Page 25 of Victorian Bride

Lottie's eyebrows darted toward her hairline. Eleanora did not seem surprised by the news. She took another bite of toast.

“You have to invite him in, then, Mya.”

“I do?”

“Yes,” Lottie said emphatically. “I enjoy having something nice to look at in the morning.”

Eleanora huffed a quiet laugh at that.

“Anna,” Lottie said, turning back to her. “Tell Lord McGregor that he is welcome to join us for breakfast, if he would like.”

The maid hurried off, and Eleanora shook her head. “You are not dressed, Lottie,” she pointed out, with the air of someone who strongly suspected their good advice was going to be ignored.

“He is not here to see me. He is here to see Mya. Mya is dressed.” Lottie took a sip of tea and smiled sweetly at Eleanora. “He will hardly be looking in my direction.”

Mya wasn't so sure about that; she couldn't imagine Lottie with her hair loose around her shoulders and her dressing gown sliding down the curve of one would be an easy thing to ignore. She didn't say so. Eleanora's expression said it quite clearly for the both of them.

The maid returned, with Kayden in tow, and he greeted them all with a bow.

“Please,” Eleanora said. “Do be seated. You are welcome to anything on the table.”

Kayden sat, claiming the seat next to Mya, and took a small bunch of grapes.

“Still suffering the aftereffects of the ball, I see,” he said, giving Lottie a pointed look. He, of course, was impeccably dressed already, and didn't look at all as though he had spent most of the night awake.

“I like to indulge myself after such things,” Lottie said, shrugging. “It is a lovely thing to have a house of your own in which you can do as you please.”

Laughter was her answer to that, and a nod. “Indeed,” Kayden said. “I hope I have not disturbed your indulgence, then, with my presence.”

“Not at all. Though I might ask what your errand is.”

“That,” Kayden said, though they had already been told by the maid, “is to call upon Miss Boyle, in the hopes that she might grant me the pleasure of a walk with her this afternoon.”

Mya glanced at the other women across the table. Eleanora looked like she was trying not to smile. She gave an encouraging little nod. Lottie, on the other hand, couldn’t seem to take her eyes off Kayden.

“I would enjoy that,” Mya answered. “Thank you.”

Lottie laid a hand over her heart, eyes wide. “An unchaperoned walk with a man you only met a fortnight ago? What would your mother say?”

Eleanora hid a laugh in her tea. Mya turned a flat look on Lottie, who just gave her back wide-eyed false innocence.

“Go,” she said, laughing. “Enjoy yourselves while you are young.”

“I don't think you've had enough sleep,” Mya said, shaking her head as she got up from the table. “So I am going to let how odd you are being go for the moment.”

Kayden came around the table and offered his arm to Mya. She laid her hand in the crook of his elbow, and let him lead her down the steps from the patio to the garden. They walked together in silence along the paths lined with bluebells, waiting by unspoken mutual agreement until they were outside the earshot of the women at the table to speak.

“I see now,” Kayden said finally, “where you have acquired your attitude.”

Mya laughed. “I think that would be a reasonable assumption had I lived with Lottie for more than two weeks. My 'attitude' is entirely me, I'm afraid. Though I don't doubt that she has encouraged it.”

“Lottie will gleefully encourage any number of things she ought not to.”

“You do not like my attitude?” Mya asked, turning to look up at him as they walked.

“I did not say that.”

Kayden spun them, abruptly, so that Mya had to take a step back off the path, her back against one of the trees that shaded it, and Kayden's body warm against her own.