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The way he shifted from anger to happiness for his nephew’s sake made Chloe look up from her handkerchief, admiring him.
If only I could be like that.
She was charmed as she watched him. Nathan presented a second puppet to Leo, who took the two of them.
“That’s better. Now the puppets have a companion, and they need never be lonely.” With Leo’s words, Nathan smiled, delighted, took the puppets back and hurried to his theater.
Lonely. Leo is talking about loneliness.
When Chloe watched as Leo turned his gaze on her, she jumped in her seat, startled by the intensity of that look. It was evidently something that had gone unnoticed by Maeve, who began to pace around the room in her anger.
“Oh, this is utter nonsense! What drivel these people write in the scandal sheets. To think some man made this all up, and for what? Just to sell a few bits of paper?” She took the scandal sheet out of her husband’s hands.
It was then that Chloe noticed the Duke glancing between her and Leo.Hehad seen the look pass between them, even if Maeve hadn’t. Chloe decided to turn her focus back down to the handkerchief in her grasp. Her heart was too much in turmoil as it was without thinking of anything else and wondering what on earth was going on in Leo’s heart.
“I do not think that is what this is about,” the Duke said calmly and took the scandal sheet back from Maeve.
“How can you be calm at a time like this?” Maeve was quite wild in comparison. “Someone has sought to ruin Chloe’s good name.”
“Exactly, Maeve, exactly!” the Duke said with feeling. “No writer would do that for the sake of it, would they?” His rather odd question left them all perfectly still. For a minute, the only sounds in the room were from Nathan, who made small murmurs beneath his breath as he acted out something with his puppets on the stage.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Leo said, walking around the room. He was clearly as agitated as his sister, pacing back and forth, to the point that Maeve began to follow him, in case he knocked anything over. “You believe that someone has sought to destroy Chloe’s name, and they have simply given the story to the writer.”
“Yes, that is what I am thinking,” Benjamin said.
“That is folly,” Maeve declared. When Leo knocked into a vase, Maeve tried to catch it, but Leo got there first, catching it cleanly in the air. It was all done so smoothly that Chloe watched him, admiring through her dazed sadness. “Who would do that?”
“A rival company,” Leo summarized, his eyes turning to Chloe again. “Someone whose business was being damaged by Chloe’s success perhaps?”
“No, surely not.” Chloe shook her head. “Who would do such a thing? It is cruel to compete in such a way.”
“Yet not unheard of,” Benjamin assured her with a nod of his head.
“Believe me, Chloe, I’m a lawyer. I’ve seen what some people will do to get ahead in business, and this is just a drop in the ocean in comparison.” Leo shook himself, as if shaking off the memory of some of the things he had seen in his life. “I think it very possible that business is the motive behind this.”
Chloe sat there, dumbstruck, uncertain what to say or feel.
Is it possible?
If it was, then there was a malicious intent behind the article indeed.
“Their goal worked then, did it not?” Her voice, though it was just a whisper, caught the attention of the other adults in the room. All three turned to look at her. “No one will do business with me now.”
“Oh, my goodness!” Maeve gushed in panic, turning away.
Chloe found herself standing. With her business ruined, there didn’t seem like much she could do, other than try to fight the tears. She crossed the room to where Nathan sat playing and knelt down on the other side of the theater. The boy seemed delighted to have a playmate and offered up one of the paper puppets for Chloe to play with.
“Thank you, Nathan.”
“Why are you crying?” Nathan asked, reaching up to prod one of her cheeks where one lonely tear had just escaped. She smiled at his innocence, then shrugged.
“Sometimes people cry when they are sad.”
“No. Must be happy!” Nathan declared purposefully and began to pass her more puppets. “See? Lots of puppets! They’ll have a . . . a . . .” Nathan struggled for the word, screwing up his nose.
“A party?” Leo offered, sitting down on Nathan’s other side.
“A party. Yes!”
