Page 53 of The Duke of Distraction
He opened a jar of glue and picked up the brush that sat beside it.Dipping the brush into the adhesive, he used the implement to slather it on the basket.Then he stuck wads of the moss onto the wet glue.
“What on earth are you doing?”she asked, having joined him at the end of the table.
He glanced up at her, encouraged that she’d followed him.“Making a hat.”
“With glue?”
He blinked up at her.“Is there a better way?Perhaps you would like to show me?”
She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes.“No.”
“I shall continue, then.”Determined to engage her, he got up and fetched a few more items for his basket hat: pigeon feathers, a small fan, and a rosebud.
“Wherever did you find that fan?”she asked as he considered where to attach it.
“No idea.I asked the staff to bring me a variety of things, and this was one of them.I think there’s an old stocking somewhere in the pile.”He set the fan on top of the hat to give it height, but it didn’t look right.Next, he tried putting it on sideways so that it looked like a fin on the side of the hat.“Oh yes, this will do,” he murmured, slapping a dollop of glue onto the basket and then pressing the fan on top of it.
“That looks ridiculous.”
Felix looked up at her in faux innocence.“Does it?And here I was hoping to persuade you to wear it.”
She rolled her eyes.“What is your true intent here?”
“The same as always: to have a good time.Would you rather scowl at my pathetic efforts or join me?I am confident you will create something far finer than I.”
She arched a brow at him.“Is that a challenge?”
Oh yes, this was the Sarah he was hoping to provoke.“It is.”
“I bet I can make something worse than yours.”
That was not what he’d expected, but it was far, far better.He laughed.“Just you try.”
She spun on her heel and walked around the table picking up various items.Then she returned to his end and sat down as she began to quietly assemble her hat.The first thing she did was open her own jar of glue.Using a newspaper as the base, she attached a variety of ribbons to the sides.
“See how helpful the glue is?”he asked.
“For my project, yes.For your basket, no.I am confident the glue leaked through the weave.Aside from creating a mess, it may make the basket uncomfortable for the wearer.”
He stared at her in mock surprise.“Comfort goes into your design?”
She ignored him as she finished gluing her ribbons.Felix picked up the basket and saw there were indeed dried dollops of glue on the tablecloth.Thankfully, the staff had possessed the foresight to cover the table.He peered into the basket and saw clumps of glue in a few places.
“You could sew the moss on,” she suggested.“Unless you’re done with that.”
He had no desire to sew anything.Picking up the brush once more, he dabbed glue on the base of the open fan and carefully stuck the pigeon feathers on.
“You should sew those too,” she said.
“I can’t sew.”
“You can’t make hats either, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping you.”
He grinned, but she didn’t look up from her work.She’d glued a teacup to the top of the newspaper.
He surveyed his hat.God, it was hideous.It needed ribbon, for function as much as form.If the objective was to make it as awful as possible, perhaps he should use the old stocking.He stood and went in search of it but couldn’t find it.Glancing back toward Sarah, he saw her gently gluing the edge of it—she’d torn it in half—to another edge of the paper.
Blast.
