“Oh. Did I offend you, my beloved?”
He gave her a small smile that was not quite a smile. “Thoroughly. You should be punished for your insolence.”
“Your Grace.”
“You ought to be sent to bed without supper.”
“It is half past nine in the morning.”
“Then sent to bed without nuncheon. The principle stands.”
She did not mean to laugh again. The wretch was making her with the light touch on the back of her hand. He was doing it on purpose, and she did not mean to give him the satisfaction of knowing it had worked.
However, he seemed to know. He rested his fingertips very briefly on the side of her waist where her pelisse buttoned, turned her down a path that veered off the main walk, then let his hand drop before Sally could catch them at it.
“I had not vanished,” he said quietly. “I had been standing at the fourth window for an hour and a quarter watching you not look at me.”
“That is not vanishing.”
“It felt like vanishing.”
“Oh, did it, Your Grace?”
“Yes.” He paused.
He did not look at her. He looked at the path.
The path was bordered by a low hedge, the hedge was bordered by a stretch of trampled grass, and beyond the grass was a small cluster of plane trees. Cassian nudged her in the direction of the plane trees which were not visible from where Daphne and Isaac were now standing over the leafhopper.
“Lady Alice, we must talk.”
“Must we?”
“About the other night.”
“Oh.”
She had been waiting for this. She had been waiting for it since the carriage ride home. She had been waiting for it since she had lain awake in her bed and watched the strip of light. She had been waiting for it, and she had imagined it a dozen different ways, and she had not been able to imagine even one of them in which she ended the conversation feeling steadier than she had begun it.
She drew a breath and let it out slowly.
“You mean,” she said, “when you kissed me.”
“When you kissed me back, Lady Alice.”
“Surely, I did not.”
“Quite desperately.”
“Your Grace!”
“You did. But I shall not press the point. I shall press a different one.” He stopped.
They had reached the cluster of plane trees. He turned her gently by the elbow so that her back was to the wider path. The trunk of the nearest tree was at her shoulder, and he stood at the other shoulder.
She could not see Sally from this position, and Sally could not see her.
Cassian had arranged this neatly. He had arranged it the way he arranged everything—deliberately, using the exact amount of rope he had been given.