“What exactly am I seeing, Louisa?”
She blinked, not quite sure how to answer that since she didn’t know what she was seeing either. “You should know that better than me, shouldn’t you? How long have you been standing there, staring at us?”
“I don’t know, ten minutes, perhaps. I’m not sure if I’m still dreaming. If I’m not, it seems that I just found my sister in the bed of our gardener.”
Well, how could she argue against that? Her mind also hadn’t caught up to the situation. “To be fair, he is not our gardener.”
“But you are in bed with him.”
Well, yes. “Your eyesight is still as sharp as ever,” Louisa muttered. Honestly, she was curious, too. Her gaze shifted to the duke, who remained oblivious as he continued to sleep, the rise and fall of his chest almost peaceful. He seemed younger this way. Not at all like a powerful man in the world. The entire scene felt strange.
“Does that mean . . .”
Louisa held her breath, not knowing what her brother might say, and not knowing why she was holding her breath because of it.
“Does that mean I can sleep in the same bed as Miss Hale?”
The words, when they finally came, echoed in her mind louder than they did in the room. Louisa shot upright at the same time a chuckle came from beside her. Her eyes whipped to the man in bed with her, locking with his deep amber ones. Her heart thumped at the amusement she found dancing in the depths of them.
Wait, no, priorities! She glared at her brother. “No, you may not!”
“Why not?” he asked. “You slept in the same bed as the gardener. You are even holding him.”
Right, she was! Louisa snatched back her arm. Priorities, priorities, priorities. Which should be to extract herself from theduke first! She yanked her foot back as well. The duke, on the other hand, was much slower to retract himself.
She sent him a hot look.
He chuckled and slowly sat up, drawing his body to rest against the wall at the head of the bed. “My apologies,” he said, his voice still thick with sleep. “I meant to sleep in the drawing room.”
“Then why didn’t you?” Louisa bit out, trying hard not to notice just how devilishly handsome the Duke of Mortimer was with bed hair, several strands tumbling over his forehead. Normally, since he dressed so humbly, he didn’t seem to care much about styling his hair. But this—this was another roguish level altogether.
It was unfair, truly. He had no business looking so effortlessly, dashingly disheveled.
“I merely rested my head on the pillow for a bit and must have fallen asleep.”
Louisa scowled, hoping the heat rising to her cheeks wasn’t visible but entirely internal. “You shouldn’t have rested your head on the pillow at all!”
“I know.” Dry humor flashed in the depth of his gaze. “It was too tempting to resist.”
Louisa had no response to that, so she turned back to her brother, who simply stood staring at them curiously. “As you heard, this was a mere accident never to be repeated again. Don’t bother the servants with ridiculous requests.”
Leo gave a small pout. “Then you put a ridiculous request to our gardener and that’s why he’s here?”
“I am to blame this time,” Mortimer told Leo. “When you are an adult, only then can you bother ladies with ridiculous requests.”
Oh, lord. Change the subject. “I cannot believe I slept like a log last night. It’s never happened before. At least not in the last ten years.”
“Perhaps this will mark a change in your sleeping habits,” Leo remarked, his tone still sour.
Louisa rubbed her eyes. “One can only hope. Where is Mr. Helgate?” she asked her brother.
“He had an errand to run, but he prepared water and a cloth so you can wash yourself. I also brought your traveling bag with your clothes.”
Bless Mr. Helgate. “How about you? You didn’t get into any trouble, did you?”
Leo shook his head so fast it’s a wonder it didn’t fall off. “I did not! We caught two fish yesterday.”
“Did you cook them?”
