There was a knock on the door. Before Leonie could say come in, the door opened and there was Roman as if her thoughts had conjured him—and both Willa and Cassandra almost purred their pleasure.
She understood why. He cut an elegant figure in buff breeches, a deep blue coat that seemed molded to his shoulders, and tall boots that gave him a sportsman’s air.
His clear gray eyes went right to her. His gaze held an assessing look as if taking her measure. Had he spoken to her maid and learned that she was refusing to pack?
Her stomach fluttered with an unsettled feeling. Guilt wanted her to look away. Courage made her face him and it was as if she was truly seeing him for the first time. No, not as a fashionable gentleman, but as a man who had already done for her more than she had the right to ask.
And she wouldn’t go to the country with him?
What was there for her here? Leonie didn’t have an answer.
He had met Willa and Cassandra before. They had been a bit shy around him. However, today, Cassandra spoke in her blunt, forthright way. “My lord, you have my approval.”
“And mine,” Willa chimed in, a becoming blush to her cheeks as if she had been caught thinking something she shouldn’t.
“Well, thank you, Miss Holwell, Miss Reverly.” He shot Leonie a confused look.
“We were talking about flowers,” she explained dryly, knowing he would not understand.
Her statement sent Willa and Cassandra into peals of laughter, and that confused him all the more.
“Have I interrupted something?” he asked.
“Why would you think such?” Leonie said.
“I have sisters. I know when women have their heads together.”
Sisters?She had not known that. In fact, there was little she did know about this man she had married. Here he was, aware of the most intimate details of her life and she had not cared to ask if he had family.
The omission was humbling. Was she truly that self-absorbed?
Willa and Cassandra were taking their leave. Leonie rose to her feet, reaching for the duties of a good hostess to regain her balance.
Roman bowed over their hands, a gallant gesture that pleased them. Willa mouthed to her the words, “You are fortunate.” That, too, gave Leonie pause.
Roman stepped out of the way to let the ladies pass so that Leonie could walk her friends through the receiving room to the front hall, but halfway there, she made a decision.
She stopped. Willa and Cassandra came to a halt as well, assuming that she wanted a moment with them in private, and she did.
“I want you to know that my lord and I will be leaving today for his country estate.”
“You are going from us?” Willa said.
“He is anxious for me to see—” Leonie broke off. She knew he had told her the name of his home but she could not recall it.
“Bonhomie,” he supplied easily, coming up behind her. He placed his hands lightly on Leonie’s shoulders, the gesture husbands made toward wives hundreds of times a day.
She tried not to flinch. Cassandra and Willa did not notice, but he knew. She could tell because he removed his hands. He was that sensitive to her slightest gesture.
“Yes, Bonhomie,” Leonie said, forcing a smile.
“When will you return?” Cassandra wanted to know. “I am having a salon three weeks from tomorrow. Will you be back for it?”
Leonie looked to Roman.What were his plans?
“We shall see,” he said to Cassandra.
“Please come back for it. I have hopes for an interesting program and I need people to attend.”
