He held his face as numbness crawled up his nose. Miss Wingate did the same, her hand cradled over her nose and mouth.

“I beg your pardon,” Carrin said. “Mr. Dyer is here for your scheduled meeting.”

Hell, Tobias had forgotten all about that. And he’d even been thinking about Dyer a few minutes ago.

Tobias was unaccountably disappointed. Glancing toward Carrin, he slowly lowered his hand from his face. “I’ll be there in a moment.” Did he sound as if he had a cold?

Carrin inclined his head and departed.

Tobias instantly turned to Miss Wingate. “Are you all right?”

She nodded as she slowly removed her hand from her face. Wiggling her nose, she said, “I think so.”

He couldn’t stop staring at her reddened nose and the alluring way she was moving it. Because her lips also moved, and now he was fixed on them as well.

Hell.

Carefully, he rose from the chair, lest they suffer some sort of additional mishap. “I’m terribly sorry about that.”

“It was an accident.” She laughed softly. “I’m rather good at those since coming to town. I promise my agility wasn’t this poor before.”

“It’s my influence. I’m making you clumsy.”

“How can it be your fault?” She shook her head briskly. “I haven’t noticed that you are clumsy at all.”

“Given what just happened, I don’t think you can rule it out. Perhaps you should rethink your plans to delay finding a husband so you may get away from me as soon as possible.” He’d meant it as a joke, but the moment he saw the discomfort flit through her gaze, he regretted it. “That was a jest. All of this was a jest. Of course I haven’t affected your agility.”

“Of course,” she murmured.

“I must meet with my secretary now. Keep hammering away on the pianoforte, if you like.” He smiled at her on his way out.

As he made his way to his study, he wondered why, in addition to his still smarting nose, his lips were also tingling.

Chapter 10

“How do I look?” Cassandra sat straight in the hack as it rattled its way along Bond Street toward Piccadilly. She smoothed her hand over the front of her dark green apron and adjusted the white cap covering her dark curls.

“Like a Society miss dressed up as a maid.” Fiona giggled.

Grinning, Cassandra flopped back against the seat. “Hopefully no one will look too closely.”

Fiona settled her own cap over her hair, which she’d personally dressed into a tight, simple style. “I, on the other hand, probably appear quite normal.”

“I’ve no idea what that’s supposed to mean, but you also look like a Society miss in costume.”

Did she? Fiona wasn’t sure she believed that. She was barely a Society miss. And she didn’t feel like one this week since she wasn’t going to any events. Not that she could complain. Yesterday’s shopping excursion to Cheapside with Cassandra’s aunt had more than made up for anything Fiona was missing. Cheapside was a teeming, vibrant area with so many sights and sounds. She’d even tried caviar from a cart.