His use of the worddomestic. Was it possible he was telling her he was considering wooing her for his wife? She felt her face get warmer, and she knew she was redder than ever.
“And your blush is charming.”
“It’s so hot in the ballroom, isn’t it?”
“Shall we take a turn on the terrace to cool down after our dance, Lady Phoebe?”
Phoebe gulped. “Oh. Oh, no. I’m sorry. I don’t do that.”
“I meant with your mother accompanying us.”
“Oh, yes.” She smiled in relief. “That would be lovely.”
His grip on both her waist and her hand tightened slightly. He looked down at her with his sleepy blue eyes.
“I’m glad you don’t do that, Lady Phoebe. Very proper, very obedient. You are very promising, indeed. A dear girl. The dearest.”
Dearest girl. Her father’s name for her. Had she met her husband at last?
She tried to keep her smile from turning into the grin of a hoyden as she looked up at the tall, blond, handsome duke who whirled her around the ballroom.
Please let him like me.
Twenty-Six
It rained the next day. The house party had been reduced to Alice, Edmund, William, Olivia and Olivia’s mother, Phoebe and her mother. And Thornwick, of course.
And his mother.
It was often hard to recall his mother was there, too.
Phoebe had greeted Alice politely at breakfast. They weren’t friends anymore. But Alice would make a scene if Phoebe told her the friendship was over, and Phoebe was not going to have a scene at a house party. She would suffer through this until tomorrow when they would return to London and then she would shed Alice Danforth and her machinations just as she had shed Alice’s brother.
After breakfast, Alice proposed they pass the morning playing hide-and-seek. “But when each person is found, they join the seeker and help find the next person.”
Thornwick scoffed. “A child’s game.”
But William laughed and said it was a good idea. That seemed to bring Thornwick around.
Phoebe volunteered to be the first seeker. Then there could be no question in Thornwick’s mind she was attempting to be the best hider, the last one found. She could not win.
She closed her eyes. She counted to one hundred. When she opened her eyes, only Thornwick’s mother and her own mother were sitting in the drawing room.
Her mother looked up from her book and nodded. “We’re not playing, dear. Good luck.”
Phoebe found Edmund immediately, an enormous lump behind the drapery in the drawing room. It came as no surprise she found him first. He was so large that coming up with a good hiding place would be difficult. But she did wonder why he hadn’t made a bit more effort.
He’s George’s friend. George probably told him to stay close to me.
And she did feel some comfort roaming the enormous house with the taciturn giant at her side. Soon Lady Titchfield, Olivia, and William were found. Everyone but Alice and Thornwick.
Suddenly, Phoebe got a very bad feeling in her stomach. The upstairs hallway seemed to lurch and she stumbled.
I’ve driven Alice to this. I should have told her what she wanted to hear last night.
“Let’s give up,” Phoebe said. “Let’s let them stay hidden and go have luncheon.”
No, no, no. Lady Titchfield, Olivia, and William protested. Edmund stayed silent.
