Her sisters stood to the side of the foyer, giggling and whispering to each other in excitement. It was Ava who had come racing to Catriona’s bedchamber to tell her that she had a visitor, butshe decided not to say who it was until Catriona saw for herself. Catriona hadn’t allowed herself to assume it would be the Duke. It simply couldn’t be.
Yet, there he was.
“Do you intend on standing there all morning?” he finally asked, his strong voice carrying across the distance.
Catriona gripped the railing tightly, thinning her lips. “Perhaps,” she clipped, mostly to herself.
“Then I shall come to you.” He began making his way to the staircase.
“There’s no need!” Catriona quickly said, holding out a hand. He halted, one foot on the first step of the staircase. “Why don’t you wait in the drawing room? I will be there in a moment.”
The Duke stared at her for a moment too long, and she was suddenly afraid that he would ignore her request. He did strike her as the type of man who did as he wished at all times after all. But then he nodded.
Francis spawned suddenly, likely milling around the side of the staircase and out of Catriona’s view. He gestured that the Duke follow him and then led him away to the drawing room.
Only then did Catriona find the strength to uproot her feet from the floor. She made her way down to the foyer with herheart thudding painfully in her chest, the roar in her ears so overwhelming that she hardly heard her sisters’ excited squeals as they rushed to her side.
“We told you!” Maisie gushed. “We knew he would call on you.”
“I suppose you did,” Catriona murmured. She still didn’t know what to make of this. She didn’t think that the Duke would be so serious about his proposal that he would come back the very next morning. Was he intending to court her?
The thought sent a flutter of butterflies through her stomach. It took everything in her power not to show how nervous she was all of a sudden, since her sisters were watching.
“Do you know where Uncle Frederic is?” she asked as calmly as she could.
“He is in the drawing room, I believe,” Ava told her with a grin.
“The very same drawing room your duke is headed to,” Maisie added with a matching smile.
“He is not my duke,” Catriona corrected, but she knew the words were going in one ear and out the other. She suppressed her sigh, turning in the direction of the drawing room. “I suppose I should get this over with. Do not follow me.”
“Oh, surely it would not hurt to have one of us in the room with you,” Ava complained instantly, her bottom lip jutting out in a pout. “The older of the two of us will suffice if you must choose.”
Maisie opened her mouth to protest, but Catriona beat her to it. “Neither one of you are needed. Uncle Frederic will more than suffice as a chaperone.”
“Very well,” her sister conceded. “But you must tell us everything.”
She didn’t think she had much of a choice in the matter. They would not stop hounding her until she did. So, she nodded before walking off.
Each step she took to the drawing room, knowing what awaited her, made her heart thunder in her chest. This was not how she expected the start of this Season to go, she’d admit. She had expected to be ignored and had been content to watch her sisters enjoy being courted from afar. She had been preparing for it for two years after all.
Now, it felt as if her plans were being thrown out the window, and she was walking blindly. Two things Catriona did not like. She was a planner. She always knew her next step. But this time, she didn’t know where that next step would take her.
The Duke of Irvin rose the moment she entered the room. It had been silent, she realized. Her uncle sat in one of the faded yellow sofas with a book in his lap as usual. He was a scholar, a man who had dedicated nearly all his adult life to his studies. Evennow that he had decided to put that life behind him, he was far more content reading than socializing.
But the Duke didn’t seem to mind. His attention went straight to Catriona upon her entrance, and though he did not smile, the way he looked at her set her entire body ablaze with heat.
Frederic twisted in his sofa, not bothering to get up right away. “Ah, you’re here. Took you long enough. I was beginning to think that you would never show.”
Catriona knew she hadn’t kept the Duke waiting for more than a few minutes, but she didn’t bother to point that out. She had no intention of going back and forth with her uncle in front of the Duke even though she was certain her cheeky uncle would welcome the banter.
“All right then.” Frederic heaved himself to stand. “You two don’t mind me. I will be reading over here. But feel free to shout so that I may eavesdrop on your conversation like a proper chaperone.”
With that, he ambled over to the corner of the room with his book, sat, and resumed his reading.
“Don’t mind him,” Catriona felt compelled to say, drifting closer to the Duke. That scent of cedar hit her nose again, twisting her stomach in an unusual manner. “He is hard of hearing. Or so he claims.”
The Duke raised one brow. “It sounds as if you do not believe that to be the truth.”
