“Your cravat,” she said slowly. “I will fix it for you.”
Ezra should have refused.No, thank you, I can do it myself. The words were so simple. Or,I will wait for my valet to return. Also, terribly easy.
Instead, he said, “Oh, thank you.” And then he stepped forward so she could reach his neck more easily.
She didn’t touch his skin as she retied the cravat, not once. But he could smell the powdery, flowery soap she used on her hair. He could see the thin, pale line of her scalp where her hair was parted so she could pin it back into that prim little governess’ style. He could feel the faint heat emanating from her.
It was almost impossible not to reach for her. But he hadjust promisedher. So he kept his hands fixed at his sides, and he didn’t release his breath until she stepped away. He didn’t let himself do or say anything about the vivid blush that had returned to her cheeks.
And when she rushed away, he didn’t make a move to stop her.
No matter how badly he might have wanted to do so.
CHAPTER 10
“Ican do it myself,” Iris was muttering to herself as she frowned down at the small pile of wildflowers in her lap, which she was attempting to weave into a flower crown to match the one Letitia had made for her. “I can do it.”
Though Letty approved of the girl’s confidence, she had to admit that she didn’t think it would pan out. Each time Iris wrapped a flower, the previous one fell back into her lap. Her determination didn’t waver for a long while, but eventually she scooped all the flowers into her hands and tossed them, so they rained down over her head, landing here and there in her dark hair.
“Pretty,” Iris said, shaking her head so the flowers fell out.
Letitia laughed and hesitated, but this was as good a time as any…
“Do you know what else is very pretty?”
Iris looked up from twirling a flower between her palms. “What?”
Letty pointed at her own neck. “Your medallion. Where did you get that? I have never seen anything like it.”
She worried that this would make Iris clam up, that it would undo all the work they had done together. But the little girl didn’t even hesitate as she pulled the chain out from beneath her gown, and Iris’ openness made Letitia’s heart ache.
Whatever the little girl had gone through, she’d found herself alone at a tender age, suddenly thrust into an entirely new life full of strangers. And yet, she still trusted Letty. She still smiled when there were flowers in her hair.
“Oh, my special necklace?” Iris asked. “It was Mama’s.”
Letitia fought not to react.
“Oh, yes?” Letitia picked up some flowers and began weaving another crown. Children, she had learned, tended to answer questions more openly if you pretended you didn’t care about their answers. “And where is your mama now?”
When Iris fell quiet, Letty chanced a glance at her. She was toying with the medallion, her lip jutting out like she was holding back her sadness.
“She fell asleep,” Iris said eventually, her voice as small as Iris had ever heard it. “She didn’t wake up.”
Letitia moved closer to the child and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Iris let her weight rest against Letty in a way only children could, almost going boneless as she relaxed into the embrace.
“I am sorry, my darling,” Letitia murmured into the child’s hair. No doubt it made her feel horrible, no doubt it would take a hundred hours of prayer to atone for it, but she pressed for more information. “And your mama, she gave you that necklace before she passed? Did she tell you why?”
“Yes,” Iris said. “It’s from her family. She was aLighthomer. I think it means she came from the stars. That’s probably where she went now.”
Letty had to close her eyes for a moment at the simple, dreamy way that this little girl imagined her dead mother.
“Do you think she might have said Lightholder?” she ventured carefully.
Iris leaned out of the embrace to look up at her, a surprised smile on her face. “Oh, yes! That’s it. It sounds really fancy. Pretty, like my mama.”
“And like you,” Letitia said, both because it was true and because she could not do much more without her heart completely shattering.
“And you, Miss Knightley!” Iris said, her natural good humor coming back to the surface. She really did have the most agreeable temperament.
