To be precise, hesat. In the seat right next to hers.
Ugh. Now, Fleur would have to. There was no other way, no other choice.
She briefly considered the double mahogany doors at the back center of the room. Eight, maybe nine feet away—so close. Had they crossed paths at Gunter’s, Burlington Arcade, or Harding, Howell, and Co., she’d have recalled a missed engagement and excused herself. But she had come to bid on—and win—a copy of Lord Byron’sDon Juan. Fleur couldn’t very well leave and miss—
“Eying your escape, my lady?” His dark eyes glinted with amusement.
She was going to have to sit.
She did. The delicate wood legs of her chair scraped gleaming mahogany floors.
Hartwell slid a sideways glance that said,Are you trying to bring all eyes on us, you silly ninny?
“I confess, I considered it,” she said. “If it were not for a particular volume I am intent on procuring, I should have already begged off.”
“You bring much warmth to the soul,” he drawled.
She set her reticule down on the empty seat beside hers. “Not on account I dislike you, Hartwell.”
“The compliments continue coming.”
“As you are so very accustomed to them.”
“Yes.” His “yes” sounded like “of course, I am, youpeasant.”
Well, maybe not the peasant part.
As the duke settled back into his seat and folded his arms at his very broad chest, his rogue’s smile spoke to the fun he had at her expense.
He appeared unbothered and very well might be, but she was not cruel.
“It is not personal, Your Grace.”
“Are you asking me to leave?”
“Not at all.” She would if she thought it would make a difference, but he might as well have stuck a flag in his chair and declared it his newly claimed country. “It is only that, this is the first interaction between our families since…” She caught her lip. “Since…you know,” she finished weakly.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific, Lady Fleur.”
No, she didn’t. He knew very well what she was talking about.
“I am hardly the one who should open the lines of communication between my family and…well,you.”
“Why not you?”
“Naturally, I don’t possess the power or influence of my more mature family members.”
“Lady Fleur, you are more tolerable than all of your family members combined,” he declared.
Coming from him, that sounded as close to a compliment as Fleur would get.
Not that shewantedhis compliments. She most certainly did not. She would never. She would leave that to the future Diamond of her Season, eager to be chosen as his duchess. That would be the second woman chosen.
Maybe Fleurcouldbring accord to their families.
“Our families are not necessarily on the best of terms, Hartwell.”
“I cannot fathom why,” he said dryly.