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“I suppose it did.” He grimaced. “We have known each other since we were small. I know the formalities say I should call you Miss Green, and you should call me Lord Felton, but I am afraid you will always be Chloe to me. I hope I have not offended you.” The depth of her smile showed that she was far from offended.
“You can call me Chloe if you like,” she said with a wave of her hand. “If I may call you Leo?”
Leo. I like that.
“Please do.” He encouraged with a wave of his hand. They stood there smiling at one another until she offered to return his handkerchief to him, and he pushed it back toward her.
“You keep it. If we are to make your dream a reality, you might need it again.”
“Thank you.” She folded up the handkerchief and kept it safe in her hands, not making any move to put it away in a reticule or her spencer jacket. “You know one of my greatest secrets now, my lord. I mean . . . Leo.” Her correction made him smile once again. “That I have wanted this for as long as I can remember.”
“I am glad to know you better.” Leo watched as Chloe stepped away, looking around the shop.
“Do you have any dreams?” Her question was a kindness, yet it brought Leo up short.
I do.
His dream was quickly becoming apparent to him. It was one where he didn’t have to keep secrets from Chloe. One where she was a firm part of his life, with him every day.
I cannot tell her my dream is to marry her. Not now.
He sighed, keeping the thought firmly to himself.
“I have achieved part of my dream,” he explained, waiting as she turned back to look at him. “I am a lawyer now, and I enjoy the job, more than I can say.”
“No other dreams?”
“Perhaps one.” Leo found himself holding Chloe’s gaze. “To be married someday.”
“Married?” Her voice cracked over the word.
“I see Maeve’s and Benjamin’s happiness with each other and Nathan too.” He shrugged, showing it was only natural. “I long for such happiness myself.”
“Then I wish you luck.”
“Luck?” Leo repeated in surprise.
“Yes. In finding the woman you wish to marry.” Chloe seemed to end the conversation rather quickly.
Now is not the time to tell her.
Disappointment swelled in Leo’s stomach as Chloe moved back to the table and picked up the papers that were gathered there.
“I have made my decision, Leo. I would like to go for this shop. As you say, it is perfect.”
Chapter 11
Chloe
“Oh, Chloe, look at what you have done to the place! It has been transformed.”
“Not nearly as much as I would wish,” Chloe said with a laugh and shrugged off the praise. As she lowered bolts of material down on the nearest table, she glanced around at the shop.
Well, it certainly has changed!
In the last two weeks, since the shop had been secured for her thanks to Leo, there had not been a day Chloe hadn’t been at the shop, working on it. Slowly, it was coming together.
All the dust had gone, and the floorboards had been cleaned. In the shop windows were two of the gowns she had made for passersby to admire. She was busy lining the tables with silks, taffetas, and laces, to entice people’s imagination. Toward the back of the shop there was a long golden silk curtain, behind which her customers would be fitted, then a platform in front of a mirror, for them to observe their new garments.
