The Indian Maiden by Edith Layton

Author:Edith Layton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Can it be that my recent spate of sociability has so exonerated me socially as to make my hosts trust me completely?” he asked bemusedly. “Not that I planned to molest you, mind, not that that’s such a terrible idea,” he added quickly on a smile, “but it’s singular to find that such correct persons as my hosts have decided to trust me not to do so. There isn’t another person in sight,” he mused, clearly not altogether pleased at this freedom he was supposedly extolling, “and we’re not even on horseback.”

But now Faith’s wits had returned to her. “I think,” she said wryly, “that it might be more that they don’t care a jot anymore. No, no,” she corrected herself hastily as she saw the quick sympathy spring to his eyes, “that’s not strictly true either. It’s only coincidence, I suppose. The duchess is away just now, and Lady Mary has last-minute party arrangements in hand, and everyone else is off primping or some such, I expect. I don’t know, really,” she admitted, a little hurt, now that she thought about it, by the notion that they thought her so disgraceful or believed her reputation so defiled that there was no further need of protecting it, so that she went on to say boldly, “And I really don’t care, not really. I expect you’ve better things to do with your afternoon than molesting me, anyway. But thank you very much,” she said sincerely, looking down at his present and so missing the wicked grin he put on at her words, as well as the step closer that he’d taken to her.

She had only begun to take off the wrappings, finding herself almost as a child again in her eagerness to see the present, feeling the same juvenile wonderment and pleasure at knowing that whatever it was, it was something that he’d thought about and brought expressly for her when she hadn’t even been thinking of him, when their privacy was ended.

The butler appeared at the doorway to the salon, bearing a large, gaily wrapped parcel. “Excuse me, my lord, Miss Hamilton,” he said after he saw that he’d gained their attention. “Lady Mary said that I might find you here, Miss Hamilton, as it appears that this package has just been delivered by a messenger, and is addressed to you.”

“No, no,” Lord Deal said at once, taking his own package from her hands so she could receive the one the butler handed to her. “Now I insist you open up the other first. It might be,” he jested, “that mine will be so diminished by this one that I’ll want to hide it in the coal bin. It’s only fair,” he protested, holding his present behind his back and sidestepping her as she laughingly attempted to take it back again. “You have to give me the opportunity to snatch mine back and get you a better one if I have to.”

By the very way he said it, Faith was sure his gift was unique and wonderful and she was doubly anxious to see it.

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