“You do not. I am going to buy it for you. A present to celebrate your great achievement. Every successful inventor should have his own copy.”
“I have no gift for you in return.” The deficit stung. He had a small collection of coins in his pocket from his own funds. He used nothing else these days, and what he didn’t use to feed himself, he saved. For Frederick’s. He could always buy her a gift as the duke’s brother, have it billed and paid for with his inheritance.
Then the gift would not be solely from him. But then, he’d not dip into his funds for Frederick’s. He scratched his neck, feeling his muscles harden to knots.
She did not notice his inner turmoil but breezed past him, humming. “What have I done to merit a gift?”
A thought he had about himself and his circumstances daily.
But shediddeserve a gift, for helping him last night, for desiring to help others. Damn, even the letter she’d written him had been an attempt to help. He’d hated it at the time, but now… His fingers itched to touch his breast pocket where the creased and wrinkled paper lay. She’d helped him, too. She deserved everything he could give her.
What he had wasn’t even close to what she deserved.
CHAPTER10
Lillian peered across the crowded ballroom, tapping her foot and slapping her fan against her palm. Where was he? She’d attended tonight’s event expressly to speak with Lord Littleton. She’d rather be at home, in her bedroom, enjoying a glass of wine and wondering how she’d found herself engaged to the last man she wished to be connected to. A man she’d so often wished to slap. A man who, at one significant point in her life not too far in the past, she’d have given anything to have smile at her.
Life proved confusing more often than not.
She could not let Lord Littleton become confused. She must be the first to tell him. Ah, there he was. She leaned over to her aging sponsor, Lady Smythington, and spoke into her ear trumpet. “I must speak with Lord Littleton. Are you well here?”
Lady Smythington nodded and pushed her off. She’d always been that way, nodding and pushing with a slightly harried grin. Lillian could not decide if that made her an excellent sponsor and chaperone or a horrible one.
Well, Lillian had not been compromised on the woman’s watch, so that said something.
She pushed through the crowd and locked eyes with her prey. He inclined his head, but then his gaze strayed from her, as if she bored him.
She found his side swiftly and curtsied.
“You are early for our dance,” he said.
“My lord, I am anxious to speak with you tonight. Do you think we might step outside, or somewhere more private?”
“There can be nothing you have to say to me that requires such privacy, Miss Clarke. At such a time privacy is needed, I will let you know.”
Bother. She’d have to spill the news here and now. She rolled her lips between her teeth and smoothed her skirts. “Very well. If that is what you wish.” She met his eyes and held his gaze, daring him without words to turn away. “I must tell you some rather unexpected news. I wanted you to hear it from me and no one else. I am engaged. To Lord Devon Pennworthy.”
She searched his face for a reaction and found none. “Lord Devon.” He seemed to chew the name. To taste it. “Have the two of you been… acquainted before now?”
Did he mean anything other than acquainted, anything more? Was his question one of intimacies given and taken before their proper time? Surely not.
“We have known one another for a year now. My good friend is the Duchess of Collingford.”
“I’m well aware of the fact.” His jaw ticked.
She stood her ground.
He flicked his gaze over her head. “What I am saying is that this seems sudden.”
“We became better acquainted at a house party over Christmas.” A good enough explanation for their sudden engagement. “He has been working closely on a project with my father. We have come to know one another well during that time.”
“I see.”
He remained unconvinced. Lillian needed to pull out the heavy artillery. “We fell in love rather slowly. I did not know he felt as I did until just yesterday. Once he confessed the contents of his heart, I could not turn him away.”
“Because you return his affections.”
She nodded. “It is like a fairy tale. We are fated souls.” That was laying it on thick. “I do apologize. I truly respect you and did not mean to play with your emotions.”
