desires and his better judgment.
She flapped her fingers in resignation. “Go forth and offend.”
“It’s just that I’ve been watching you,” he blurted out. He ran a restless hand through his dark hair. “You may think nobody is, but I am, and I’ve come to think that you think no one sees you. You dress so they can’t see you without expending a modicum of effort, hoping that someone will do so and thus be worthy of you in all your true glory. Except that no one does. Instead of showing your full colors, you favor plain dress so that the reason they’re not seeing you isn’t because you’re not worthy but because you’ve chosen to be invisible.”
Chloe’s pulse trembled erratically, her lungs robbed of breath.
She wasn’t offended.
She was stripped bare.
“That’s all fine,” the duke said swiftly. “You should dress however you like and for whatever reasons you please. But whilst you’re here in my house…whenever it’s just the two of us, together…I want you to know that you’re free to be you, whatever that might look like.”
Chloe couldn’t respond. Her words tangled in her throat.
“I don’t know if this will make it worse or better, but I thought… Wait here. I’ll go and get them.”
Faircliffe darted up from his chair and dashed to the corner of the room, where a large trunk stood next to a blank wall. He lifted the trunk by its leather handles and brought it to the bare floor between his chair and Chloe’s.
And then he flipped open the lid.
She gaped in astonishment. A dozen ladies’ bonnets, ranging from stylish to garish, piled one atop the other. Some boasted a profusion of ribbons or ostrich feathers or wax grapes or the occasional stuffed parrot. One of the bonnets bore no decoration at all.
She pointed at it. “What’s that one?”
“A choice.” He gave a self-conscious little laugh. “If you like plain, then by all means wear it. The only thing I’m trying to give you is the power to choose.”
She touched her chest, her throat suddenly dry and her eyes stinging.
Wasn’t this what she had longed for: the ability to decide whether others noticed her? To control what others saw when they looked at her?
The bonnets were all so different. Plain, fancy, tasteful, gaudy, symmetrical, unconventional. Faircliffe didn’t see just one thing when he looked at her. He understood she was all of these things and none of these things, conflicted and complex, a whole person with changing humors and multiple needs and desires.
He didn’t see a pseudonym or a mask or a blank slate. He saw Chloe. And he wanted her to see herself, to be herself. To have this room as a safe place. To have him as both her protector and partner in crime. Or rather, partner in silliness.
No one outside of family had ever seen her so clearly. She should feel naked and discomfited.
Instead, she felt inexplicably, completely at home.
“If you hate these options…” He transferred bonnets onto every surface until he exposed a cornucopia of motley accoutrements at the bottom of the trunk. “Most items are held on with pins,” he explained earnestly. “If you want all of the birds on one bonnet, you can do so. Feel free to be as creative as you please.”
He gazed uncertainly at her, visibly holding his breath. His shoulder twitched as if every muscle coiled with nervous energy.
How did he not realize just how perfect his gift was?
She reached for an oddly fascinating bonnet with the greatest number of adornments pinned at all angles and placed it on her head. The weight of a white-necked pheasant caused it to list precariously to one side. A hunk of blue ribbon uncoiled from the clump of flowers on the brim to dangle before her eyes.
“I’m sorry.” His cheeks flushed pink. “I may have decorated that one.”
“I adore it.” She wanted to hug it to her chest. She wanted to hug him and squeeze him tight. “It’s my favorite of them all. Is there a looking glass?”
“Yes. Yes, there is.” He leapt from his seat and hurried out of the door.
It was then that Chloe realized that this drawing room no longer bore the light-reflecting mirrors indicated on Tommy’s maps. Was that why she’d been brought here today: because Faircliffe had removed them in deference to her? To ensure that every seat in the chamber would be one she’d feel comfortable in? She touched a hand to her throat.
The duke rushed back into the parlor bearing a hand