Was it her imagination, or had his wintry gaze dipped for a moment to her bodice?
No, she didn’t think it was. Addy thought of how his eyes had traveled over her last evening in the library. She’d been all too aware of the thin layer of silk covering her. But surely the Duke of Marchingham wasn’t attracted to her. He had made his disdain for her abundantly clear.
She eyed him curiously, wondering if the color had deepened. “Forgive me if I find your concern for the dishes I serve Dandy somewhat odd, given your determination to see her banished to your stables.”
“If it means keeping you from thieving the napkins from the dining room, then perhaps I ought to accommodate you.”
“I’m not thieving it,” she denied, insulted. “I would have returned it when Dandy was finished.”
“I’m half persuaded the little beggar would have eaten the napkin as well,” he drawled. “You have leave to request whatever you require for the hound during your brief stay here.”
She noted his emphasis on the wordbriefin regard to her visit to Marchingham Hall and couldn’t quite tamp down the surge of irritation. The snow was falling with considerably less vigor this morning, a sure indication the massive storm was at last moving on. But that didn’t change the fact that she was likely going to be stranded here as an unwanted guest for the next few days at least, if not longer.
Which also meant she would be perilously close to enduring Christmas with Letty and Lila’s terrible brother. Surely the snow would melt sufficiently in less than two weeks, however. At least, she hoped it would.
“Do you have any notion of when the roads will be passable again?” she asked him, hoping he might have an answer.
But the duke shook his head and clasped his hands behind his back. “Sadly, no. After the snow finally ceases falling, I may have a better idea. However, much depends upon the temperatures. If this cold persists, it’s doubtful that the snow will begin to melt in the next few days. It could take a week or longer.”
“Oh.” Despite her determination to maintain an unaffected mien of bright, ceaseless cheer, Addy couldn’t keep the disappointment from her voice.
This would be her first Christmas without Mama and Papa, and she wouldn’t even have the company of her dear friends to help distract her from missing them. Because although Letty and Lila were a day’s train ride away, if the snow on the roads didn’t sufficiently melt, there was no way she would be able to reach them in time for Christmas.
“I will be every bit as relieved when the snow begins melting as you, Miss Fox,” he said coldly. “Now, please do arrange foryour mongrel to receive a proper meal and do whatever you must with the bundle you’re holding behind your back.”
Addy struggled to maintain her smile as she brought the napkin to the front of her body, dangling it in the air at her waist. The cloth was already beginning to darken from bacon grease. And whilst Dandy adored bacon, sometimes the richness of the treat didn’t agree with her delicate constitution. Addy had been hesitant to settle upon the bacon, but she’d been faced with few possibilities. Now, the duke had grudgingly offered to allow her to request a proper meal for her dog.
“Is there any chance you’ve yet to break your fast?” she asked wryly, extending the napkin bundle in the duke’s direction.
He eyed it dubiously. “I have. I wake at dawn.”
Silence stretched between them for a few moments, and Addy found herself strangely at a loss for words. His icy gaze held her in its relentless thrall, captivating her. She lowered the napkin awkwardly, still uncertain of what she ought to do with it.
“Dawn,” she repeated at last. “It’s half past ten now.”
He raised a brow. “Indeed.”
“Did you sleep in your library all night?” she asked then, curious.
“Where I slept is none of your concern, madam.”
Of course it wasn’t. And when he phrased it thus, his words held an inherent intimacy.
“I’m sorry that Dandy woke you,” she said, feeling heat creep up her own throat.
“See that you maintain control of her when she has her happy bouts, won’t you? If she is set upon running about my home, causing a disturbance, it will be out to the stables with her after all.”
“Do you harbor a strident dislike for dogs, or are you always this autocratic?” she asked before she could think better of herwords. “Letty and Lila warned me, but it seems I didn’t take sufficient heed.”
His shoulders stiffened. “What did they say about me?”
It occurred to her that she could be miring her friends in trouble with their disapproving brother. And as far as the Duke of Marchingham was concerned, Addy had already done that once in the past, to disastrous consequences.
“Only that you are very firm in your edicts,” she hastened to say. “And proper.”
A muscle in his jaw clenched. “One must be firm, particularly when it concerns wayward young ladies who are easily led astray.”
It was a veiled reference to their days at the Académie Clairemont.
