“Good morning, Lady Fiona,” he said pleasantly enough, though his gaze held just enough suggestion to tickle her ire.He had found her weakness and intended to use it.There would not be another retreat into stony silence.“You are a treat for the eyes and,” he lowered his voice, “a temptation to the lips.”
She snorted indelicately.“While you, Lord Aylesbury, are simply a surprise.”
“I won’t ask if it is a pleasant one.”
“That would probably be for the best,” she responded tartly enough, though her lips twitched slightly when he laughed aloud.Shaking her head, she treated him to the slim line of her back and lifted her skirts to climb into the brougham, displaying the sweet turn of her silk-covered ankles and a pair of oxfords covered in the same floral silk as her long frock coat.
Grinning at the sight, he climbed up after her.With Coline on one side, she’d joined Ilona on the other.Colin and Sean would likely wish to sit next to their wives, so he took the seat next to Coline across from Fiona.The sun beamed down on her, the airy brim of her hat casting a vague shadow over the upper portion of her face.
Frowning, she lifted a hand to shade her eyes but did not employ the lace parasol she held with puzzled him.“New parasol?”he asked.
Fiona inclined her head with a quizzical look.
“How many do you have?”
“A few,” she answered as her brothers joined them, and the caravan of carriages was set in motion.
“Just a few?”
A becoming blush rose in her cheeks, and he smiled at the sight.“And shoes?How many?”
A pothole jolted the carriage before she could respond.She dropped her parasol, and it tipped into the foot well between them.They both leaned forward to retrieve it.His hand wrapped over hers and held it briefly, his eyes dancing as they caught and held hers.“Ah,Lady Fiona,” he murmured in a suggestively low baritone.“Those feminine details do make a man wonder what other delights and lacy confections you might be hiding beneath those skirts.”
Her cheeks flamed then, and with a gasp, she raised her parasol, tapping him lightly on the shoulder.He chuckled, knowing she would rather have beaten him soundly around the head and shoulders with it.“Careful now.You don’t want to ruin another.”
Ilona overheard him and smiled.“You needn’t worry about that, Lord Aylesbury.Fiona has a parasol for every day of the week.”
“Or month,” Colin added.
“Make it a year,” Sean called out as if they were bidding at the auction house.
“Sold,” Ilona cried, and everyone laughed.
Including Fiona.This time when their eyes met, there was real joy lighting them.
Though he’d witnessed her laughter several times since they met again, Aylesbury realized that this was the first time she laughedwithhim.There’d been plenty of occasions where he’d seen her humor and smiles, but they weren’t his.Not since he had been in Edinburgh two years ago had she shared that with him like she used to.
He had missed it.
