Page 6 of Pride of Arm
She whipped around only to find Duncan entirely too close to her lips.
“Please say ‘you’ again? I’m not sure I recall how your lips looked when you were showing me how that word formed.”
She shot him a glare that said she knew exactly what he was up to. However, she patiently repeated “you” several times before glancing around the entryway anxiously.
“Are you looking for the earl and Lucy?”
“Yes. Aren’t they coming along to collect greenery for tonight? And the Yule log. That will take a long time to find just the right one.”
“They’ve been given an equally important task.”
From the superior look in his eyes, she suspected he knew more than he was saying about whatever was afoot to destroy all her carefully laid plans.
“And what could that possibly be?”
“They’re scouting out the banks of the River Rom to see if the ice is safe enough for skating later in the week.”
Grace jammed her hands at her hips. “Then just who is in charge of bringing back greenery to decorate before tonight?”
Duncan retrieved his his coat and Mrs. Phippen’s heavy woolen cape from a nearby footman. “Looks like it’s just you and me. We’d better get a march on.”
Lucy gave Hugh a conspiratorial grin.“Aunt Grace seems to have met her bossy match in the major.” They hid behind the heavy curtains at the floor-to-ceiling windows in the front sitting room, watching her aunt and Major MacKenzie head toward a horse-drawn sleigh being managed by one of the grooms and two footmen. A wagon with metal runners was attached to the back of the sleigh for dragging back the massive amounts of holly and mistletoe as well as the huge Yule log that would need to be large enough to burn throughout the twelve days and nights of the festivities.
Hugh stood close behind her, and when his hands casually cupped her elbows, she didn’t pull away. It felt good to see Hugh happy again, away from the worries of his former gambling hell and forgetting for a few moments the absence of Mina. The Duchess of Chelmsford, also known as Captain El, whose Goodrum’s House of Pleasure had stood next to Hugh and Julian’s gambling hell on Duke Street for many years, had purchased their establishment the minute Hugh had offered her the enterprise.
When he pulled Lucy gently around to face him after the sleigh had disappeared across the Viscount’s fields, Lucy stiffened. He still held her by her upper arms, and his mockinglips were within kissing distance, but she forced herself not to assume feelings she knew Hugh didn’t share. She stared up into the teasing light of his blue eyes and realized they were good friends, nothing more. Trying to make her thumping heart accept that reality, however, wasn’t easy.
“You, my fine girl, have a job to do.”
Lucy’s eyes widened. “What have you gotten me into now?”
“You will accompany me on the most important task of all.”
“And that would be…?”
“Our job is to find the most perfect spot along the River Rom for a moonlit night of skating.”
Lucy’s mouth dropped open. “You chose the easiest task of all and stuck Aunt Grace and Major MacKenzie with a full day of hard labor?”
“Yes, I certainly did.” He rubbed his hands together whilst favoring her with a dastardly grin. “And I’m not sorry.”
“Because?”
“Because my dear friend and necessary force in the reconstruction of Westmont, the major, has not tried to hie himself off to a tavern to get into Zeus knows what trouble ever since he’s been around your Aunt Grace.”
Lucy’s eyes opened wider. “You think the two of them…?” She trailed off, unwilling to hope.
“Oh, yes. And, as you well know, I’ve become somewhat of an expert at devining the signs of a man in love. Heaven knows I spent years watching Julian fall in love with Mina, all the while denying he was lost and acting like a perfect prat while he was at it.”
For a brief moment Lucy considered asking him exactly what the signs were of a man in love, but dismissed the idea out of hand. She had no idea what they might entail, but she was fairly sure Hugh was not exhibiting any of them toward her own plain self.
Hugh was convincedhe was a cad of the worst order, and would have kicked himself if he could have reached his arse. Maybe he should hire a kicking footman to follow him around and give him a good, swift kick whenever he needed reminding not to hurt Lucy’s feelings.
They’d known each other ever since Lucy and Mina were children together at the Abbey under the tutelage of Mrs. Phippen, the governess Rummy had hired to take wild young Mina in hand. When Lucy had been brought to the estate to give Mina a more reserved, well-behaved sort of companion, the opposite had occurred. Instead of civilizing Mina, Lucy had succumbed to Mina’s exuberant ways. The two of them had once managed to fall out of the old tree outside Mina’s window and Lucy had broken her arm. And then there were Lucy’s ill-fated, smelly lab experiments. Gad.
The many times he and Julian had joined Mina’s brothers for the school holidays at Montcliffe Abbey, they’d become accustomed to seeing the girls and teasing them for fun. Boys at that age were absolute beasts. He dreaded the eventual task of raising a son of his own. He supposed eventually, he’d find a decent woman he’d rub along with well enough to give his family entailment an heir. But first, he had to make his estate reasonably habitable so that an as yet undesignated countess would deign to live there. From the looks of the old pile, he figured that day was still far in the future.
He stole a glance at Julia riding next to him in the one-horse sleigh they’d commandeered from the stables. Lucy was bundled up in her crimson carriage dress, plus piles of blankets as well as a fur throw she’d wrapped around her so that only the upperpart of her pink cheeks and a bit of her pert, turned up nose were showing.