“Yes, at last count.” Dominic shook his head wonderingly, and Charlotte tried to guess which one of Dominic’s family had eighteen terriers.
The thought of having a puzzle to solve made the thought of meeting more of the family somehow less daunting.And I expect anyone with that many dogs is likely to be a fairly memorable character.
Dominic continued, “And most of us have at least one dog. Once, grandmother permitted us to bring our pets,, and utter pandemonium ensued.”
“I can imagine. I am surprised the servants did not quit on the spot.” Charlotte laughed.
“Would you, if grandmother was your mistress?” Dominic gave her a look.
“No, I suppose not.” Charlotte paused and after a while she asked, “What are your dogs’ names?”
“Elpis, Sirona, and Sooty. Elpis and Sirona are sisters. I found them both abandoned as puppies a few years ago and hand reared them. When I am at my estate, they follow me wherever I go, and usually, I bring them with me whenever I can.” He looked as though he missed them both terribly.
“Sooty was a gift from my grandmother when I recovered from an illness I had last summer.” An odd look crossed Dominic’s face, and he absentmindedly stroked his chest. “He is less attached to me than the girls but does not like to be parted from me terribly often.”
Was he holding something back? The tightness around his eyes piqued her curiosity, but before she could figure out how to ask him about it, Dominic said, “She forbade me to call him anything other than Sooty.”
“Is he a black labrador then?” Charlotte asked.
“No, he is yellow. Grandmother has a rather mad sense of humour at times.” Dominic shook his head, but Charlotte could see a fond, wry smile spreading across his face.
“I am sure she delights in the odd looks you get when you summon your yellow labrador named ‘Sooty’.” She tried to imagine the look on the Dowager Duchess’s face.
“My grandmother loves nothing more than to remind us not to take ourselves too seriously,” Dominic replied, hastily stifling a yawn behind his hand. “Well, I think that is enough to be getting on with, don’t you?”
Charlotte surveyed the pile of letters in front of them and nodded. “Yes, I think so. Shall we decide which ones we are happy to share with your grandmother?”
“I thought the first few we wrote and perhaps this one.” Dominic gestured to a few letters in the pile.
“Which one is that?” Charlotte peered at the letter he was pointing at; it was one of hers.
“Where you write that I am always on your mind and that you are counting the days until we see each other again.” He added the letter to the pile.
“And what about the one where you speak of crying because you miss me?” She picked up another letter and added it to the Duke’s pile, smiling sweetly. “You did say your grandmother loved to remind you not to take yourself too seriously.”
“That was a mean trick, and I hate that I have had to include it at all.” Dominic frowned at her.
“You made me write that I had fallen off my horse because I was so distracted thinking of your hand in mine,” Charlotte pointed out.
“That is true. We should definitely include that one in the ones we share with her.” Dominic grinned and added the letter to the pile.
“And what should we do with the rest?” She gestured at the handful of letters and papers scattered around them.
A soft snore sounded from the corner of the room, and Charlotte realised that her lady’s maid had fallen asleep. She exchanged a look with Dominic, who laughed. His laughter was soft, as though he did not want to wake the woman, and Charlotte kept her own laughter low as well.
“Well, we should throw away the drafts and such.” Dominic glanced at the fire which had unfortunately gone out.
“Probably sensible. Would I be correct in assuming that your family are likely to snoop around our rooms?” Charlotte murmured.
“We are a rather competitive lot,” he said.
“Then we should ‘hide’ the rest of these letters around our rooms, somewhere they can be found.” Charlotte tried to think of suitable hiding spots and after a moment she said, “What about under a pillow?”
“Under a pillow?” The Duke canted his head towards her.
“Yes, a sort of sweet homage to wanting to be near each other as we sleep.” She gestured vaguely.
“Oh, that is excellent! You should write it in another letter. Or add it in. I think this one has space for a postscript.” Dominic handed her a letter, and Charlotte added the line to it. “And I think with that, we can wake Beatrice and bid each other good night.”
