“Have I interrupted a glower,” she continued lightly, venturing farther into the room. “Should I come back when the walls start weeping?”
“I am working,” he said.
“Of course ye are. I was just comin’ by to tell ye that the modiste dropped off the two dresses, and I’ve paid her half of the remainder… contingent on the silk delivery at the end of the week.” She came around the desk without waiting to be invited, peering at the ledger, at the folded paper on its edge. “All this work. All the time. It is a wonder how ye keep it all straight… let alone how ye remember to eat.”
“I remember everything,” he muttered.
“It is the remembering to stop that concerns me,” she said.
He almost smiled. Almost. Then his gaze flicked to the letter, and whatever ease her presence had brought shrank back into its corner.
She followed his eyes.
“What is that?” she asked.
“Nothing’ that concerns ye,” he said.
She snorted softly. “Is that how we are going to play this. I ask, ye brood, and we pretend we agreed to share truths?”
He said nothing.
She reached out and, before he could stop her, plucked the letter from beside his hand.
“Ariella,” he warned.
She had already unfolded it. Her eyes scanned the lines, her mouth flattening as she read. By the end, one eyebrow had climbed nearly to her hairline.
“This is from Hunter,” she said.
“Aye.”
“And he is annoyed ye took his place at the altar.”
“Aye.”
She shook her head slowly, a derisive little sound escaping her. “What a little beast.”
Despite himself, a corner of his mouth tugged.
“He abandons ye, abandons his duty, writes ye this scrap full of sulking,” she went on, flicking the page, “and expects ye to feel guilty for it. If ye ever needed proof that I am the better bargain, there ye have it.”
The words were tossed like a jest, but heat flared in his chest anyway.
“Better bargain,” he echoed.
She lifted her chin, eyes dancing now. “Ye are lucky to have me, Laird. Hunter missed out. He could have had all this.” She gestured down the length of herself with such comedic pomp that he nearly laughed.
A short, unwilling chuckle escaped him.
She beamed as if he had presented her with jewels.
“There,” she said softly. “That is better.”
The knot between his shoulders loosened a fraction. He had not realized how tight it had grown until her foolishness pried at it.
She looked back at the letter, nose wrinkling. “He does not say where he is.”
“Nay.”
