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A hum of voices sounded above, along with laughter and a smattering of footsteps. The others were coming downstairs to leave.
Lady Dunmore raised her gaze to his, her expression questioning, and he nodded once. “I will say nothing of our conversation, my lady. I promise.”
She smiled her thanks, and then he offered her his arm as the others appeared on the stairs. “May I escort you to the carriage?”
“Thank you, Lord Farleigh.” She took his arm, and he realized she was much shorter than her daughter. The top of her head barely came to his shoulder. Isleen must have inherited her height from her late father.
“It is my honor, Lady Dunmore.” He meant it, too. She had honored him with her trust. And he would not break it. But he would watch Isleen with new eyes and understanding.
What would he discover about her next?
CHAPTER12
“What do you have in store for me today, Miss Frost?”
Isleen looked up from the globe, blinking in some surprise. She hadn’t heard Simon enter the library. She stood in the middle of the room, examining the enormous globe the duke kept at its heart. The thing was so large, if it opened on one side, she could likely crawl in and sit quite comfortably.
She had been measuring the distance from Ireland to England, her finger covering and uncovering the channel of water between them, when his question startled her.
“Have you a great desire for torture?” she asked, keeping her expression neutral. “Or is there something else you are after?”
He tipped his head to the side and came deeper into the room, his blue-eyed gaze unwavering. “You haven’t asked a thing of me since sliding down the banister. This morning, when I didn’t see you at breakfast for the second day in a row, I thought I had better check that I had satisfied that last requirement.”
“And what if I said you hadn’t?”
He stood on the opposite side of the globe from her, staring over the polar ice cap. “I suppose I would have to make another go at the stair rail.”
That made her smile. “Two whole days of nothing from me, and here you are wanting more. I thought you would like the reprieve.”
“It merely makes me anxious. I’m certain you are taking the time to build to something more sinister.”
She laughed and looked down again at Ireland, no more than a green outline on the globe. Her fingers traced a line southward, to the sea where she had lost Sean. She sighed. Old hurts never really went away, even if they became less tender over time.
She gave the globe a gentle spin. “I admit, you’ve left me a bit uncertain. Everything I’ve thrown at you, you’ve taken on as though you liked it. The clothes, the rhymes, acting a bit foolish at dinner. It’s beginning to look like I’ll be kissing a stranger come Christmas Eve.”
He stilled the globe, then turned it the other way round. “It isn’t all that bad, you know. I’ve given a kiss or two beneath the mistletoe.”
“Have you now? And how did those ladies take it?” She didn’t look up at him. She kept her eyes on the continents and oceans rolling away beneath her. “Did they gnash their teeth or swoon at your feet?”
“Swoon at my feet?” He shuddered. “A dreadful thought. No, they batted their eyelashes and flirted, and one of them hinted that I could have more if I followed her out into the dark corridors.” He winced and looked down. “I apologize. I shouldn’t have said—”
“It isn’t necessary. I know about the games people play when they think they can bend the rules.” She shook her head, imagining a person so brazen as to proposition a lord. “It sounds as though I ought to fight harder to avoid that horrible tree parasite you English are all so fond of.”
He stilled the globe again. “It is a harmless tradition.”
“Trees in the house and unwanted kisses,” she murmured, looking up at him, liking the way his dark hair fell across his brow. “Can the English get any stranger?”
“Probably,” he admitted with a wry grin and a shrug. “You’re a little strange yourself, Miss Frost.”
“Am I now? In what way?” she challenged, leaning closer, her dress brushing against the globe. “I’ve been naught but a perfect guest.”
“Very true.” He leaned closer too, and suddenly the globe between them did not seem so large. “But you tell stories about children turning into swans and boys gaining all the world’s knowledge from a fish.”
At that she had to laugh. “Children’s tales from my country, Lord Farleigh. They are not all that unusual.”
“Perhaps not.” He came around the globe to her side, and her laughter stopped at once. He stood so near. Her cheeks warmed despite her wishes to remain calm. “Miss Frost, would you come with me on a ride?”
“Ride? With you?” She stared up at him, hating how breathless her question sounded. They were less than an arm’s length apart. And he was especially handsome today, dressed in a silver waistcoat and dark blue coat that brought out the color of his eyes.
