She crouched down and opened the lid of her box. ‘Yes. I know you said it would be cruel to contain him, but I will not keep him in here for very long.’
Grace reached under the leaves of the bush and scooped a small animal into the container. Tobias was too far away to see whether it was the sparrow from yesterday, but he had to surmise from Grace’s happy hum that it was.
She straightened, frowning slightly when she saw that the four of them had not moved. ‘Are you sure everything is all right?’
‘Yes,’ said Tobias.
Worrying her bottom lip with her teeth, she did not appear convinced. It may have been the false smiles on all of their faces, or the rigid way they were holding themselves, or maybe it was the way they all still had their hands behind their backs, but they did look highly suspicious.
‘I will take my leave of you, then,’ she said, shifting on her feet now.
‘I hope you enjoy your morning,’ said Tobias.
She smiled uncertainly at them, before turning and walking away. It was a measure of the hold she had over him that he watched her until she was out of sight, even with the feathers still clutched in his hand.
‘I feel,’ said Freddie, when she was out of earshot, ‘as if I have just woken from an incredibly strange dream.’
‘I will never be able to hold my child when he or she is born,’ said Edward, ‘because my hands are now permanently covered in feathers.’
‘You always exaggerate.’ Christopher was grinning, brushing his hands together to try and clean them; he was having limited success.
‘It is true. The sheer amount of sweat has created a stickiness not found anywhere else on earth. I am half bird at this point.’
His brothers bickered amongst themselves, as the four of them ambled back up to the house. He knew why he was moving slowly; hedid not want to bump into Grace and explain why his hands were covered in feathers, but he wasn’t sure why they were.
‘What is on your mind, Tobias?’ asked Freddie, when they were only a few steps away from the house.
A lot was the true answer, but what he said was, ‘I do not understand what happened with the bird. Are the grounds of Glanmore Park some sort of wild, small bird-slaughtering place? How can one bird have met its end in the exact same place as one that was injured?’
As they crossed the threshold, the theories as to how the feathers came to be all over the grass grew wilder and wilder until all four of them were laughing in a way Tobias could not remember happening before.
Chapter Nineteen
There was something different about Tobias this evening. Grace hadn’t meant to keep watch for him; she hadn’t even been aware she was doing it. But the moment he had arrived in the drawing room, she felt his presence pressing against her skin, even though she was nowhere near him. Something in the way he moved or the expression on his face struck her as unusual, although she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was. Not wanting to be caught staring at him, she had turned away, only to find her gaze sliding back to him throughout the half hour the guests all mingled before dinner was called.
She was talking to Sophia, when the lady’s eyes widened fractionally.
‘Grace,’ said Tobias, his deep voice sending a shiver down her spine. ‘May I escort you in to dinner?’
Sophia seemed to be intently studying the wall to her left.
‘I should be honoured,’ said Grace, a shot of pleasure rushing through her.
Sophia flashed her a quick grin, which Grace hoped Tobias had not seen, before walking swiftly away, leaving Grace with the duke. Conversation which came so easily to her outside the house felt stifled in the formal room and she couldn’t think of a single thing to say tohim. But it wasn’t necessary, because Tobias was moving them towards the dining room and everyone was following.
He led her to the seat on his right, which she took, ignoring some of the more curious glances at her. Once they were both seated, he asked, ‘How is your bird in the box?’
‘I call him Benedict,’ she told him. ‘I thought he deserved a name.’
‘Are you that confident your bird is a boy?’ Tobias asked, picking up his wine glass.
‘I am not au fait with sparrow anatomy, but he looks like a Benedict.’
Tobias smiled over the rim of his glass, and she realised that was what was different about him. There was an air of amusement, a lightness about him that wasn’t normally apparent. ‘Of course he does,’ Tobias said. ‘It is the dark-brown head. It is very distinguished. Is he faring any better?’
‘He was hopping happily around his box when I left him and your gardener has provided me with some’—it struck her then that she was about to talk about worms at the dinner table in front of a duke. Before she could embarrass herself, she managed to switch to saying—’food for him, which he appeared to enjoy.’
‘I am glad to hear it. I should hate for any guest at my house not to be provided the very best cuisine.’
