Page 31 of Her Heartless Duke
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
“Idaresay, cousin, you look as lovely as a freshly bloomed rose today!” Fiona sang as she sat beside Olivia in the drawing room. “Tell me—what has you glowing? Has a gentleman been courting you? Who is this suitor that has you all radiant? Oh, you must tell me all the details!”
“Hush, you!” Olivia chided her cousin as a familiar warmth crept up her cheeks. “What suitor are you harping on about? There is no such thing!”
She could hardly call Isaac a suitor and they were not exactlycourting—not in the manner that Fiona was expecting, at the very least.
He was merely teaching her to dance in preparation for Lady Willow’s dance competition. That, and they enjoyed each other’s company immensely. Or perhaps, a little too well than what was appropriate.
Still, he was not hers to claim as a suitor. Not when he was still trying to get back with Lady Vivian.
“Is that a letter from your beau? Come, let me see it!”
Fiona grabbed the letter from her hands before she could eke out a word of protest, her cousin nimbly dancing out of reach as she eagerly devoured the contents of the letter.
Olivia watched as her mischievous smile morphed into one of utter confusion, and then, disappointment.
“This letter is from the Duke of Langley,” she told Olivia.
“That is correct.”
“But it is not addressed toyou.”
“Correct again.”
“B-but…I do not understand,” Fiona stammered. “Why do you have a letter from His Grace addressed to Lady Vivian?”
Olivia quietly smoothed the skirts of her dress, carefully avoiding her cousin’s gaze. “That is because I told him that I would deliver it to her,” she replied softly. “And that I would have her write back to him.”
Fiona frowned, her pretty brows drawing together. “Do you share Lady Vivian’s confidence?”
“Well,no.”
“You are not even close friends,” her cousin pointed out. “How could you ever convince her to write back to His Grace? And for that matter, why did you openhisletter to her?”
“Well, that’s because Ilied. Sort of,” Olivia pursed her lips as she looked down to where she had caused a massive wrinkle in her day dress from twisting the fabric—a nervous mannerism she had never quite managed to outgrow.
Fiona gaped at her before rushing over to sit beside her. “Youliedto theDuke?” she exclaimed. “Olivia, what could have possessed you to do so?”
“Oh, I know it was a grave mistake,” she moaned, pressing her face into her hands. “But I saw how well he danced with you that night at the Townsend ball and I thought that maybe, if he could teach me, then I might have a good chance of winning Lady Willow’s dance competition!”
“Olivia!” her cousin exclaimed. Then, upon noticing her words were doing little to assuage the apprehension coursing through her cousin, Fiona reached out a consoling hand to pat her back. “Could you not have hired a dance tutor or something?”
“How could I? You saw how Daniel reacted to the idea—he would never agree to it! Besides, there are not many that could even rival the Duke of Langley’s skills.”
“Well, you do have a good point,” Fiona agreed. “But still…Olivia, theDuke…!”
Her cousin did not need to stress just how dire the consequences would be if Isaac were to find out the truth.
“I heard that he still meant to court Lady Vivian,” she told Fiona miserably. “I thought that if I could offer myself up as some sort of liaison between them, he might be more inclined to teach me. I did not know that I would actually succeed or that he would actually agree to it!”
Fiona sighed as she rubbed soothing circles on her cousin’s back. “Well, now you’ve gotten yourself into a rather fine mess.”
“Oh, Fi, you do not have to tell me—I know all too well how much trouble I have gotten myself into.”
“But in spite of all that, you did get a rather fine dance tutor for yourself, did you not?” her cousin smiled mischievously at her.
Olivia nodded in agreement. All things considered, she was learning to dance rather admirably under Isaac’s tutelage. Not only that, but she was enjoying his company too.