“And I’m sorry for earlier,” he said. “I know I already apologized, but I do want to apologize again. It was never my intention to blindside you with the duchess coming along, and I couldn’t say no. I had hoped to surprise you with your little sisters, but I know it was much more intense than you were expecting, and I am sorry.”
The words came out much more easily than apologies usually did. When she wasn’t bickering, she was surprisingly easy to talk to.
“Thank you,” Ella said, the words softer than he’d expected them to be. “Now can I get on the horse? I’d like to get this over with.”
“Your wish is my command, my lady.”
“Don’t do that,” she said sharply.
Dietrich froze. “Don’t do what?”
“Call me ‘my lady.’ Isn’t that what you—” She shook her head. “I don’t like it.”
Dietrich let out a small noise. “You’re going to have to get used to it. I can’t walk around calling the duke’s daughter ‘Ella,’ no matter how much you want me to.”
“But I don’t want you to call me that,” she admitted softly.
“After we tell them, I won’t have a choice,” Dietrich said, just as quietly. “I don’t think you understand that part.”
“I don’t want it to be like that.”
“But you want to find your family.” So she didn’t have a choice.
He clasped his hands and held them out, not looking at her face. Ella placed her boot into them, and he boosted her up so she could get into the horse’s saddle.
It was true. Once she was no longer Ella, everything would change, even if she didn’t want it to.
He coached her through holding the reins properly and getting the horse to move forward, and before long, they were on their way to Eldenwilde.
It was not a long ride. The clearing was perhaps closer to Eldenwilde than it was to the duke’s estate, and they passed the ride in silence until they were close enough to see the gates.
“Thank you for today,” Ella said, turning to look at him. “I appreciate it more than you know.”
Everything had changed today.
He could no longer ignore the fact that she was someone he could have fallen for, in another world. He had held her in his arms, and braided her hair, and helped her dismount—and every moment of physical interaction had only driven home the fact that she was the first girl he’d ever felt something for.
He knew what it was like to have a friend who was a girl—he’d grown up with Beatrice as his best friend.
This was different.
“You’re welcome,” he said gruffly when she looked at him oddly. He had taken too long to respond.
“You’re right. I need to tell them,” she said.
“Everything will change.”
The words escaped before he realized they had. Perhaps he shouldn’t have said it.
“I know,” she responded.
It seemed that being near him was enough to turn any woman into nobility—first Sophia, then Beatrice, and now Ella. He should avoid Thea if he didn’t want her to leave the Cozy Cat Café because, clearly, it was his influence.
If only it hadn’t happened to Ella.
As they approached the house, Dietrich dismounted, letting a groom take the reins of his horse, and hurried over to Ella’s side before anyone else could help her.
If anyone was going to help her down from a horse, it would be him.
