His Delightful Lady Delia by Grace Hitchcock

Author:Grace Hitchcock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Fiction;Novel;FIC042110;FIC042030;FIC027460
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2022-09-07T00:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

You are thirty-eight, Quincy. The lady is even younger than Willow Dupré, and yet you continue,” he muttered to himself, adjusting his cravat as he wove his way through the press of people in the opera house lobby on Friday night. A lady nearby lifted a brow at his talking to himself, and he sent her a reassuring smile that he was not in need of Blackwell’s Island’s asylum facilities.

The veiled pretense between assisting Delia because she was sweet and helping her because he couldn’t keep himself from her side was all but gone now. For the first time since the competition for the sugar queen’s hand, his routine had lost its luster. His business meetings felt longer, dinner conversations were mild, and even the thought of sailing off to Newport at the end of the season was no longer favorable if she was not to be present on the island. But he pressed on as he always had, because when this was over, all he would have left were his hotels to keep him busy.

And yet this afternoon he had stooped to a new low. He had skipped a meeting to discuss the paintings for his Charleston hotel, avoided the ledgers for a third time, completely eluded Mr. Beckby and instead went for a stroll, escaping to another world, one filled with thoughts of Delia. Unbeknownst to Kit, those thoughts led him directly to the steps of the Academy and feeling more than a bit foolish. Until Delia, nothing could pry him away from his hotels during the workday.

Unable to keep himself from the chance of spying Delia onstage during rehearsal, he had slipped inside but kept to the shadows of his box and watched her run through her scenes for the next opera the company would be featuring tonight with the same tired sets they had used for years. But Delia had breathed new life into everything, and he was certain her Norma would be met with high praise. The lady truly was a marvel.

And that marvel is fifteen years younger than I, he reminded himself as the crowd halted. He shifted in his jacket as the house grew overly warm as the lobby narrowed, creating a bottleneck, but soon the theatergoers began moving again as each family made their way to their individual boxes. The overwhelming urge to shed his jacket subsided and he continued arguing with himself about his feelings for Delia.

However, the argument he had adopted for removing himself from Willow’s competition no longer worked in the least. In fact, the more he got to know Delia, the more he thought that perhaps his age was just right for her mature outlook on life. Perhaps his age was even a draw for her, for she did not seem to appreciate the advances of the younger gentlemen clamoring for her.

He was bumped from behind, and when he turned to look who it was, he found a note pressed in his hand and the back of Millie Ford in her turquoise gown striding away from him.

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