She was thankful for sure, but he sounded eager to be rid of her. The thought stung a little.
Then it occurred to her, and she leaned in closer to him. His indefinable, musky scent washed over her and through her, making her dizzy. “You’re not thinking of coming with me, are you?”
He blinked at her, then the slightest hint of a smile curled his lips. “It has crossed my mind, but I won’t leave Dartmouth in the hands of Cavendish.”
She looked across the hall to where his stepbrother sat with a buxom female and a group of other men. Timothy Cavendish was one of the bullies in young Grayson Barrington’s life. Now, he stood to inherit everything. Aria scowled at him.
Watching her, the marquess drew her gaze to his widening smile. “You hate those who hate me,” he said, sounding almost stunned to Aria’s ears.
“Yes,” she said without hesitation, then immediately blushed.
“Your reputation might be tarnished if you don’t revile me and leave my side. We will meet on the—”
“I’m not going to revile you or leave your side. At least not until I find my door.” She offered him her sincerest smile and watched him swallow and look away. “Where did you want to meet? Let’s go there now.”
“To the next door,” he answered hesitantly, then stood and led the way.
He surprised her. She thought, maybe, secretly hoped, that he might try to spend more time with her. He looked and sounded like he wanted to. She wasn’t disappointed that he denied himself. It was a commendable trait in a man.
“Do you have the key?”
She reached into a hidden pocket in the folds of her gown and pulled out the golden key. He brought her to the first door on the second landing. It was the door to Lord and Lady Albenum’s room while they were visiting. They were in the dining hall, so trying the key in their door wasn’t a problem.
By the tenth door Aria noticed her fingers were beginning to shake and her heart rate accelerated with each new door they tried. Would this be the one? Would she just walk through it and enter the future without him? Why wouldn’t she? She didn’t owe him anything. She wasn’t in love with him. She hardly knew him! Why was she having an anxiety attack every time she tried another door?
“My lord,” she said after the twenty-third door, “my family can’t make it without my help.”
“Then you must not tarry, Lady,” he said, sounding terribly tender to her ears.
She must not tarry. She followed him to the next door and slipped the key into the keyhole.
“Thank you for helping me,” she told him, pausing until she pushed the door open.
He said nothing so she opened the door and looked inside. It wasn’t the future. Her heartbeat slowed as she closed the door.
“Why are you helping me, by the way?”
“If you find your door and disappear behind it, I will be free of what they have planned for me.”
So, that was the reason he was so eager to see her go, so he could break free.
“You think I was sent purposely for you?” she asked him.
“You were given my key by who I’m certain is…was…my grandmother Tessa Blagden—over two centuries in the future. So, yes, it would seem so.” Tessa aka Hester Blagden. Mrs. B. The same person she had blamed when the key sent her here. Was this all Mrs. B.’s plan, as impossible as it was? “It would seem so,” she repeated, agreeing. “But why? Mrs. B. knew how much my family needed me. She helped us through so much after the accident. She made my dreams of dancing come true. And now I’m supposed to believe that she’s some witch with evil intent.”
“I’m told that in a future I may possibly spend with you, we will have sons.”
“No, that’s impossible,” she whispered, horrified. “I can’t abandon my family. I’ll never abandon them.”
Were her eyes deceiving her? Was that a genuine smile forming on his face, in his eyes and on his lips.
“Then let’s keep checking.”
Chapter Eleven
After fifty-eight doors,they stopped for the night.
“Maybe it’s not here.”