“A pity. I thought you were staring at me for an altogether different reason.” The words made her smile, though she kept her eyes down on the cards.
She played her next card, much to his delight as he won the round.
“I apologize.”
“How can you apologize for winning?” she said with a laugh. “All I wanted was a good game. I would have been most disappointed if you had lost. Merely assure me that you were not trying to lose that particular round, or I will be upset at my own skills indeed.”
“Well …” He paused, making the meaning plain. She looked up, seeing he was teasing her with the smile on his face.
“Oh! Mean man,” she said playfully and bundled the cards together, passing them for him to shuffle. He laughed softly and sat a little taller in his chair, shuffling the cards as she had asked.
“I promise to lose the next round.”
“That is still no fun.”
“I cannot win every hand tonight,” he said wittily. “You might grow tired of me and ask for a new butler altogether.” He dealt out the cards.
“I rather expect that is unlikely to happen.”
“I am a passable butler then?”
“You are a good one indeed, and you know it. Are you fishing for compliments, Mr Arnold?”
“Who does not like a compliment?” he said as he passed her the cards. “I daresay you like one yourself.”
“A compliment?” she repeated in surprise, trying to think of the last time she had been given such a compliment. Her old lady’s maid at her father’s house had said she was beautiful on her wedding day. It was the last compliment she could remember. “We must not all hope for such kind things.”
“You talk of compliments as though they are grand things.”
“They are!”
“Hardly.” He spoke with such feeling she was startled. It was somehow so easy to talk to Mr Arnold as they were playing cards as if there were no barriers between them and certainly no titles. “You should be complimented every day; of that, I am certain.”
“To say such things reminds me that you are still the kindest person here in this house,” she said softly as she took her cards.
“Now, there is a compliment,” he said and nodded his head to her. “I must pay you one in return.”
“Is it always a fair exchange? One for another?”
“Are you so unused to compliments that they must be like a bank transaction?” he asked with a laugh.
“Oh, they must be,” she said playfully. “How else am I supposed to keep track?”
“Very well.” He sat back and tapped his chin again as though considering what compliment to give her.
“Do not tax yourself too hard if it is so difficult to think of one.”
“On the contrary, there are too many to choose from. I am simply trying to think of one that would be proper for a butler to say to his duchess.” His words made her want to wriggle in her seat with pleasure. Instead, she played the first card of their next round. The idea that he could think highly of her made her blush.
Maybe I like the idea of him not being so proper.
“You are a fine card player,” he said, pulling a laugh from her as he threw an awful card away on hers.
“That is a standard compliment indeed,” she said as she collected the cards into her own pile and played another card.
“I cannot give you another, Your Grace, even if I wished to.”
She looked up, feeling the words spread that warmth through her as if she were sat closer to the fire than she currently was.
