“This is it. Our London home.” She grinned, waiting for him.
He walked as if through molasses.Our London home. Which meant she had another home somewhere else. Perhaps more than one.
When he reached her, he pulled her back around the corner, out of sight of that Mayfair mansion. He couldn’t go in there.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
“The admiral’s townhome is not quite so large.”
“It’s lovely. I’ve been many times. Of course I am mostly there to discuss books, but the admiral possesses a fascinating collection of star maps. Oh and Mrs. Garrison is so very good at embroidery. Quite the artist.”
“I'm aware. Here. Look.” He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, handed it to her. The edges of the pristine white cloth were embroidered with stars and moons and suns in the same color. “She gifts me a whole box of them on every birthday. I have so many I do not need to send out for them.”
She ran her fingers lovingly over the white, threaded shapes. “Perfect.” She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a good glare. “I’m quite put out with you. To think, I could have met you so much sooner.”
“You would have liked that, would you?” He wasn’t sure he would like it. “Had we met before now, we would not have met as equals but as a duke’s sister and an orphan.”
She waved his concerns away. “As a duke’s sister and her dear friend’s adopted son, the ward of a man much revered throughout the nation. My interest would have been as aroused as it is now.”
“Aroused, hm?”
She rested her head against his arm.
He took the handkerchief back, folded it carefully, trying to wrap his discomfort up with it. “Even if you had not been trespassing on my premises, I would have met you soon enough. Aunt Lavinia made mepromise to attend a ball given by her good friend the Viscountess Noble. That is your sister, I assume?”
“Do you think we would have danced?”
“I have the distinct impression my aunt was going to make me dance with every unmarried lady. And that includes you.”
“And what would you have thought about me? Beneath the candles of a crowded ballroom, dressed in my best finery. I might have worn a feather in my hair.”
“I’d have plucked the feather from your hair and kept it for myself.” Because he’d know he could not have her, and he’d want something to remember her by. He peeked around the corner, spied the mansion where she’d grown up. Bloody hell.
“Now you will attend with me and have at least two dances. Let the tongues wag. And I will give you my feather so you may trace it all over me the next time you have me undressed and beneath you.”
He stumbled, his feet tripping over air.
She noticed just enough to steady him. “You will meet all my sisters at the ball. And the Haws will be there, too. I have considered sneaking into the Hestia to search again. They’ll be gone for hours and—”
“No.”
“I’m aware I cannot,” she grumbled. “Stealing from your guests is like stealing fromyou,and I have put enough work into expanding the Hestia these last weeks that it would frankly feel like stealing fromme.”
“I’ll continue thinking on it.” He needed to give her this because that hulking house… what else could he ever give her? Townhouse, good-enough gowns? His heart. Would it ever be enough for a woman born with the world at her fingertips?
Isabella peered down the street both ways, then she popped up on toe, and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
She pulled away, but his arms decided not to let her go. Not yet. Because a giant house with a duke inside loomed behind her, and right now, when he couldn’t see the architectural evidence of who she really was, she was simply Isabella—sweet and bold. And his.
And he was going to solve her most pressing problem, give her what no one else could—that cursed letter.
She lingered not at all, wiggling out of his embrace and tugging him around the corner. Toward the mansion. No longer his fairy Isabella, unknown force of power, but Lady Isabella.
He stayed in the shadows as she rushed toward the light.
“Rowan?” Her head tilted, one leg extended toward the street she would soon cross. It seemed like a roaring river over which he could not pass. But she possessed the golden boat that would glide her across with ease.
“We should solve your brother’s problem before we announce anything.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Don’t you think?”
