She was going to have to let go of Nolan’s hand at some point and yet, as she led him along the long corridor of the Dower House, she couldn’t find it in herself to do so. That strange sensation she had felt on the path when the backs of his fingers had brushed her neck was back, but this time the tingles were shooting up her arm from where their hands clasped. It was thrilling and strange and not what she had expected from spending time with the stuffy Duke, who might not be stuffy at all.
‘It is through here,’ she said, stopping in front of a heavy wooden door. She should let go of his hand now. It was one thing trespassing in the Dower House; it was quite another walking into a bedroom with an unmarried man. But this was Nolan. He would not try to compromise her, would he? She gazed at his firm jaw, more’s the pity.
She pushed the door open and stepped inside, Nolan coming with her.
The curtains were drawn, but the summer light spilled around the edges, lighting the room. Everything was covered in ghostly, white dust sheets. ‘This is not how I remember it.’
‘Presumably she kept her perfume on a desk of some kind. Could that be it?’ He gestured to the corner of the room where something squat and wide was covered.
‘Most possibly.’
To remove the dust sheet, they had to stop holding hands. She thought she heard a sigh of disappointment but she could have been imagining it. Or the sound could have come from her. Underneath the cloth was a treasure trove of bottles in all shapes and sizes.
‘These are beautiful,’ said Nolan, picking one up and raising it to a shard of light coming around the thick curtains. ‘Look at the symmetry.’
The sun hit the bottle exactly right, sending rainbows across the floor. ‘It is lovely.’
‘See, mathematics can make things magnificent.’ He grinned at her and her heart turned over. ‘The calculations that must have been made to make this perfect…’ His smile faded. ‘I do apologise. I am being dull again.’
‘Not at all,’ she rushed to reassure him, cursing herself for the millionth time over her carelessness. ‘You are right. That is flawless.’
‘Yes,’ he said, holding her gaze. ‘I believe it is.’
Somehow she thought they were no longer talking about the bottle. She opened her mouth to say something, when she heard a noise straight out of a nightmare.
Someone else was entering the Dower House.
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