Page 55 of A Lady’s Guide to Subterfuge and Science

Broken glass. Of course. It wasn’t as if she’d forgotten.

Oliver reached over and gently closed the lid. “Not anymore?”

She’d never had this conversation with anyone. Oliver regarded her with interest, though she thought she detected a glimmer of irritation in his eyes.

Don’t be ridiculous.

Why should Oliver Booth be irritated at the idea of Kalila having been in love?

“I didn’t think you a gossip,” she said.

“I’ll forgive the mistake,” he replied, charming and easy as always. “What do you mean, not anymore?”

“It’s quite self-explanatory,” she said, trying to pry the slide box away from him. “It means she thought she was in love once and isn’t anymore.”

“She thought so, did she?”

Kalila was seriously beginning to doubt her own intelligence, given her inability to choose the right words. She looked away from the slide box and met his gaze, bright with curiosity.

Still shadowed with the tiniest glimmer of irritation.

“It’s easy for one to think themselves in love,” she explained, wondering how much she’d be tempted to divulge. Something about him always tempted her to share, and she wasn’t sure she liked it.

He released his hold on the box and sat back. “Is that so?”

She began sorting through the shards of glass. “You disagree?”

“I do.”

“You’re quite confident,” she said, piecing together a slide on the bench top, “for someone who has never been in love.”

“Who says I’ve never been in love?”

Kalila’s head snapped up. Oliver’s face was all innocence, his mouth lifted in a small, crooked smile.

“You—the conversation we had at Regent’s Park—”

“Just because I’m—what was the word you used? Ah, yes—scared of marriage, does not mean I’m immune to falling in love, Rafiq.”

This time, it was Kalila’s turn to have curiosity eat away at her. She abandoned the glass and bent forward. “Who were you in love with?”

He gave her a smug look. “I didn’t think you a gossip.”

“It isn’t the same thing, and you know it.”

“In any case,” he said, with that same insufferable expression, “it doesn’t matter who I’ve been in love with. It matters that I’ve always been certain about my feelings as I was feeling them.”

Kalila had been sure. Well. She’d been convinced. Wooed, really. If she hadn’t kept it such a secret, someone might have shaken her out of it. It might have saved her some time.

It was almost embarrassing to think about.

“Good for you,” she said. “Since you’re such an expert, why don’t you enlighten me? How does one know for sure that they’re in love?”

“That’s easy,” he said, not even pausing to think. “Have you ever returned to a quiet house after a big event?”

Kalila knit her brow. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Bear with me,” he said. “Have you?”