Kit could tell Mrs. Lusk didn’t like that suggestion, either. He decided to use reason to press his case. “Seeing as how I already carried her yesterday, no one is likely to notice.”

“Fine,” Mrs. Lusk said, reluctantly, after a long beat. “But we had better hurry. I do not want to miss our train.” Spinning, she marched off in the direction of the front door.

He knelt by the sofa and slid his arms under Alice, taking care not to jostle her ankle, then stood. She wrapped her arms around his neck, not even pretending to put space between them, as he crossed the floor. “If you change your mind or need me for any reason, I’m easy to find,” he said softly.

“Thank you, Kit. For that and everything else. This has been the best four days of my life.”

His chest tightened and for once words deserted him.

Chapter Fourteen

The Duke of Lockwood looked lonely.

Sitting in the box her father had rented at the Metropolitan Opera House, Alice stared at the handsome duke, whose attention seemed miles away from the action on the stage. He hardly moved, his gaze fixed forward, but there was something about the set of his shoulders, the dark circles under his eyes, that suggested desolation. A gloominess perhaps more pronounced because of the jocularity in the seats around him.

The performance was a comedy, but the duke hadn’t smiled once.

The scandal at the Websters’ Newport chateau had died down somewhat in the past two weeks’ time. Maddie and Harrison were married and Lockwood was now back out in society. In a month or so, it would seem as if the whole thing never happened.

Indeed, why was he so glum? Had he loved Maddie very much? It hadn’t appeared that way in Newport, but then she’d been distracted, hadn’t she? Nearly every waking thought had been consumed by Kit, so perhaps she’d missed quite a bit during those four days.

Kit still inhabited many of her thoughts, unfortunately. It was quite hard to concentrate when she kept reliving their conversations and interactions, the games and the kisses. She lost count of the number of times she had reached for a pen and paper to write to him since returning to New York, even locating his address, a town house on East Seventy-Fourth Street. Thank goodness common sense had prevailed, however, before she contacted him.

I am not the kind of man who is interested in settling down.

She mustn’t forget it. Marriage had to remain Alice’s priority, not mind-altering kisses and unrequited infatuation. Kit was everything she wanted in a man, except he would never marry, and Alice could not allow herself anything less.

Know your worth. Wasn’t that what Katherine had said? It was good advice, especially for unmarried girls who craved nothing more than kisses from a certain dark-haired scoundrel.