“Good night, Alec.” I left the hearth and started to walk toward the door.
“Keira.”
I stopped in the doorway and took my time turning toward him.
He approached me, his eyes filled with so many emotions, I couldn’t identify any of them.
When he stopped, he, too, was in the doorway. He looked up and my gaze followed his.
A bouquet of mistletoe hung from the trim and was tied with a red ribbon.
My heart beat hard as I realized why he had stopped me.
I lowered my gaze as he lowered his, and we were staring at each other.
He gave me time to walk away—but I didn’t. I couldn’t.
His gaze fell on my lips and made them tingle with anticipation. An internal struggle waged behind his eyes and when he finally lifted them again, I held my breath.
Slowly, tenderly, he placed a gentle kiss on my lips.
My pulse beat with affection as a tendril of pleasure slid through my chest and tightened into a coil of longing in my stomach. I wanted to wrap my arms around him and hold him close, but I couldn’t.
Because I was planning to marry a duke.
I wanted to cry.
After a moment, he pulled back. Something sweet filled his face—and just for a moment, he seemed to forget.
But then his shoulders dropped and he took a step away, lowering his gaze from mine. “Merry Christmas.”
Then he was gone.
I stood in the doorway as I watched him take the stairs two at a time and disappear.
9
“There’s a gentleman caller to see you, miss,” Gallagher said the next morning as I sat in my room reading Shakespeare’sRomeo and Julietbefore the warmth of my fireplace. Aunt Maude had woken with a terrible megrim and was in her room with the shades pulled. It afforded me a respite from our lessons, but I was still required to read. Shakespeare’s story gave me a headache of my own, especially since I couldn’t concentrate on the difficult words and phrases.
All I could think about—all I had thought about since last night—was my encounter with Alec. I’d never been kissed, and though it had been quick, it had still left me spinning for hours—even in my dreams.
But I had also thought about what he’d said concerning Annabelle. So much heartache, and for what? Money? Power? Position? It was a tangled web of greed, and I didn’t want to be part of it, though I had agreed to be here. Would my heart be protected?
Above all else, I thought about what hehadn'tsaid, or, rather, what he'd hinted at. My heart kept hoping…but my mind told me it was foolishness to even consider.
I eagerly put aside the book, hoping to put aside my thoughts, too.
“A gentleman caller?” I asked.
She handed me a calling card. “Higgins brought it up for you.”
Mr. Geo. Vanderbilt.
My heart galloped at the simple name embossed in gold ink on a crisp white card.
“What does he want?” I asked Gallagher.
She rarely cracked a smile, but one tilted her lips at my question. “What does any young man want from a pretty young woman?”
