“Well, I don’t want you to leave because you’re a bastard. I want you to stay. I want you to have your Christmas. I want my schooling. How to lose an argument. All that.”
She shook her head and picked up the satchel and walked to the door.
“Please, Franny.” He was so dizzy. He collapsed into a chair. “I need you.”
The kitchen was very quiet except for the sound of Bevel slobbering. Franny paused with her hand on the latch.
“You need me?” Her voice was strained.
Had he unwittingly stumbled on the right thing to say?
“Yes. Yes. I need you. And not just to show me how to woo a wife, but also . . . but also . . .”
What would make her stay?
Oh. Franny loved Christmas. She had said so in the stage coach.
“Because otherwise, I’ll be all alone for Christmas. Just me and Bevel. I’d rather have Christmas with you. And your brother. A proper Christmas.”
She turned around, and he tried his best to assume a pathetic expression. He certainlyfeltpathetic.
“You hate Christmas,” she said.
“No. I hate Christmas house parties.”
“Well, it will be Christmas. And this is a house. And—“
“Yes. But three—well, Bevel makes four—that’s not a real party, is it? More of a small gathering.”
“I see.”
Her lips pouted. Oooh. He hadn’t seen a pout on her. Thoselips.
She spoke through her pout. “And you have no objections to Christmas house small gatherings?”
“None. None whatsoever.”
She stepped away from the door and unwrapped her muffler. “I’ll stay for Christmas.”
Thank God. But he’d better warn her of his ignorance. “Of course, I don’t know how to do it.”
“You don’t know how to do Christmas?”
“No.”
She clucked her tongue and unbuttoned her coat, laughing. “Poor Kit. The little lost duke.”
She had seen through his pathetic act. But she was still staying. And wasn’t that even better? She was staying because she wanted to and not because she felt sorry for him.
He smiled at her. Broadly.
In fact, the Duke of Kittredge grinned like a besotted fool.
Because he was one.
“Obviously, Your Grace got a bit bosky in the few minutes it took me to get my stays back on—” His eyes dropped to her breasts and he cursed under his breath. The stays were back on. “—so I think we should have something to eat besides raw toast. Make you steadier on your feet for your next lesson.” Her face lit up. “I saw something scrumptious in the larder.”
She disappeared. Soscrumptiouswasn’t his word. It didn’t belong to him, just likelovelydidn’t. But that faded into a minor grievance when a beaming Franny came back into the kitchen with a crock of iced biscuits.
