He might have said it, but then she slid the coat from her lean shoulders, straightened herself up, and took off the hat. “Luc Lémy courts me now,” she said in a small voice. “I thought I should say this.”
He finally understood why she’d been nervous and those uncomfortable pauses between them. He understood why she’d come to see him. It was Luc Lémy.
The invisible thorn, it bit into his tongue, and yet he found he could speak at last and his voice was cool.
“You must be pleased.”
“He’s fun,” she said, and luckily Hector did not wince.
“I’m sure he is.”
Hector went behind his desk. His papers were all in their place, but he pretended to look for an envelope so he could keep his eyes down and away from her. He was irritated and he did not want her to notice.
“He said you fought the other day,” she told him.
“We had a misunderstanding.”
“About me.”
“He’s hotheaded.”
“Hector, Luc is—”
He did look up at her now, and his gaze was flat. “Very fond of you. I know. It makes me happy to see you happy.”
Nina looked confused and also relieved and who the hell knew what else. He could not tell. He also had no idea if he meant what he had said, and that was deeply troubling.
No, he had. He wanted to see her happy. It was, if it hadn’t… but…Luc Lémy. But Hector had no reason to voice an opinion when he had not been asked to give one, and no reason to be upset after the way he had behaved the previous summer. As Luc had cheekily put it, he’d had his chance. It was Luc who was courting Nina now, Luc who would attempt to win her affections. For a gentleman, it would have been unseemly to interfere.
For the man who had broken Nina’s heart, it would be even more unseemly.
Hector had no right to whisper a word or think an ill thought of Luc.
He swallowed the thorns and smiled at her.
She smiled back tremulously, like a butterfly testing her wings, and he thought,She does like Luc.
“I should go. My great-aunts complain that I miss mealtimes and then the maid must warm my supper,” Nina said.
“It’s been a pleasure seeing you again.”
“I’ll stop by another time,” she promised. “I’ll send a note.”
After she’d left, he wondered when that would be and shook his head.
Chapter 13
THERE WERE NO PINES ATPine Lake Park, which rendered the origin of its name a mystery. There was a lake, and one could rent boats and row across it. Unlike most of the other parks of the city, which exhibited a symmetrical arrangement of trees and garden beds with a fountain or an important monument at its heart, Pine Lake Park was a chaotic assemblage of well-trodden paths and clumps of trees.
“And then he confiscated the motorcar,” Luc concluded dramatically as they approached one of those clumps.
“Can it be really ‘confiscated’ when it belongs to your brother?” Nina asked.
“You do not understand. It’s the heartlessness of the matter.”
From atop the hill, one had a lovely view of the lake, and the trees provided needed shelter from the sun, making it the perfect spot to linger.
“How heartless, yes, to deprive you of your toys,” she said.
