Page 106 of The Scottish Duke
Perhaps she should have questioned him further. Or asked him if what she saw in his eyes was real. Instead, she only nodded, watching as he stood and made his way to the door.
Once there, he turned. They shared a look again, one that made her heartbeat escalate.
Robbie fussed at that moment, as if annoyed that her whole attention wasn’t on him. She glanced down at her son, and when she raised her head again, Alex was gone.
She stared at the closed door for a long time.
Chapter 27
Lorna made their bed herself, straightening the coverlet and fluffing the mattress. She stopped twice to hold Alex’s pillow against her face, breathing deeply. She felt foolish and nearly overcome with emotion.
She was a duchess, married to a duke, but not any duke. Alex. This morning, waking to his smile, had been glorious.
“Lorna?”
She came back to herself to see Nan standing in the doorway of the sitting room, smiling as brightly as the summer sun. The change to lady’s maid had been good for her. Not only was she given more status in the eyes of the staff, but she’d also received an increase in pay and a larger room.
“Are you ready?” Nan asked, removing her shawl. “I’ll bring in the dresses if you are. Here or in the sitting room?”
She peeked into the cradle to see Robbie still asleep. “In the sitting room,” she said. “I don’t want to wake him unless I have to. The little darling slept the whole night.”
Closing the door softly, she entered the sitting room to find that Nan had rearranged the chair and the table, giving them room in front of the settee.
A few minutes later Nan and Peter entered the room nearly buried by garments. Nan instructed the footman to put them on the nearby chair.
“I don’t remember that many,” Lorna said after Peter left.
“I’ve never seen Hortense work so hard,” Nan said. “At every meal, she doesn’t stop talking about patterns and fabrics. She even asked Mrs.McDermott if it would be possible to travel to Inverness to obtain some bolts of the newest material.”
“What did Mrs.McDermott say?”
She wasn’t as sanguine as Alex and Louise about people’s opinions. Besides, most of the staff had been friends of various degrees at one time.
Nan smiled. “That whatever you need Hortense to do she’s to do. You are, after all, the Duchess of Kinross. And quite a heroine to all the maids.”
“Whatever for?”
“All the girls believe that if it can happen to you, then they have a chance for happiness, too. Mrs.McDermott even lectured them.” Nan’s expression suddenly changed, as if she just realized what she’d said.
“On not acting the harlot?”
“She didn’t mean it that way, Lorna. She just wanted to caution the girls that there isn’t a happy ever after ending in everyone’s story.”
“Mrs.McDermott is right,” she said. “I’ve been lucky, haven’t I?”
“You would have managed, somehow,” Nan said.
Lorna glanced at her. “You’ve been so loyal and generous, Nan. I couldn’t have a better friend than you.”
“Even when I speak my mind?”
Lorna smiled. “Especially then. You’ve always given me wise counsel.”
“You didn’t always listen.”
“No, but if it hadn’t been for you, we wouldn’t be here now, would we?”
Nan answered the knock on the sitting room door. Hortense stood there, holding a tray, her eyes wide, her narrow face white with panic.
