The Lady Seals Her Fate (The Langley Sisters #5) by Wendy Vella Page B

least forty seconds had passed without her saying a word.
    “Pardon?” She looked at Alex and then the Dowager, but he didn’t come to her rescue. She’d certainly made his life uncomfortable of late, so he considered this a small measure of atonement.
    “What are you doing driving about with this man?” The Dowager waved her walking stick about, narrowly missing her companion, a small, neatly dressed young woman, whom Alex had never heard utter a word.
    “Ah… well, we are friends, Your Grace.”
    “Friends? I’m sure there’s more to it than that!” the Dowager roared. “Good choice, Hetherington, this one at least has a brain.”
    “Does she?” Alex took his time studying Hannah, enjoying her bafflement. “If you say so, Your Grace; after all, you are never wrong.”
    “Impudent is what you are, Hetherington. I expect you for tea tomorrow and in your arms will be my books or don’t bother turning up!” The Dowager Duchess then slammed her walking stick into the floor of the carriage, which had it moving immediately.
    “What just happened, Alex?”
    “We had an interlude with the Dowager Duchess of awkward, Hannah.”
    “Did you… Do you really read Roman literature, and did you do so to her?”
    “I do and I did.” Alex nodded to Sir Godfrey, enjoying the man’s obvious frustration over the fact that Hannah was seated beside him. The man didn’t have two farthings to rub together because of his gambling habit, but he would not be replenishing his coffers using Hannah’s dowry, Alex would make sure of that. “Beautiful day, Godfrey.”
    “The world has gone mad,” Hannah said, looking about to confirm her suspicions. “Roman literature… really, Alex?”
    “Do you not think I am capable of such weighty prose, Hannah? Perhaps you believe my morning newspaper taxes me?” Alex shouldn’t be hurt by her words, after all, many thought him a devil-may-care man with little to recommend him but his family’s fortunes and tolerable looks, but he was.
    “Don’t be foolish, of course I know you could read it, I’m just not sure why anyone would want to.”
    He smiled at her, because she didn’t believe him incapable after all. “Have you read Roman literature?” His smile turned to laughter as she shuddered.
    “Thankfully, no. Father hired a tutor who attempted to ‘better me;’ those were his words.” She literally robbed the breath from his body when she smiled like that. It lit her entire face from within and her eyes sparkled, and its rarity made it all the more precious to Alex. “I tried to read something from one of those old works; Vergil, if memory serves. Hideous.” She shuddered again. “I was asleep before the end of the first page.”
    She wasn’t the kind of woman to pander to a man’s ego. If she loathed something then she said so, and was equally passionate about what she did love. To his shame, he had never asked what that was.
    “Do you read?” Alex asked her.
    “Of course I read!”
    “Very amusing, but you know that I am asking you what it is you do read,” Alex said, sending her a mock scowl. They were actually enjoying each other’s company for a few sweet minutes, and he had to admit she was a surprisingly comfortable person to spend time with, when they were not arguing over the cut of a dress.
    “Poetry, and I shall thank you not to make any derogative comments.”
    “Which poet?”
    “John Keats.” She sighed the name.
    “Which poem?” Alex navigated around a carriage before looking at her. “Hannah, which poem of his do you like best?”
    “‘ To Hope ,’” she whispered.
    “ When by my solitary hearth I sit, / And hateful thoughts enwrap my soul in gloom; / When no fair dreams before my ‘mind’s eye’ flit, / And the bare heath of life presents no bloom; / Sweet Hope, ethereal balm upon me shed, / And wave thy silver pinions o’er my head. ” When he finished, Alex smiled and Hannah smiled back, and for that brief moment he felt as