The earl’s daughter allowed her gaze to scan the store, taking in the glass cases and the confections inside them. At last, her glance landed on Amity without a hint of recognition and slid off her again to rest upon the chocolates.
For a moment, Amity wondered if the Duke of Pelham had sent her, perhaps to taste different flavors, but quickly dismissed the notion. His Grace seemed to cherish the notion of surprising Lady Madeleine with his grand gesture.
At least, he had —beforetheir kiss.Had their kiss changed his mind?Perhaps he no longer intended to return to the confectionery.
“How may I help you?” Amity asked.
Lady Madeleine approached one of the display cases. Only then did Amity notice the maid who must have come in behind and who kept her gaze lowered.
“I tried some of this establishment’s chocolates at a dinner party. Elephant-shaped chocolates with some exotic fruit atop each one. I liked the chocolate though not really the fruit. Maybe it was an orange.”
Amity nodded. It dawned on her that Lady Madeleine truly did not remember her from the party, nor did she know she was the chocolatier. What was more appalling, the young woman’s palate had not identified the candied pineapple. Lady Peabody would be most unhappy if she knew her expensive fruit had been mistaken for the far humbler orange.
“Would you like to try something? Perhaps a milk chocolate?”
“I’m sure I don’t know,” Lady Madeleine said, scanning the contents of the case. “Whatever is very sweet, I suppose, not bitter.”
Amity grabbed her tiny silver tongs and put a small square of milk chocolate on a plate the size of a tea saucer. She didn’t mind giving samples since her customers never failed to go on to buy sweets after tasting.
“We don’t sell any bitter chocolate here, my lady.” And Amity held out the offering.
Lady Madeleine looked at the plate, her eyes narrowed slightly. Slowly, she removed the glove from her right hand and picked up the small confection. She studied it before putting it between her lips and nibbling at it tentatively.
Why had the duke looked ever so attractive when tasting chocolate, while Lady Madeleine simply looked ... feral?
In the next instant, the lady smiled, not directly at Amity, but staring into the far distance over Amity’s shoulder, seemingly smiling to herself.
“May I give a piece to your maid?” Amity asked, noticing the girl’s furtive glance around the shop, her gaze quickly returning to the swept and polished wooden floor.
That snapped Lady Madeleine’s attention back to Amity and wiped the smile from her face.
“Absolutely not. How foolish! She would develop a taste for it, and what would be the point in that?”
Indeed!Amity thought. Undoubtedly, this lady would never gift her servants an ounce of pleasure. Of that, she was positive.
“More,” Lady Madeleine commanded, keeping her tone even.
“How much would you like?”Would the earl’s daughter buy a few ounces or a pound?
“Just another square,” she insisted.
Apparently, the lady was still sampling. “Of the same chocolate?” Amity asked.
“Yes. Are you simple-minded?” Lady Madeleine snapped. “Give me another one.”
Amity didn’t care for her rude words or her tone of voice but placed another piece on the plate and held it out. Lady Madeleine put this piece in her mouth more quickly than the last.
“Very good,” she declared.
“How much would you like to purchase?” Amity asked.
“Purchase?” Lady Madeleine repeated the word as if she didn’t know it.
“Yes, purchase.”Now who was being simple-minded? “To take home.”
“Oh, that was plenty,” Lady Madeleine said, waving her hand in a gesture of dismissal. “Obviously, I could eat more. I could probably eat every piece in the entire shop if they are all as nice as that, but then I would gain an obscene amount of weight.”
“And if you ate all our confectionery, we would have nothing to sell and our store would close,” Amity said, knowing her tone had taken on an unusually sharp edge.
