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Vexed, she stuck her head out the window she had opened and asked, “Why are we stopping?”
“Sorry, m’lady,” offered her coachman. “Brown Pudding here lost a shoe. But don’t ye be fretting it. Oi had the good sense to bring along extra and know the way of it, Oi do.”
“Good man, Tom. You have always been quite excellent, a knowing one and accomplished as well,” Lady Daphne said, well pleased. Very well then, she told herself, now to further plan my brother’s murder.
* * *
Breakfast had turned out to be a meal Felicia had taken in her room. She didn’t know when it occurred to her that the time had come to avoid Ashton.
She knew he felt something for her, but the trick now was to make him declare it first to himself and then to her.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder? Well, she wasn’t sure about that, as there was always the danger that he might forget what had not yet developed enough to hold onto. A little absence was safe ground, though.
She hadn’t been able to swallow more than a few bites of toast because thoughts in her head had begun a whirlwind of activity that in turn had her stomach churning.
She gave it up and had a nice long visit with Scott.
Changing his bandage made her exclaim with delight, “Oh, Scott, that is much more the thing … it has healed so much overnight.”
He grinned at her, for he was no longer feverish and even tried to get out of bed. She pushed him back down and fetched the cards. “No, no, you don’t. Here … we’ll play a hand.”
“Will Becky come soon, do you think?” he asked suddenly.
She eyed him. “Why?”
“Well, she was the one who thought of the honey, wasn’t she?” he teased.
“Odious boy, so you want a nurse do you? Is that how you think of our Becky?”
“No, not a nurse, but the most beautiful woman I have ever clapped eyes on,” he said dreamily.
“Ah, she is …” Felicia said softly. There it was. Her Scott was in love.
He eyed her. “Not that you aren’t very fine, of course you are, but …”
“But, as a sister, you don’t see me that way. I feel the same about you, so I quite understand,” she said.
They finished off another game. Restless, Felicia got up, and he snorted, “Aye … go on, get in a walk or something. You can’t stay here all cooped up.”
She made her way below and stopped short at the wide open doors to the private parlor.
He sat there, perusing a paper, a cup of coffee at his elbow, and she thought she had never seen in all her life a man quite like Ashton. She was shaken to the core, or thought she was until he looked up and his silver eyes caught and held her rigid in place. Oh, yes, she couldn’t breathe now that their eyes had gone into lockdown. It was as though time had been suspended. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking or feeling because she was caught up in her own storm of emotions.
As he jumped to his feet and went towards her, she saw the glint in his silver eyes, and her lashes fluttered against her will. She had to stay strong. This man did not want a simpering, infatuated girl. This man needed a strong woman, and she was that strong woman; she only had to remind herself of it.
“Felicia,” he said, his voice low and caressing. “I have been waiting for you to make an appearance. I—do come join me for some coffee.”
“That would be very nice,” she said and allowed him to take her hand and pull her within. The touch of his hand over hers sent shivers of excitement through her body. His flesh on hers sent coursing through her mind’s eye flashes of images of their night together, and she knew she was being absurd, but it was as though little bubbles had formed in her blood and each was exploding from his touch.
She was hopelessly in love, but what sent her into a sense of exultation was the look their touch had created in his burning silver gaze.
She might be naïve, but she was certain he was genuinely taken with her. Was she thinking that because he was someone she didn’t want to live without?
Exultation made her bright and daring as he saw her seated, and she lifted her face to his. “Do you not have to leave us yet, sir?”
“Leave you?” He frowned. “What are you talking about? Of course not. I am here and shall stay here until it is time to escort you and young Scott wherever it was you two were going to in the first place.”
“Ah, but I am certain you must have some other place to be,” she answered.
