“Afraid?” Cornelia questioned.
“That I am not good enough for her.”
He gave his shoulders a shake as if he thrust his fear aside. “But I should not be talking to you like this. Please try to understand and let me go.”
“I will tell you tomorrow, but now I shall write an answer to the Duchess and say that we shall expect her whole party, twenty-six of them, here for dinner tonight.”
“Very well, I agree,” the Duke replied.
Without looking back at him, Cornelia walked from the library and shut the door behind her. Only when she was outside did she clutch for a moment at the back of a chair standing in the hall and holding on to it feeling as if she might faint with the ecstasy of her feelings.
She had not failed. It was true then and Renée was right, he really loved her. She felt joy ste
