Page 26 of The Earl and the Reluctant Lady
She blinked up at him in confusion. She had been so lost in her obsession with his smell, it took her a moment to understand his words. “Who is watching me?”
“Glenbrook.” He nodded his head slightly indicating the area of the room to their right.
She glanced that way and did indeed find Sullivan watching as Fletcher led her around. When she caught the man’s gaze, he smirked at her—as if he knew precisely how vulnerable she was to Fletcher’s charms. She quickly looked away.
Was she really so obvious?
If Sullivan could read her attraction to Fletcher from across the room, who else could tell what a ninny she was being? Did Fletcher himself know? She nearly groaned with the thought of it.
“Might I call upon you sometime this week, Agnes?”
Her heart seemed to stutter in her chest. She looked up at him and tried to gage the seriousness in his request. Was he teasing her? “Why?”
“’Tis a simple request.” For once, there was no mischievous gleam in his gaze. No glint of humor or amusement. Only earnest admiration…and the faintest hint of his own vulnerability. “Would you deny me?”
“No, of course not.”
What if Tilly and Justine were right, and Fletcher was going to court her now that Christopher was out of town? How could she possibly say no?
How could she deny that this was the secret dream her heart had clung to for all these long years? That this was the reason she had been so cold to all her other potential suitors? None of them had made her feel a fraction of what Fletcher made her feel.
Perhaps she was not heartless and frozen as some had suggested. Perhaps only Fletcher stirred her heart.
