Page 24

Gently, she guided his arm back down. Then, she passed him, heading toward Mont’s stall. Mont took a step toward her and whinnied in greeting. He watched in consternation as she nuzzled the reclusive horse.

Well, damn. Both the horse and the lady surprised him this time.

How was he going to befriend this changeling? And which version of herself was she likely to present?

“We have a little more time.” She turned to him and smiled reassuringly. “Maybe you can tell me about Montgomery... and Chanson... and the others?”

His horses. Excellent. Them, he could talk about with ease.

As for the future, he’d worry about that on the morrow. For now, he was simply glad he’d survived the first assignation.

***

Hopeful. Tender. Eager for the next interaction. Lenora felt exactly as she’d hoped she would feel when Emily had told her to imagine the result she desired. She closed her eyes, wrapped her arms around her waist, and swayed back and forth as if she were dancing.

Perhaps she was dancing—dancing with the wonderful thing called life!

She’d done the impossible. She’d had her first successful assignation with Asquith. Together, they’d taken tentative steps toward friendship.

Their interactions had been different this time; she hadn’t resorted to trickery to make him undress, nor had she initiated a kiss. She hadn’t even given in to temptation and lured him into an embrace.

All they’d done was talk.

First, when they’d been discussing the past, things had been awkward. But then, they’d agreed to be friends, and he’d talked with her at length about his horses. And every second she’d listened had been glorious.

How could something as mundane as a conversation about livestock make her heart take flight?

She grinned widely and gave herself a shake.

In her current mood, ascending three stories to the attic would be effortless. She grabbed the balustrade, leapt up toward the first stair, and then landed. The wood moaned loudly beneath her feet.

“Ah, there you are, child!”

Lenora winced. “Godmama?”

“The servants know to avoid the center of that first step,” Lady Asquith’s disembodied voice continued to radiate from somewhere toward the front of the house. “And, since Miss Annette and Lady Emily are still puttering around upstairs, the culprit could only be you, Miss Lenora.”

Lenora squeezed her face into a tight ball. How could she have forgotten about the creak? Last Season, she and her sisters had mastered the art of moving up and down the stairs unheard.

“I’m in the yellow parlor,” Lady Asquith continued. “Join me, will you?”

Well, Lenora could hardly refuse.

She imagined how Eliza might act if caught in a transgression. Eliza would project an aura of self-possession, as though she had not committed a sin.

Lenora straightened her apron, ran her hand over her hair, and lifted her chin. There. Now she was ready to face her sisters’ Godmama.

Whose son she’d seen naked. And blackmailed. And kissed.

She placed a hand over her stomach and forced a bright smile. When she reached the room, she found Lady Asquith sitting erect on a chair the Wainwright girls privately referred to as her throne.

“Godmama.” Already Lenora’s cheeks were hurting. She greeted Lady Asquith with a light kiss on her cheek. “Were you—ah—looking for me?”

“Of course not.”

Lenora exhaled.

“I asked Clarice to look for you.”