For a moment, Seth regarded her, his direct gaze leaving her feeling unusually warm, that warmth significantly increasing when he smiled. “Seems to me as if you’re rather accomplished with lifting a person’s spirits as well.”
Knowing full well that the warmth was beginning to settle on her face, and also knowing that Seth, since he didn’t seem to be lost in thoughts of some new invention at the moment, would certainly notice her cheeks turning pink, Annaliese turned her head and took a moment to get the warmth under control.
Frankly, she’d never been a lady who became all warm and flustered when a gentleman smiled at her—although that might have simply been because most gentlemen of the New York Four Hundred never made a point to smile at her at all, preferring instead to settle looks of bewilderment on her, especially if she happened to mention her fascination with bugs, or worse yet, her dedication to putting plume hunters out of business.
Nevertheless, even though she was unaccustomed to being on the receiving end of a gentleman’s smile, she was relatively convinced that she probably wouldn’t turn all flustered withmostgentlemen who smiled at her, which meant—Phoebe wasn’t exactly wrong regarding Seth’s appeal.
It also seemed as if Mabel had hit the nail on the head when she’d mentioned Seth could make hearts go pitter-patter since Annaliese’s heart was now pitter-pattering away quite as ifshe’d just escaped from a mob of angry plume hunters, something she’d experienced a time or two before.
All thoughts of pitter-patters disappeared in a flash, though, when Moe trudged through another rut, leaving Annaliese bouncing on the wagon seat and then lurching to the right, all but landing in Seth’s lap as she dropped the reins.
Without missing a beat, Seth snagged hold of the reins, gave them a tug when Moe began galloping down the street, and after reining Moe to a stop, hauled Annaliese back into an upright position, shaking his head as a touch of a grin flickered over his face.
“Interesting choice you made today, taking out Moe and a wagon when Norma Jean mentioned a week or so ago that the Merriweather Academy just purchased an entire fleet of new carriages.”
It was difficult to refuse a sigh. “If you must know, I was hoping to give the girls a driving lesson on the way home today because they’ve been rather persistent with asking me to include some classes pertaining to horses and driving.” She nodded to Moe and Dolly. “I thought it would be safer to begin a driving lesson with donkeys, but it turns out the girls’ interest isn’t because they’re anxious to become stellar equestrians, but because of my...”
“Because of your ... what?” Seth pressed when Annaliese simply stopped speaking.
“I’m not supposed to tell you as it would be breaching a lady code.”
“I’m going to have to do some research into these lady codes.”
She smiled. “As am I, but what I can tell you is that harnessing Moe and Dolly together was yet another mistake of mine today because it seems as if Dolly, who I only acquired a few weeks ago, isn’t fond of Moe, and Moe, given his increased level of orneriness today, seems to have realized that, hence the reason we’ve run over every rut in the road.”
“Perhaps Moe’s trying to impress Dolly with his antics, hoping to change that lack of fondness business.”
“Which would be an unusual tactic to be sure, and one that’s certainly not working since Dolly is no longer even looking at him.”
Seth returned her smile, then returned the reins to her, and after giving them a snap, Moe and Dolly trudged into motion again, Moe lurching over another rut in the road and earning a rather exaggerated toss of a mane from Dolly.
“Perhaps she’s not avoiding him as much as we think,” Seth murmured. “However, interesting donkey antics aside, and know that this is a complete change of subject, but because you spend your days surrounded by the adolescent feminine set, would you be willing to give me some advice?”
“You want to take advice from a lady who lost two adolescent members of the feminine set just today?”
“Since, again, what happened today could have happened to any decorum instructor, yes, and...” Seth held up his hand when she opened her mouth. “Before you argue that point, know that the only other member of the feminine set I have available to me to ask any questions is my mother. If you didn’t notice, when we delivered Norma Jean home after dropping off all the other girls, my mother was still in her robe and slippers.”
“As your mother made a point of apologizing to me more than once over what she called her ‘unfit state to receive callers,’ of course I noticed, but what does that have to do with anything?”
“Mother usually resorts to remaining in her robe when she’s in the midst of one of her illnesses or thinks she’s about ready to catch another one. That means she might barricade herself in her rooms for the foreseeable future, making it next to impossible for me to seek any advice from her, unless I want to shout through the door. That would undoubtedly leave anyadvice she shouts back null and void since Norma Jean would most assuredly be making a point to listen to all the shouting.”
“Don’t you have two other sisters?” Annaliese asked.
“I do, but Hester and Betsy are both married and no longer live in this state, and before you suggest I ask my father for advice, he understands the feminine set about as well as I do. Besides that, he’s off on a long business trip to California.”
“You could always ask Rhenick. He’s one of your good friends, and he definitely understands members of the feminine persuasion.”
“True, but he just got married, and to your sister no less, and a newly married gentleman who is preparing to depart on a wedding holiday has limited time available to dole out advice.”
“A fair point.”
“So you’ll give me some advice?”
“I will, but I’m not promising how good it’ll be.”
“Duly noted.” Seth leaned closer. “With all that settled, how do you think I should approach the matter of retrieving any additional smoke grenades Norma Jean probably stuffed into that reticule of hers, without her noticing, which would undoubtedly leave her tossing said grenades at me?”
Annaliese blinked. “You think she might have taken more than one of your grenades?”
