she replied.
I know my circumstances, so it shouldn't affect me for him to mention things in conversation. In hindsight, he wasn't even rude, was he?she asked herself.
"Can we start over tomorrow?" the Duke asked. "Join me for my walk tomorrow afternoon. I promise to be better company."
Anne hesitated but said, "Very well. For now, these have been cut too long to not be placed in water, so please, let me pass."
"Of course," the Duke replied, stepping aside.
CHAPTER 9
The following day, despite herself, Anne looked forward to a second opportunity to join the Duke on his walk.
"I will be better company, too," she told herself.
She had replayed the previous day in her mind all night and the following morning, their argument was all Anne could think of.
I was wrong to behave so childishly over nothing,she thought, scolding herself.It is a good thing we do not have regular company of the nobility. It seems I don't know how to mind myself in their company. I did not realize I was so thin skinned.
The Duke had been considering the encounter as well.
After our rocky start when I first arrived, I would hate for us to take steps backward when we finally seemed on a more civil track,he thought that evening.
They had both been considerably less involved with conversation after dinner. Rather than his usual glass of brandy, when the Baron came to the parlor for his after-dinner pipe, the older gentleman found himself with only his grandchildren.
"Where's Grandon?" he had asked.
"Gone to bed," replied Charles as Anne said, "I don't keep up with his whereabouts."
The older man had been disappointed and smoked his pipe n silence.
Charles won a quiet game of chess against his sister but remarked, "This win feels hollow. I don't even think you were paying attention at all. Just moving a piece when you noticed a change on the board."
"Today I will start our walk with a few flowers I have picked and hidden away for her," Noah thought.
Unfortunately, when they were finally outside for their walk, he saw what she meant about flowers being too long clipped without water.
"I picked these for you earlier and hid them to give you on our walk," he confessed, holding a semi wilted bouquet. "I see what you mean about them having to go into a vase before sitting too long."
To his surprise, Anne smiled happily as ever and accepted them more than graciously. She smelled them and looked at them with an expression he hadn't seen before.
"They are beautiful," she said, even though they were from her own garden. "It is thoughtful that you made the effort."
