It was as though they were the only two people in the tavern.
“Give me your hand.” She stared at him with more confidence than she had before.
Simon did as she asked, and Miss Faraday, spinster, and dedicated chaperone, took his hand and stared at his palm.
“Are you going to tell me my future?” he asked.
She laughed and shook her head, but then drew one finger down the center.
“Does your aunt know you dabble in the dark arts?”
“It’s fun, and the proper name is divination,” she corrected him. “And of course not.”
“Well, go on then, tell me my future,” Simon teased but he’d not expected her to be like this. He’d not expected that she would be funny and interesting. He would never have thought she believed in magic.
“Greystone watches the stars; he looks to the outer world to understand it. Reading palms is merely another window… but one looks inward,” she explained, sounding almost like one of his governesses. “This is your dominant hand, correct? I notice that you haven’t had difficulty writing…”
“No, I’m left-handed,” he answered, curious for what she would come up with next.
“The lines on this hand show your life in practice. Your right hand will show your natural tendencies—your essence.” She flipped her gaze up to meet his. “May I? Only if it won’t hurt you…”
“Of course.” Simon slipped his injured hand out of the sling, and she cradled it in both of hers.
“Your head line…” She drew her fingertip along one crease. “Deep and straight. You are very focused. That comes as no surprise. And you are direct—realistic. Oh, but do you see these here? You have had some emotional crisis in your life and will be, or have, made momentous decisions. This,” she went on to another crease, “is your life line.”
“A long life, I hope?” Simon only half-joked. Because many people depended on him. And then he scoffed at his imagination. This was only a game.
“The life line doesn’t usually show the length of a person’s life. Yours would have me believe that you are a vital person who requires little rest…” She met his gaze again. Of course, she knew this about him as she’d been watching his comings and goings. “It says that you value family, relationships.”
She went on to explain the meaning of the shape of his hands, and then blushed and relinquished them, settling her own primly in her lap. “I do believe I may have had too much ale.”
She was fun and creative and… so damned pretty.
How was it Greystone had kept her hidden away all these years? But had she been?
Would he have even noticed her before? She might have caught his eye a time or two, but she would never have spoken to him with that disdain he’d found so amusing. He wouldn’t have shared tea with her in a kitchen by candlelight.
He never would have kissed her.
And kissing her last night had been more than pleasant; it had been outright invigorating.
His gaze caressed the gentle curve of her cheek and an ironic regret struck him. Because, as Blackheart, he never would have known this woman.
She caught him staring and paused. “Do I have gravy on my chin?” She touched her face self-consciously.
“No.” He flicked a glance at the mostly empty plates they’d pushed away. “You enjoyed it?”
“The food, the ale, or the company?” she asked. Together they had finished off the pot pie and then shared an apple tart. The ale had flowed freely, and he found himself wishing the afternoon didn’t have to end.
“Any of them. All?”
“I am enjoying all three—tremendously.” She leaned back, looking quite relaxed, her eyes crinkled from smiling, a hint of ale making her lips shine. “No disrespect to my cousin’s cook, but that was quite possibly the best meal I’ve had in ages.”
Simon leaned forward and touched his thumb to the corner of her mouth. “I thought there was a love line, or something to that effect. Aren’t you going to read that one?” His voice came out gravelly.
“Not today.” She stared back at him, and there was no mistaking her conflicting emotions. He guessed that she associated love with marriage. And as far as Simon knew from Greystone, she had no intentions of ever marrying.
But she was also a woman.
