Page 5 of The Duke of Kisses
Then, before she could lose her courage, she turned and fled.
By the time she reached the door to the drawing room at the rear of the house, she was breathless, both from her dash through the snow and her encounter with David.
Ivy met her at the door, her forehead creased. “Fanny! I’ve been so worried.” She pulled her sister inside and wrapped her in a fierce hug. When she drew back, she looked down at Fanny’s snow-covered cloak. “You’re soaking wet.”
“And now you are too,” Fanny said with a touch of irony.
“So it would seem.” Ivy raised her gaze to Fanny’s. “Where have you been?”
“Trying to save a rabbit.”
“Of course you were,” Ivy muttered. Her gaze snapped to Fanny’s skirts. “Did you fall down too?” She shook her head. “Never mind. You need a warm bath. At once.”
“Yes, Ivy.” Fanny leaned forward and kissed her sister’s cheek before departing the drawing room. On the way, she waved at Lucy and Aquilla, Ivy’s two dearest friends, who were on the floor with their baby boys and Ivy’s daughter, Leah.
After dinner that night, they tried the Queen’s tradition of lighting candles on a tree. When they were lit, Fanny gasped in wonder.
Ivy, holding Leah against her chest, moved close to Fanny’s side, smiling. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
“Who knows where you’ll be this time next year,” Ivy said with a touch of sadness. “You may be married. I’ll miss you, especially when we’ve just found each other.” Ivy had left home more than a decade ago and had only renewed contact with Fanny and the rest of their family last fall.
“I’ll miss you too. I maynotbe married, however. Maybe I’m meant to be a spinster.”
Ivy laughed. “No, not you.”
“You nearly were.”
“Yes, and as you can see, you can never be too sure about the path you’re meant to take.” Her gaze settled lovingly on her husband, West, the Duke of Clare, who stood chuckling with his friends, Lucy’s husband, the Earl of Dartford, and Aquilla’s husband, the Earl of Sutton.
Fanny thought about the path she’d taken that day and decided that while it had been a small moment, it had been an important one. She doubted she’d be able to shake David from her mind. Nor did she particularly want to. Indeed, she hoped she’d encounter him again.
In the meantime, she had ornithology books to study.
