“Believe me, Duchess, there is nothing in this place that I want.” His voice was hard, and he saw her recoil out of the corner of his eye.
“I see.” Her tone was icy.
“I should leave.” Archer moved to the door. “Good night.”
“Good night.” Her words were muffled as Archer closed the door behind him, the scent of his mother’s perfume lingering long after he had left the room.
Chapter Six
Lydia’s deep sleep was once again interrupted by a foreign noise. The creaking of the door as someone forced it open. However, Lydia was expecting a maid to come and wake her up, not a human cannon.
She yelped as a small body launched itself into her bed. She opened her eyes to find herself staring into the bright brown eyes of a little girl.
“Morning, Auntie.” The small child beamed at her, canting her head. “Are you awake?”
“I am now.” Lydia shifted beneath the child’s weight. “You must be Iris.”
“I am.” Iris grinned. “Do you like your room? It used to be Grandma’s, but Uncle says it’s yours now. Auntie Cora called grandma a witch—but I never saw her do any magic. Auntie Juliet said that was rude, so I suppose she must be right. Oh,and sometimes I would sneak in and play dress up, and then Grandma’s face would go all purple and?—”
Lydia struggled to keep up with the child’s excited chatter and was trying to think of something to say when the door to the bedroom burst open.
“Iris!” a woman’s voice sounded from the door. “You can’t come in here without permission.”
“Uncle never minded when I came in here to play dress up.” Iris rolled off of Lydia as the woman made a grab for her. “Besides, I wanted to meet Auntie Lydia.”
“Sorry about this.” The woman scooped Iris into her arms. “I’m Juliet by the way.”
“Lydia. Nice to meet you, Juliet.” Lydia sat upright and blinked as sunlight filled the room—Iris had managed to wriggle out of Juliet’s arms and fling open the curtains.
Juliet was a pretty girl of about seventeen. Like her brother, she had black hair and warm amber eyes, but where his face was cold, handsome lines, hers was soft and open. The kind of beauty that men of the ton often seemed to fawn over.She has an open heart.
“Are you two making nuisances of yourselves already?” an amused voice asked from the door. “You’ll have to forgivemy sister and my niece. I’m Cora. We missed you at dinner, Duchess.”
For a moment, Lydia thought she was looking at a pretty young man before she realized she was staring at a woman. She had short black hair and clever eyes. She was tall, even taller than Lydia, and moved with a loping grace that reminded her of a dancer.Eccentric.
“Please, call me Lydia. I… I would prefer not to be so formal.” She swung her legs out of bed and winced at the cold beneath her feet. “But don’t feel you need to leave on my account. I probably should have been up hours ago.”
“Archer thought it would be best to let you sleep,” Cora explained as Lydia slid her slippers onto her feet.
“It was all I could do to stop Iris breaking in here at the crack of dawn.” Juliet gave her niece an endearing smile.
“Dash left, and she always acts up when he leaves,” Cora whispered while Iris looked around the room.
“The Duke left?” Lydia tried and failed to keep the emotion from her voice.
Juliet smiled at her. “Don’t worry Duc— Lydia, he’ll be back by this evening.”
“He said he needed a ride to clear his head.” Cora shrugged. “And that he had meetings.”
Lydia nodded and walked into the walk-in closet, absently looking through the racks of dresses and trying to decide what she would wear.
“You do not have to do that, Du—- Lydia. Miss Sutton will be here shortly.” Juliet appeared looking puzzled.
“Miss Sutton?” Lydia’s brow creased.
“Your lady’s maid,” Cora explained. “She is probably who helped you get changed before bed last night.”
“Oh yes. Right.” Lydia’s cheeks flushed. “I… I am not used to having a lady’s maid.”
