“I am able to look at other ladies,” Luke muttered darkly.
Miss Storey has not bewitched me, despite how enjoyable it is to be looking at those green eyes.
“Her Grace seemed to be watching you most intently for the night. When she and I exchanged pleasantries, she gave no inference that yourattachmentto one another was at an end, Luke.”
“She did not?” Luke said with interest and lowered his gun once again.
“Not a hint.” Adam shook his head, apparently equally interested in the idea. “Maybe your conversation needs to be reiterated to her.”
As Adam took his shot, Luke popped the gun and released the cartridges, grumbling under his breath. The last thing he needed was the Duchess of Bannerman back in his life.
“I won, by the way,” Luke said, returning their focus to the shoot. Adam was clearly about to argue when more pheasants were released into the air. Luke put more cartridges in the gun and fired, taking two down within seconds. As he turned with a triumphant smile in Adam’s direction, his friend shook his head.
“Very well, dinner is on me.”
***
“Noah? What is that sound?” Luke asked as he stepped into the hallway of Noah’s townhouse, walking past the butler. Noah was standing a little further down the hall, shedding his own frock coat, having clearly just arrived home.
Noah tilted his head to the side, listening in. Luke winced at the sound, realising a few seconds later what it had to be.
“I see my sister is improving at the harp,” his wry words earned a glare from Noah, which was half-amused, and half a reprimand. “What?” Luke said with an innocent shrug.
Noah laughed and beckoned him to follow as they made their way through the house in search of Jemima.
Since the day before, when Luke had gone shooting with Adam, he had felt he needed to see his sister again. Not just to check on her after the ball but to clear his own head too.
Help me think of something other than Miss Storey, sister!
Luke followed his brother-in-law through two corridors before they appeared in the music room. At the far end of the space, beyond a piano and stands of music, Jemima was sat with a harp, strumming it rather too firmly and with a perfect look of anger on her face. She seemed to be so mad that she had not noticed their arrival.
“We could leave again unnoticed,” Luke whispered to Noah before his brother-in-law grabbed his arm, stopping him from leaving at all.
“Love? Are you well?” Noah’s soft call cut across the harp playing, and the strings abruptly stopped. Jemima looked up, jumping so much at their arrival that she nearly fell off her stool. “You were improving at the harp. Now you strum it as a soldier bangs a drum ready for battle.” Noah crossed the room quickly toward her. “What has happened?” Before Noah waited for an answer, he bent down and kissed Jemima on the forehead.
Luke hovered in the doorway, with all his usual wants for a jest vanishing. He felt as if he was intruding on a private moment, so he did not step further in, yet his eyes lingered. He watched the way that Noah closed his eyes at that kiss with his hand touching his wife’s shoulder. Luke also watched how Jemima held onto Noah’s arm too, holding him to her for a beat longer. It was as if such a simple touch brought so much to them. There was power in those tiny touches.
What would it be to know what that is like?
“It is nothing, only my own thoughts,” Jemima said with a smile, then her eyes flicked to the doorway where she saw Luke. “And him!” That smile vanished.
“I see my company is much desired today,” Luke said with a sarcastic smile. “Shall I go again?” He was half out the door when Jemima called to him.
“Stop! Not another move, Brother.” She stood to her feet and beckoned him back in.
“What did he do now?” Noah asked, looking down at Jemima with a half-amused smile on his face. Luke half wondered if Noah wished to hold Jemima back from him, rather entertained by how she was when she was mad. Her cheeks had blushed a dark red, and her hair was beginning to come down out of her updo.
“Do? He did exactly what I asked him not to.” Jemima stepped around her husband and marched toward the door, through which Luke had barely poked his head. “Are you so afraid of your older sister, Luke, that you will hide behind the doorframe?”
“You threw a shoe at me when we were little,” Luke said playfully, earning a smile from his sister that momentarily broke through her anger.
“You put a frog in my bed.”
“I was seven.”
“And should have known better!”
“If we are to have an argument, shall we discuss the matter at hand?” Noah called with amusement as he sat down on the stool that Jemima had just vacated by the harp. “Judging by this instrument and the state of the strings, it had been taking the brunt of the anger so far.”