These people were so very different from Collette. They were pleasant enough, but she could never dismiss the awareness that these people were genuine members of society, whereas, she… was not. Collette dropped her gaze to study her hands when a shiver drifted down her spine.
“Bedwell. Good to see you could make it.”
“My pleasure, Chaswick.”
There was no mistaking that voice, even from across the room. Collette lifted her lashes and felt a zing of awareness when she found herself staring into his icy-blue gaze.
But if it was icy, why did it send bolts of flames coursing through her?
An Unlikely Coincidence
Of all the people in London, what was the Duke of Bedwell doing here? And why was her brother leading him across the room to where she was standing?
“Collette, I believe you’ve met His Grace? Bedwell, you know my sister, Miss Jones.” It was a wonder Collette remembered to drop into a curtsey as Chase presented her. The memory of the duke’s lips brushing hers flashed through her mind. And another of him bending over her bare hand, when she’d been a respectable teacher at a respectable school—and then later, in a stairwell, when he’d taken her into his arms and—
“Under considerably different circumstances.” The formal tone of his voice shouldn’t send vibrations shooting through her like they did. What on earth was the matter with her?
“Indeed,” Collette agreed. Why had he come? He’d agreed to keep what happened in the stairwell between the two of them. Was it possible that his sudden appearance in her brother’s drawing room was merely a coincidence?
“I hadn’t realized you’d left Miss Primm’s until recently.” His statement was a grim-sounding one. She’d forgotten the effect his unsmiling demeanor had on her. It ought to be off-putting but it wasn’t. Her brother didn’t seem bothered by it either.
Chase’s attention drifted to movement at the door. “Ah, more guests have arrived. Bedwell, I’ll surrender you into my sister’s capable hands, if you’ll excuse me.”
All politeness, Chase sauntered away, leaving only the hint of his familiar cologne in his wake as he did so. Leaving Collette alone with the duke—a man who’d entered her thoughts on more occasions than she wished to admit, even to herself, over the past month.
Collette shifted her gaze around the room before bringing it back to rest on the duke. His hair was longer than it had been the last time they’d been in one another’s company but other than that he was just as dukish as when she’d first met him. Perhaps even more so.
“I was sacked.” She raised her shoulders and then dropped them. “It wasn’t my choice to leave.”
“That is most unfortunate.” But he sounded rather unsympathetic.
Was he deliberately being cruel or was he simply obtuse? Since he didn’t seem like a thick-skulled individual, she determined it was the former.
“Yes, in fact, itwasmost unfortunate,” she rejoined.
His eyes widened. “Do you think I’m being glib?”
Collette pinched her lips together and nodded.
“I am not, as a matter of fact. While going through my mail this very afternoon, I discovered a letter posted by my sister—a letter in which she wrote of her displeasure over the termination of her favorite teacher. She wrote that she had been quite enjoying your class and was very, very disappointed when you left. Which she emphasized to me using Latin words, mind you.Ut destitute,” he said. “Apparently, while you were there, you made something of an impression—on at least one of your students.”
Collette narrowed her eyes at him. Was he teasing her?
“You do not believe me?” he queried.
Collette had only been able to teach for one week before Mrs. Metcalf’s objections took on a life of their own. She had hoped she’d imparted something to her students in that short time.
Ut destitute.Very disappointed.
Lady Fiona had been one who had paid close attention. She’d also asked questions and mentioned that although she’d known it was important to learn Latin, no one had ever explained it to her in a way that made her believe it. No one had ever told her why Latin was such an important language.
“I was most disappointed to leave,” she admitted. An understatement, to be certain.
She wished she could be angry at Miss Primm, or consider herself a martyr, but the fact was, the circumstances surrounding her very personhood would follow her throughout her life. It had been naïve to think that the parents of social-climbing students would accept her—no matter how much money Chase donated to the school.
“I was unaware of your changed circumstances until today. It was simply by chance that I happened upon your brother.” He hadn’t sounded unsympathetic before but perhaps that was simply… him.
“It was all rather sudden.” Collette grimaced, blinking back the unwanted stinging in her eyes. She forced her mouth into what she hoped resembled a pleasant smile. “Otherwise, your sister is doing well? She is happy at Miss Primm’splebeian institution?”
