“Will you show me where he is?” Frances asked.
Sophia nodded with such enthusiasm her curls nearly sprang loose. “He’s in the green drawing room. We tried to keep him upstairs, but he likes to explore.”
Lady Montfort cleared her throat, drawing all attention back to herself. “I should like to see the room as well. It is important to survey the environs into which one’s charges are admitted.”
Sophia looked slightly cowed, but Frances took her arm at once. “Would you show me the way?” They disappeared down the hall.
Lavinia waited for Lady Montfort to comment and was not disappointed.
“I suppose the child is as shy as reported,” Lady Montfort said, shaking her head. “But at least she has some sense of manners. Unlike certain other residents of Evermere, who keep their guests waiting in the vestibule like so many parcels.” She said it loud enough to be heard through the stonework.
On cue, a shadow crossed the threshold, and there he was, dressed as always in flawless black, though the line of his mouth was softer than she remembered.
“Lady Lavinia,” he said, bowing.
Lady Montfort’s eyes widened. “A duke does not bow!”
Tristan grinned as he straightened. “This one does before his beloved.”
Lavinia’s breath caught, and she forced herself to meet his gaze. “Thank you for inviting us.”
“Of course,” he replied, and the barest hint of a smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. Taking her hand, he bent over it and brushed his lips against her gloved knuckles. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought him capable of the subtlest, yet most intense romance.
They were interrupted by a shriek from the drawing room. Lavinia tensed, but then a giggle followed, and Frances’s voice came, “He is trying to wear it as a sash!”
Sophia’s voice came next, brighter and louder than Lavinia had ever heard it, “He can be the Prince of Evermere! Do you think he would like a crown?”
Tristan’s jaw relaxed. “They appear to have found common cause.”
Lady Montfort sniffed, but the look she shot Lavinia was full of something like approval. “Your daughter is very clever. She could teach Frances a thing or two about confidence.”
Lavinia did not miss the way the Duke’s eyes tracked her every movement. She felt, quite suddenly, the absurdity of the whole situation: her, standing in this palace, as if she belonged to it.
They made their way to the drawing room, where Whisper was in the midst of a performance, twining between Frances’s feet while Sophia narrated his every movement with the earnestness of a royal biographer.
“He likes you,” Sophia said. “He never lets anyone touch his tail, but you did, and he didn’t even try to bite.”
Frances laughed. “He’s never met a true friend before. I think he is in love.”
Sophia’s cheeks pinked at that, and she glanced at Lavinia, as if asking permission to enjoy herself. Lavinia nodded, and for the first time in a year, she felt something soft and hopeful unfurl inside her.
Lady Montfort surveyed the room with her eyes narrowed. “It is quite well-appointed, for so modern a house. I have always preferred the Old Masters myself, but I suppose the Duke must indulge his taste for novelty.”
Tristan, standing beside Lavinia, offered, “I do not care for portraits of ancestors. I have little in common with men who wore wigs.”
“Nor do I,” Lady Montfort replied, and they exchanged a glance of mutual disdain for the entire previous century.
Lavinia bit back a laugh. It was all so perfectly, almost comically, civilized.
The butler announced that dinner was ready. Sophia and Frances led the way, arms linked and still chattering about the cat’s coronation.
Lady Montfort hung back, and Lavinia caught a hint of real feeling in her face as she watched Frances disappear down the hallway. It was gone in a second, replaced with the usual mask.
As Lavinia moved to follow, Tristan paused her with a touch at her elbow, just a brush of his fingers, but it startled her more than it should.
“Lady Lavinia,” he said, voice pitched for her alone, “thank you for coming.”
She looked up at him, surprised at how much it meant. “It was not a hardship.”
