She nodded, though in truth she’d all but forgotten that question had once been on her tongue.
He ran that same hand through his hair again and she wished she could repeat the action. Feel the short locks against her fingertips. Ascertain if his hair was soft, if it tickled her palm.
“I had a piece of business that came up,” he explained. “Something I thought could not wait. Turns out it was…” He trailed off and looked behind him at his desk. “It wasn’t what I was hoping for.”
She saw the tension on his face. Not the heated kind that so unexpectedly flowed between them, but something less comfortable. Something unpleasant. It drew his lips down in a deeper frown.
“I’m sorry,” she said slowly, and wished she were in a position where she could say more. After all, she knew disappointment, she knew regret. She recognized them both. She recognized when a man could use a sympathetic ear.
“You needn’t be,” he began with a shrug that pushed aside all those emotions he likely hadn’t meant to reveal. “It is not your problem, after all.”
“That does not mean I’m not sorry that it is yours,” she responded.
He tilted his head and the silence stretched between them, not uncomfortable, but also not without tension or heat. He opened his mouth as if he were about to say something to her, but before he could there came a sound from the hallway.
“Blast it all, Helena, where are you?”
Helena squeezed her eyes shut for a beat. “My cousin,” she murmured.
“We could shut the door,” Baldwin suggested.
Her eyes flew open and she stared at him. He seemed serious. Too serious. And the idea of him reaching behind her and shutting them in alone in his office was tempting beyond measure.
And inappropriate beyond words.
“I can’t,” she whispered.
More disappointment flowed over his features before he shrugged. “Of course.”
She drew a ragged breath, then called out, “I’m here, Charity.”
There were footsteps and then Charity appeared in the doorway. “Honestly, Papa is going to have a—oh, Your Grace.”
Her tone changed from strict to sweet in nothing more than a word. Charity smoothed her gown and pushed past Helena into Baldwin’s office, her hips shimmying with every step. Helena watched his reaction, watched as his gaze slid over her pretty cousin, from her perfect blonde hair to her expensive slippers. Whatever he thought, Helena could not tell. He had shut off the sharing of any emotion.
“Miss Shephard,” he said, his tone just as unreadable as his expression. “Good afternoon once again.”
“I hope my cousin hasn’t been bothering you,” Charity said with a glare at Helena that made the heat of a blush flood her cheeks. “She obviously doesn’t know her place if she is roaming through your home unattended.”
“On the contrary, I was happy to bump into her,” Baldwin said. “And just as happy thatyouhave come to save me from the distraction that took me from the party. Shall we return together, ladies?”
He looked toward Helena, but before she could respond, Charity sidled up beside him and glided her hand right into the crook of his elbow. “Lead the way, Your Grace,” she cooed, batting her pretty blue eyes at him.
He cleared his throat. “Of course.”
The pair walked to the door, and Helena stepped aside as they exited the room. She trailed after them, heart throbbing as Baldwin led them back out onto the terrace and down to the garden where the games had already began.
But he looked back as they reached the grass. Right back at her. Their gazes met, held, and she forced a small smile at him. He returned something much the same, and then he released her cousin and returned to the lord of the manor act that he had to play.
But she’d seen something real in him. Something she ought not to have seen. And she would not forget it soon, nor forget the feelings this unattainable man inspired in her.
Baldwin watched from his front step as the last of the carriages pulled away, taking his guests back to where they’d come from. Leaving him in peace, at last. Only he didn’t feel peaceful.
“That went well.”
He jumped, for his sister Charlotte’s voice was right beside him. He didn’t even know she had moved so close.
He pivoted toward her with a shrug. “As well as any of these things do.”
