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Ashley jumped to his feet, wiping his mouth quickly with his napkin. “Miss Thorne,” he choked. He looked over her shoulder toward his brother, who she knew stood scowling from the doorway.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
Sophia picked up a biscuit from the sideboard and took a healthy bite. She chewed for a moment and then said, “Your brother distrusts me.”
“He told you that?” the duke barked as he shot his brother a look. The duke’s brother just shrugged as though he didn’t care. Ashley cleared his throat. “I’m very sorry if he offered you any slight.”
“Oh, he didn’t offend me. I find him to be quite amusing.”
Now it was the offending brother’s face that turned red.
“Amusing, Miss Thorne?” Ashley asked.
She laid a hand on his sleeve. “Could you ask him to go away so I can join you for breakfast? I’d rather not eat with him breathing down my neck like a bloodhound.”
“Well, that’s not very nice,” his brother protested.
“True,” Sophia sighed. “It’s a terrible comparison for the hounds.” She looked up into Ashley’s still-startled face. “May I join you for breakfast?”
At Ashley’s nod, a servant rushed forward and pulled out a chair for her. She perched delicately on it. “Good morning, Lady Anne,” she said to the grinning girl.
“Yes, it is,” the duke murmured.
***
Ashley filled a plate for her himself, trying to still his racing heart. He waved a servant away when he moved to take over the chore; Ashley needed a moment to compose himself before he faced her. At least he hoped he would be able to rid his face of the shock he felt all the way to his toes. He couldn’t immediately discern whether he was more surprised by the sight of her or the look on his brother’s face as she took him to task. First his daughter, now his meddlesome brother. She was a formidable creature, even if she was tiny. He let his gaze roam up and down her body as he placed a plate in front of her.
“One might think you have plans for something other than breakfast, Your Grace, with the way you’re appraising my person,” she murmured quietly to him. Good God. Did the woman ever have a thought that didn’t rush out of her mouth like a team of runaway horses? He was starting to doubt it.
“My father doesn’t gobble ladies up in one bite,” Lady Anne said primly.
Sophia smiled a most cheeky grin at his daughter. One that made Ashley want to smile along with her. “So, I’ve heard,” the lady remarked as she spread jam on a piece of toast. Then she glanced back over her shoulder at his brother, who still gawked from the doorway. “Do you think he’ll stand sentinel over you all day? Or only until I leave?”
Probably the entire day. “Do you need something, Finn?” Ashley asked him.
“I need to speak with you,” his brother said, his tone crisp enough to make the air in the room crackle.
“Can it wait until after breakfast?”
“That depends on how long you linger over breakfast,” Finn said, glancing at his watch fob as though he had somewhere to be.
Ashley pointed toward a vacant chair with the tines of his fork. “Either take a seat or vacate the room. You make me nervous standing there.”
“It wasn’t you I’d hoped to make nervous,” Finn said sarcastically. Sarcasm wasn’t nearly as pretty on a man as it was on a sprightly young lady.
“Well, it appears as though you’ve failed with her, too,” Ashley lamented.
“Quite,” Sophia said between bites. She relished her food almost as much as she relished the verbal sparring with his brother, apparently. He could sit and watch her eat all day. He wondered if she did everything with such passion. Such thoughts would only get him in trouble.
“Come and see me later, Finn?” Ashley suggested.
“Will she be with you later?” Finn grumbled.
“Only if I’m lucky,” Ashley muttered to himself. And she apparently heard him, because she smiled. It was a smile that could knock a grown man to his knees. Blast and damn. She knew how much she affected him.
Finn bowed quickly and backed out of the room.
“Care to tell me what that was about?”
