Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 59827 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59827 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
“Has my mother explained what you’ll be working on?” Veil asks as we climb a sweeping staircase.
“Yes, Your—” I catch myself. “Veil. Yes.”
“Then you’ve probably noticed how excited she is about it?”
I nod. “I read about how it all started when your father bought a vintage Waterman pen from a street vendor during your parents’ honeymoon in Paris.”
Veil stops walking and turns to look at me, and I nearly run into him because I wasn’t expecting the sudden stop. “You did your homework,” he says, and I can’t tell if he’s impressed or just surprised.
I’m not sure how to answer that. Aren’t we all supposed to do our research before accepting a job offer?
But anyway...
I don’t think he’s interested to hear what I have to say since we’re moving again, with the duke leading me down a hallway lined with more expensive artwork.
We stop in front of a door, and he opens it, stepping aside to let me enter first. As expected, the room is just like the rest of the place. Beautiful and elegant and charmingly classic: a four-poster bed with cream linens and a sitting area with a fireplace, an en-suite bathroom visible through an open door, and windows that look out over what I assume are the estate grounds.
“This is too much,” I hear myself say.
Veil sets my carry-on down near the door. “It’s the smallest guest room we have.”
Oh. Okay. I guess that puts me in my place?
“Mother said you had a difficult day.”
Since I didn’t see her signing that earlier, does that mean she texted him while we were still on the plane?
“I—yes. But I’m fine. Ready to work.”
Those blue eyes study me again, and I have the uncomfortable feeling that he can see right through my professional mask to the mess underneath.
“I’m glad to hear that.” The way he says it is almost mocking, but once again, I have no chance of replying. He just gives me a clipped nod right after, and then he’s gone, the door closing behind him while I’m left standing in this beautiful room wondering what just happened.
Does the duke think I’m going to throw myself at him?
He does, isn’t he?
But then...
Lady Hampton did say it’s what all her former assistants have apparently done so can I really blame him for being suspicious of me?
I sink down onto the edge of the bed and pull out my phone.
Seven missed calls from Joseph.
Twelve text messages.
I turn my phone off and set it on the nightstand. Then I pull Joseph’s ring out of my pocket and set it next to the phone.
Tomorrow, I’ll figure out what to do with both of them.
Tomorrow, I’ll figure out how to tell Joseph I know.
Tomorrow, I’ll figure out how to survive working in close proximity to the Duke of Veilcourt without making a complete fool of myself.
But tonight?
Tonight, I’m going to take a shower.
And try not to cry.
And definitely, absolutely, under no circumstances think about how blue Veil’s eyes are.
Note to self: breathing while in proximity to attractive dukes is important.
VEIL’S MOOD WAS CONTEMPLATIVE as he descended the stairs. His mother’s new assistant was...interesting. He had been expecting the usual, to be honest. Giggles and blushes and “accidental” touches. Manufactured opportunities to be alone with him. Breathless questions about what it’s like being a duke. The same tired performance he’d sat through a dozen times with his mother’s previous assistants.
But Evianne had barely looked at him.
Oh, she’d been polite. Professional. Shaken his hand with exactly the right amount of firmness.
And then she’d looked away like he was a piece of furniture.
Like he wasn’t the Duke of Veilcourt with a fortune that made most people’s eyes glaze over with calculations.
Like she genuinely didn’t care.
Geena glanced up when her son rejoined her in the drawing room, and the expression darkening his features was telling. She waited for him to look at her before smiling in amusement as she signed, ‘She’s not into you, son.’
‘I didn’t say she was.’
‘You didn’t have to. I know that look.’
‘What look?’
‘The one that says you’re already planning how to prove me wrong.’
Veil smiled. His mother knew him too well indeed.
‘She’s had a difficult day,’ Geena continued, her expression softening. ‘Be kind to her.’
‘I’m always kind.’
His mother gave him a look that clearly said ‘liar’, and Veil had to concede the point.
He wasn’t unkind. But he wasn’t...soft. Not anymore. Not since he’d learned exactly what people wanted from him and how far they’d go to get it.
‘You said she had a difficult day...’
Geena shook her head at Veil’s question. ‘That’s her story to tell, not mine. But truly...just try to be kind to her.’
‘You wound me, Mother.’
Geena rolled her eyes. That would be the day. ‘I’ll see you at dinner.’
With his mother gone, the duke was left once again with his thoughts, and he was disconcerted to find his mind drifting back to Evianne. He found himself recalling how her hands had been shaking when she’d greeted him even though her voice had been perfectly steady. And how the shadows under her eyes suggested she’d been crying recently.