***
A half hour later, Linette paced back and forth across her room, feeling even more foolish than she could have imagined.
Whatever was the matter with her? She was behaving more ridiculouslythan she had ever done in her life…and why?
Because a gentleman had kissed her—quite innocently, just as Donovan had said—in a time-honored custom known to all? A custom so harmless that most unmarried girls never gave a thought to if it had been one gentleman or three to steal a kiss under the mistletoe, while Dr. Adam Whitaker’s lips had barely touched hers and their kiss was done!
Linette’spacing only quickened, and she wondered if he might have already left the house.
She hadn’t peeked through the door this time, but had kept it firmly shut, though she had heard his footsteps going down the hall accompanied by Miss Biddle’s lighter tread. She should compose herself and exit her room, and hold her head high no matter that the family might tease her, as she imagined they would.Tea would be served very soon, and all this agitation had made her very hungry—
“Miss Easton, His Grace would like to see you in the library at once.”
Linette had frozen at Miss Biddle’s voice beyond the door, but the request had her baffled.
Donovan wished to see her? Perhaps he had questions about what Estelle had told her, though she had shared with him everything she knew. She opened thedoor, nodding to the housekeeper as she stepped into the hall.
“Has…has Dr. Whitaker left for the day?”
Linette barely waited for an answer, fully expecting to hear “Yes,” from Miss Biddle, only to halt at the top of the stairs when the woman simply said, “No, he’s in the library.”
The library?
For a moment, Linette didn’t quite know what to do. Plead a sudden headache and run back to therefuge of her room?
Yet Donovan had requested her presence and she could not refuse him. Like everyone in the household, she wished to do her part to make the transition from this home to Arundale Hall a smooth one. She had only to think of his desk piled high with papers and the fatigue under his eyes to make her believe he must need her assistance.
Linette quickly smoothed her skirt, wishingshe’d taken a moment to run a brush through her long auburn curls that she preferred to wear loose down her back. There was nothing to be done about it now.
She went down the steps, her pulse beating faster with every footfall. To her relief, she saw that the offending ball of mistletoe had been removed from the chandelier, which gave her courage to propel herself into the library. At once, bothDonovan and Dr. Whitaker rose to greet her, though she kept her gaze fully trained upon her brother-in-law.
“Is anything amiss, Donovan?”
“Yes, actually, with Mrs. Polkinghorne. It appears she didn’t appreciate our new doctor here, and surprisingly had no knowledge that Dr. Philcup had left town. She refused to allow him to treat her, and claims now that she lies at death’s door. Her husbandassured Dr. Whitaker it wasn’t anything of the sort, but she will not be appeased. A conundrum, to be sure, but one for which Dr. Whitaker has offered a sound suggestion.”
Her mind spinning from this news, Linette only then glanced at Dr. Whitaker, who bowed his head slightly at her, his eyes intent upon her face.
“R-really? Truly, I have no idea what this might have to do with me…” she beganlamely in spite of her sudden niggling of suspicion. “Did…did you mean for me to help in some way?”
“Precisely. I’ve agreed for you to accompany Dr. Whitaker to Porthleven, with one of the maidservants and in a carriage, of course, to see if you might ease matters between him and Mrs. Polkinghorne. It’s hardly an auspicious start for our new doctor, Linette, surely you can see that. I would doit myself, but I’ve another matter in the village to attend to.”
With that, Donovan strode from around his desk and past Linette, pausing only to give her a light kiss upon the cheek, and then he was gone from the library.
Leaving her to stare in astonishment at Dr. Whitaker and him, at her, until he swept his hand toward the door, the faintest hint of a smile upon his handsome face.
“Shallwe go, Miss Easton?”
