Felicity pressed her lips together and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Elise. I thought, since you’d told Lucien…”
Elise moved toward her and wrapped an arm around her. “I know that there is still wariness you feel toward me. In time, I hope it will fade. But I don’t think it’s the worst thing that your friends know you once cared for Asher. Perhaps we can help.”
“Help how?” Felicity said with a long sigh. “What’s done is done, past is past. It was a long time ago that I felt that way.”
Elise looked down at her and her expression was deeply incredulous. “Old flames never die. Not completely. Stenfax and I are proof of that, I think.”
Felicity shoved aside the flicker of hope that made itself known in her belly. She shrugged Elise’s arm away and walked back to her seat. As she sat, she said, “With us, it’s more complicated.”
Rosalinde leaned forward and looked like she would say something, but before she could there was a light knock on the door. As it opened, Felicity lunged to her feet for the subject of their conversation entered the room.
“Asher,” she gasped out.
He drew back at finding four women staring at him, and Felicity blushed anew. Every person in the room looked guilty in such an obvious way that he had to know they’d been talking about him.
“Good morning, ladies,” he said, his tone betraying nothing about whether he knew that truth. “I was told you were all gathered here. I’m happy to see you’re feeling better, Felicity, and out of your chamber. We missed you at breakfast this morning.”
Felicity shifted with discomfort at having her lies called out to her face. Asher smiled and she shrugged. “I—thank you.”
“Do you think you feel well enough to take a walk with me?” he asked.
Her lips parted with the unexpected question. “A—a walk?” she repeated.
He smiled again. “Yes. I think the fresh air might do me good.”
Elise moved forward, her smile bright and wide. “What a wonderful idea,” she answered before Felicity could.
Felicity spun on Elise with her mouth open even wider. Was Elise actually encouraging this idea that she and Asher be alone together?
Celia and Rosalinde were also smiling widely. “The weather is so wonderful, it seems a shame to miss the opportunity,” Rosalinde said, placing a hand on Felicity’s back and gently urging her forward.
Felicity tried to keep her voice calm as she said, “Well, if all of you are so keen on the idea, perhaps we should make a group of it. All of us go.”
Asher’s expression faltered a fraction at that suggestion, but he had no chance to oppose or support the idea, for Celia said, “Gracious, no! Rosalinde and I have a great deal to do today to keep the dowager busy. And Elise is…”
“I’m helping Stenfax, Gray and Dane with the code,” Elise said.
Felicity tilted her head and glared at her best friend. “You’rebreaking the code.”
Asher moved forward. “If you don’t want to—”
Elise caught her breath. “Of course she does, don’t you, Felicity?”
Felicity’s shoulders rolled forward. For all her hesitance, the fact was shedidwant to go for a walk with Asher. Which was exactly why she shouldn’t. These temptations were to be avoided, not indulged, for they couldn’t end well.
But Asher was staring at her, waiting quietly, his dark gaze boring into her like he could see past her mask, see past her walls, see into the soul she had been hiding for years.
“Very well,” she said, hearing her voice like it belonged to someone else.
He lit up, like she had found a candle within him and sparked it with her agreement, and she held back a gasp of surprise. This couldn’t mean anything to him. God knew it never had before.
“Give me a moment to get my wrap,” she said, trying to find a way to remain steady on her feet as she moved past him. “I’ll meet you in the foyer in a few moments.”
He nodded and she said nothing else as she acknowledged her friends and slipped from the room. In the hall, she raised her hands to her chest and felt them tremble.
Time alone with Asher Seyton was a dangerous thing. And she’d have to remain vigilant and careful if she didn’t want this walk to turn into something far more dangerous, indeed.
The walk along the paths leading from the main house was beautiful, especially since the autumn leaves were beginning to turn, giving their time together a golden and red hue. But Asher would not have ever said that the walk was a comfortable one. Not when Felicity walked at least three feet away from him, her chin lifted like she was being forced into this action.
