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His wide, bright smile reached me in my core. “Yes, I do. It is her job as the hostess to make certain they do not perceive your absence as a slight, and she is adept at navigating excuses when they are necessary. She has had ample practice excusing the behavior of her three sons, so you are an easy addition.”
But it was not her obligation to make any excuses for me at all. Uneasiness crept into my chest, and I looked again to the bright yellow carriage that had brought our guests to visit. They did not come for Lady Edith. They came to see me. I shirked my duties by avoiding them and casting my responsibilities onto a woman who had all but challenged me to prove my worth.
This was in no way proving my worth.
“Are you ready to go inside? I think they are in the drawing room now.”
I needed to be in there with them. I lifted my skirts a few inches off the ground and water poured in a steady stream from the edge. I chuckled, swaying forward until my shoulder brushed him. “I am ready to change into something warm and dry. But I must be quick, for I plan to join them if I am able. It is my duty to do so, and I hope to take that seriously.”
James was no longer laughing. I tipped my head back and looked into his green-brown eyes. His gaze bore into my soul with intensity, and the giddiness of the last quarter hour left me in a rush. A heavy weight fell onto my chest, and I breathed slowly through my nose.
“You are making me nervous, James,” I said.
He seemed to shake himself, and an easy smile fell over his lips. “Forgive me. I became lost in thought.”
“What about?”
“A few things,” he said, lifting his wet shoulder in a simple shrug. “You, most of all. You take up much of my thoughts these days.”
“Not in a troubling way, I hope.”
“I do not find it troubling, though my woefully long list of things I must do has only grown since we met. You have not been good for my focus.”
“My apologies. Shall I take charge of your list? I would not be a good taskmaster, but I can give it my best effort.”
“Perhaps I should take advantage of your kind offer. What is my first task?”
“To see me safely inside without running into another living soul.”
“I like a good challenge.” James took me by the hand and led me toward a small back door. We entered into the servants’ corridor, and he pulled me up a narrow, wooden staircase to another small corridor.
“You know your way around here well.”
“I have been evading my mother for six and twenty years. I have the practice.”
“You are not closer to thirty?” I asked.
James shot a confused glance over his shoulder. “You believed me to be?”
I did. I would not be surprised if he’d admitted to being over thirty years of age. His general bearing was so refined, his knowledge seemingly endless. “You seem so . . . mature.”
“You seem mature as well, Felicity. Are you forty?”
I laughed. He had me there. “Two and twenty, I thank you.”
We reached our chambers, and James released my hand and bowed dramatically, his waistcoat straining against his wet shirt. “Until tonight.”
I dipped into a low curtsy. “Until then.” I slipped into my room, my heart racing from the stairs and the man who led me up them.
It was unmistakable. I loved James. And now I needed to hurry and change my gown so I might prove myself worthy of him as well.
