“Right over here,” replied Mr. Hastings.
She exchanged a startled glance with her sister as they were led not to the austere parlor adjoining the entrance but rather to a drawing room deeper inside the ducal residence that she’d seen only in Tommy’s maps.
Still no paintings on the walls. Or art of any kind. There wasn’t even a carpet on the floor.
“Wait here, please.” Mr. Hastings lifted his palm. “His Grace will be with you shortly.”
“How did His Grace know we were coming?” Tommy whispered in bafflement once the butler had left the room. “Wedidn’t know we were coming. Wynchesters are unpredictable.”
“Apparently, so is the Duke of Faircliffe.” The thought filled Chloe’s stomach with butterflies. Hewasone of the cleverest orators in Parliament. It would not do to underestimate him. She smoothed out her skirt with nervous hands.
Faircliffe stepped into the room. “You’re here.”
His eyes were on hers, as if theatrical Great-Aunt Wynchester were the wainscoting and Chloe bold and unmissable.
How was she supposed to gaze upon him without immediately longing to hurl herself into his embrace?
The angular lines of his cheekbones and the sharp cut of his coat might have seemed harsh, but Chloe had been in those strong arms. She had kissed those warm lips. Her entire body quivered with yearning to have his mouth upon her again.
“You left us sitting for too long.” Tommy struggled to her feet. “Now I have to stretch this bad hip.”
Rather than express disbelief or irritation at this patently outlandish claim—less than a minute had passed between their arrival and Faircliffe’s—the duke appeared comically relieved to be rid of Great-Aunt Wynchester so quickly.
“Of course, of course.” He leapt out of her way. “Please do whatever you need for your hip. Take your time.”
Behind the duke’s back, Tommy darted a quizzical glance over her shoulder at Chloe, then disappeared down the corridor.
Faircliffe took the chair opposite Chloe. “How are you?”
“I’m well,” she drawled. “How are you?”
It did not seem that he was going to take advantage of a private moment for torrid kisses after all.
Pity.
He twisted his hands in his lap. “Can I make an indelicate observation without offending you?”
She crossed her arms. “Probably not.”
He cleared his throat but then said nothing, as if torn between his desires and his better judgment.
She flapped her fingers in resignation. “Go forth and offend.”
“It’s just that I’ve been watching you,” he blurted out. He ran a restless hand through his dark hair. “You may think nobody is, butIam, and I’ve come to think thatyouthink no one sees you. You dress so theycan’tsee you without expending a modicum of effort, hoping that someone will do so and thus be worthy of you in all your true glory. Except that no one does. Instead of showing your full colors, you favor plain dress so that the reason they’re not seeing you isn’t becauseyou’renot worthy but because you’ve chosen to be invisible.”
Chloe’s pulse trembled erratically, her lungs robbed of breath.
She wasn’t offended.
She was stripped bare.
“That’s all fine,” the duke said swiftly. “You should dress however you like and for whatever reasons you please. But whilst you’re here in my house…whenever it’s just the two of us, together…I want you to know that you’re free to beyou, whatever that might look like.”
Chloe couldn’t respond. Her words tangled in her throat.
“I don’t know if this will make it worse or better, but I thought… Wait here. I’ll go and get them.”
Faircliffe darted up from his chair and dashed to the corner of the room, where a large trunk stood next to a blank wall. He lifted the trunk by its leather handles and brought it to the bare floor between his chair and Chloe’s.
