Fleur laughed. And she was aware suddenly of the hum of voices behind her. She straightened up and turned.
“This is Lady Pamela Kent,” she said, taking the child by the hand and drawing her into the schoolroom. “She has just come from a year of traveling on the Continent. This is Miss Booth, Pamela, and all the children of the village.”
Lady Pamela smiled about her and moved closer to Fleur’s side. Miriam was curtsying—to Lady Pamela and beyond her.
“Good morning, your grace,” she said. “Children, make your bows and curtsies to his grace, the Duke of Ridgeway, if you please.”
And Fleur turned her head jerkily at last and met his eyes.
And she felt instant shock. He was taller than she remembered, his hair blacker, his eyes more piercingly dark, his nose more prominent, his scar more noticeable. All had been softened in memory. She felt an unexpected surging of the old fear.
She curtsied to him. “Your grace,” she murmured.
He inclined his head to her and to the room in general. “Good morning,” he said. “I hate to interrupt classes, but if I know young people and the way their minds work, I would guess that I am the most popular man in the village at the moment.”
Giggles from the girls, shouts of laughter from the boys.
Classes were at an end, it seemed. The girls were openly admiring Lady Pamela’s fashionable clothes and she was eyeingthem with shy interest. The boys were gazing at the duke in some awe. He was conversing politely with Miriam. And then Dr. Wetherald was there, and Daniel too, and Lady Pamela was gazing pleadingly up at her father.
“May I, Papa?” she was saying. “Oh, please, may I?”
“You are hardly dressed to go rambling,” he was saying with a smile.
“But I have other dresses,” she said. “I can change. Oh, please, Papa. Please. Miss Hamilton, may I go? Please?”
Miriam was looking very directly at her. It was Miriam, it seemed, who had suggested that Lady Pamela might enjoy joining the school ramble, though his grace must realize that they intended to be gone for several hours.
“Only Papa can say yes to that,” Fleur said, smiling at the eager, pretty face of her former pupil. “But I know you would have a great deal of fun.”
One minute later Lady Pamela was dashing for the carriage, having been granted the permission she had begged for.
“I am going to bring Tiny,” she shrieked. “May I, Miss Hamilton?”
Miriam was laughing. “I will take very good care of her, your grace,” she said. “And my brother and Dr. Wetherald will be with me to lend a hand. Three adults will be more than enough. We will not need your presence, Isabella. You had better stay to entertain his grace, since he will have a wait of several hours.”
Fleur opened her mouth to speak and closed it again.
It seemed that all the children found it impossible to speak in less than a shriek. The schoolroom sounded very quiet indeed when all of them and the three adults had set off on their way.
“Miss Booth is a kind lady,” the Duke of Ridgeway said from behind her shoulder. “Pamela will talk about this treat for weeks to come.”
“Yes,” she said. “I am glad for her, your grace.”
“Your grace?” he said quietly.
She glanced over her shoulder and fixed her eyes on his neckcloth.
“Can we go somewhere else?” he asked. “To your home, maybe?”
“Yes,” she said. “It is quite close by.”
She locked the school carefully and walked by his side along the street to her cottage. They did not touch or speak a single word.
SHE LAID DOWN THE BOOKS SHE HAD BEEN CARRYING and watched him set his hat and gloves on a table. She turned and led the way into a square and cozy parlor, the pianoforte in one corner dwarfing the rest of the furniture in the room.
It was as he had thought, as he had led himself to expect. She was not really pleased to see him. She was awkward and embarrassed.
“Won’t you have a seat, your gr …?” Her hand was gesturing to a chair. She stopped and flushed.
