she would be like after sex with the man. She’d have to be committed!
She chuckled to herself, remembering the look on his face when she’d rushed out of his front door, so eager to escape his embrace that she almost tripped down his stairs.
She’d have to play that up, she thought silently. Regrettably, she couldn’t let Derrick know that he’d affected her so deeply. She didn’t want him thinking that she was his for the taking. She’d have to be strong and professional about this situation. Derrick was a fabulous lover. She was innocent in that area. Therefore, she needed to laugh off the evening’s kiss and pretend that it wasn’t so incredibly….mid blowing.
Deciding her course of action, she took one more deep breath, then stood up and walked out of the store room. Mary was alone now, folding the sweaters on the front table that continuously became messy because of people picking them up to take a look at them.
“That must have been some meeting with our famous, part-time resident,” Mary said without looking up from the pile of sweaters.
Zarah groaned silently and quickly tried to cover up her mistake at letting Mary see how affected she’d been when she’d come back.
“Not really. Derrick’s a very smart man. He has some great ideas. I just needed to figure out how to implement them before I forgot about them.”
Mary looked over at the pretty woman who was trying to appear casual as she shifted the sizes on a rack of dresses. Apparently, Zarah was completely unaware that she was instead mixing up the styles instead of sorting them so they were organized. Mary had to stifle her laughter at the sweet woman’s attempt to hide what was going on. Everyone in the village was watching and eager to see what happened between these two. Zarah was light and happiness, new ideas and energy whereas the other women they’d seen their Duke with were darkness and not very refined. Oh, they might have titles or wealth, but not a single one could match Zarah’s poise and grace, not to mention her soft, sultry beauty. They were harsh and brittle, rail thin to the point of emaciation with bones sticking out in the wrong places. Zarah was soft everywhere, including that tender heart of hers.
Everyone saw it. And the current favorite topic of conversation was why Zarah didn’t embrace the attention of the Duke. He was different with her. And all of them hoped that Zarah would be different, that she would heal their Duke’s damaged heart. Mary suspected that the Duke thought his heart was broken beyond repair, that he was a man without a soul after all the horrible things his father put him through and did to him. But Mary could see the kindness and generosity that was obvious when he spoke with anyone. The Duke wasn’t broken. Damaged a bit but nothing a tender touch like Zarah’s couldn’t finally heal.
“Those classes you’re teaching are fabulous,” Mary said, pretending to change the subject. “Betty thinks you should give more of them once the festival is finished. She even suggested that maybe we could have a Christmas Festival as well, along the same lines as this Summer Festival but with a Christmas theme,” she explained, the last part a bit obvious, but Mary wanted to try and entice Zarah to start talking. And more importantly, to think about staying beyond the year she keeps mentioning. Mary wanted Zarah to think of Willingham as her home, not as some stop over. And she wanted the Duke to marry her and have a fairy tale wedding with everyone in the village attending and smiling over what they’d accomplished with these two.
Zarah’s hand stilled on a blue dress with a gold chain circling the hangar. “I think a Christmas Festival would be a great idea.”
Mary sighed with happiness. “Great! I’ll let her know that you’ll bring all the lessons learned to the table for that event so we can do it up better than this one!”
Zarah heard the words and knew that something wasn’t right about what Mary was saying, but it took several minutes before she could grasp their meaning. Mary was almost to the door of the store room when Zarah called back to her. “I can’t organize that one, Mary.”
Mary turned with a surprised look. “But you’re doing such a wonderful job organizing this one,” she stated with encouragement.
“I appreciate that. As well as the vote of confidence that I