AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Indeed, I am not.” Maeve laid the gown down on the settee beside her husband, then reached for the skirt, fanning it out to admire it all the more. “Look at the beads here.” She trailed a hand across the neckline, admiring the pearls that Chloe had sewed into the hem.
Chloe glanced away to the notebook she had dropped when she had hurried into the room. She reached for it, hoping that if she talked of her designs enough, they would distract her mind from the rather powerful need to keep looking Lord Felton’s way. When she pulled the notebook into her lap though, it did not stay there long. Lord Felton somehow easily took it from her grasp.
“Oi!” Chloe said, attempting to get it back.
“Would you deny an old friend wishing to look at your designs?” he asked with a playful smile upon his lips.
“I may if he did not say please.” Her wit prompted him to laugh again. Still, he didn’t return her book to her. Instead, he placed his teacup and saucer down on the table, clearly intending to turn his focus completely to the book. In his distraction, the saucer was not completely on the table.
Chloe saw it in time and reached forward to grab the teacup and saucer, stopping them from falling completely onto the floor.
“Leo!” Maeve said from across the room, having looked up from where she was admiring the gown.
Chloe glanced Lord Felton’s way to see he was wincing.
“At least the cup was not full, or it might have spilled all over Miss Green by now.” He met Chloe’s gaze. “Thank you.”
“It is no bother.”
“You seem to have a habit of picking up after me, Miss Green.” As he spoke, his attention was on the notebook.
“Do I?” Chloe said innocently, pretending she had not noticed. Those dark eyes lifted from her notebook and met hers, narrowed in playful anger.
“You know you do. You seem to have this habit of calling out things I was about to trip on.”
“That I do. You still manage to fall over things anyway.” Chloe’s soft words made him laugh all the more.
“Well, perhaps the obstacles should be called out to me sooner.”
“Oh, I see, so it ismyfault?” Chloe asked, angling herself in her seat to face Lord Felton completely.
“That is not what I said. Although . . .” He left the words dangling in the air as he turned another page.
“You two seem to be in a world of your own.” The Duke’s words made Chloe snap her attention his way.
What did he mean by that?
She suddenly felt self-conscious once again of how near she sat to Lord Felton. She pressed herself back against the arm of the chair, her nerves so great that the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.
Can the Duke see what I think of Lord Felton?
She couldn’t be sure as the Duke looked between the two of them. Maeve didn’t appear to notice. She was too busy admiring the gown.
“Leo, are there more designs in that notebook?” Maeve asked excitedly, moving to her feet and crossing toward her brother.
“That there are.” He turned the book for Maeve to take it from him. “Many, in fact, far more than you could probably hope to wear in a lifetime, Maeve.”
Ah . . . has he figured out what my news is?
Chloe clasped and unclasped her hands in her lap. It was an old nervous habit of hers. Her nerves made her reach for the broken wooden horse she had discarded nearby and press it together, figuring out how to fix the toy later.
“It is a shame only you have the chance to wear such designs, Maeve,” Lord Felton continued.
Chloe froze in her work on the wooden horse, her fingers so still that her breath seemed to stop too.
Has he guessed?
When Lord Felton’s hand took the toy from her, she jumped. His fingers had touched her own, and there was a spark of static there. It made her lean back in the settee, noticing the way Lord Felton looked away from her.
