"Then I am very much looking forward to seeing it," she said.
He held her gaze for a moment longer than was strictly necessary which made her belly flutter in response. Then Mr. Atherton drew her attention away. By the time she turned back, the moment had dissolved. Though the flutters were still in her belly, and Cori managed, just barely, not to sigh.
The rest of dinner passed pleasantly. Cori said sensible things and listened well and did not embarrass herself in any visible way. Beside her, Linthorpe spoke when spoken to and listened with the same focused, unhurried attention she had now noticed three times over, and she found, somewhat to her own surprise, that she enjoyed watching him listen as much as she enjoyed watching him talk.
Floating a bit after her success at dinner, Cori went in search of a retiring room and was thankful when she bumped into a footman who gave her directions. Apparently, however, she should have written them down. How in the world did someone get lost in a home, for pity’s sake?
After navigating the corridor for several minutes, she heard a voice she recognized. "You're going the wrong way," Lady Hannah Westham said from somewhere near the marble floor.
Cori looked down.
The little girl was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the corridor floor in her nightrail, with an adorable orange and white kitten settled in her lap.
"Hannah." Cori smiled at the child. "What are you doing in the corridor?"
"Marmalade was not supposed to be here," Hannah said, which was not precisely an answer. "He belongs in the kitchens. I was returning him." She paused briefly. "He was already in the corridor when I found him."
"Was he, indeed?" Cori couldn’t help but be charmed by the little girl.
Hannah regarded her with the frank, assessing look Cori remembered from their first meeting and then, as though extending a significant honor, she held out the kitten for Cori. "You can hold him. He remembers you, I think. Do you remember about his back legs?"
"I do," Cori said, and sat down on the floor beside the girl. The kitten didn’t like his hind legs to be touched and was not shy in reminding people if they forgot. Cait had a scratch on her wrist that served as a reminder.
Hannah settled Marmalade carefully into Cori's hands. The kitten, after a brief and businesslike assessment, tucked his head beneath Cori's chin and began to purr with an enthusiasm utterly disproportionate to his size.
"He does remember you," Hannah said, nodding once as though a matter had been settled.
"Animals usually remember people who mean well by them," Cori told her.
"Papa says that too." Hannah was quiet for a moment. "He says Biscuit is the most trouble of the litter though. But I think Marmalade is sneakier, which is worse."
"Strategic trouble is always the kind to watch for," Cori agreed with a nod.
Hannah nodded too with great seriousness and then she tipped her head to one side. "Do you think you will stay in England? Uncle Daniel says you might go back to Bermuda after the summer’s over."
Goodness. Had Cori been a topic of conversation at Linthorpe House? "I’m not yet certain," she said honestly. "There are things at home that need looking after." And now that Cara was remaining in England?—
"I hope you’ll stay,” Hannah said. “Marmalade does too.”
Cori smiled again at the child, completely taken aback that Hannah might have any opinion whatsoever about Cori’s comings or goings. An unfamiliar warmth settled in her chest.
She was still sitting with the feeling when she heard footsteps at the far end of the corridor. She looked up to find the Duke of Linthorpe standing there.
Cori gulped.
His Grace appeared in the corridor, clearly having come in search of his daughter and found considerably more than he had anticipated. His grey gaze moved from Hannah to Cori to Marmalade, and then back to Cori. Then she realized with complete and sudden horror that she was sitting on the floor of his corridor in her third choice of gown, and that the careful composure she'd crafted over the previous two hours had not survived contact with a five-year-old and a kitten.
She returned Marmalade to Hannah and pushed to her feet, suddenly close enough to catch the clean scent of sandalwood. His eyes were more direct than she'd prepared for, serious and yet with the very faintest suggestion of amusement held carefully in reserve.
"Your Grace," she said. "I believe I took a wrong turn."
"Ah, the retiring room—” he gestured behind him "—is the second door on the right. Not the left."
"Yes, Hannah was in the process of redirecting me," Cori said. "I’m afraid we got distracted."
"Marmalade escaped the kitchens, Papa," Hannah said, from the floor, with dignity.
"Indeed." He looked down at his daughter with an enigmatic expression. “He’s not the only one to escape this evening, it appears.” Then he glanced back at Cori. "You will have to forgive us, Miss Corinna. We usually keep a tighter ship at Linthorpe House.”
