"What are you growing?" He looked at the book rather than at her, which she was beginning to recognize as a pattern: the displacement of eye contact onto objects when the conversation became something he had not prepared for. "Peonies, among other things."
"They take time. They take years," she said. "My father grew them. He used to say they were the most patient plants in the garden. They ask you to believe in them before they offer any proof." He found that philosophically appealing. There was a pause with its own distinct character. Not the pause of discomfort, but the pause of two people who have said something inadvertently honest and are simultaneously deciding how to proceed. "Milk?" Felicity offered.
Because Mr. Holt had placed the tea things within her reach, the kettle was on, and someone had to. The Duke looked at the teapot with the mild surprise of a man who had just realized a visitor was about to pour his tea, and couldn't immediately pinpoint why this felt unusual. "Yes, thank you." She poured. It was not strictly speaking her drawing room, but the teapot was there, and Dioynes had already done considerably more damage to the morning's protocols than pouring tea could hope to accomplish. The Duke accepted the cup with a look she was coming to catalog, the slight settling of his expression, when something small happened that he hadn't predicted, and found he didn't object to.
"How long are you in Wiltshire?" he inquired. "A month, perhaps through November, unless Constance needs me longer." She looked at him over her cup. "Or unless the duck becomes a genuine diplomatic incident, in which case I may need to remain to manage the situation personally." The corner of his mouth twitched. It was an extraordinarily tiny movement, a fractional adjustment barely perceptible, but she had been watching his face with the keen attention one pays to things that mostly exist in their resistances, and she caught it.
"Has Dioynes been retrieved?" she asked. "Thomas is attempting it." "He has been briefed on the bread method and the approach-angle preference." "Thomas should also know that Dioynes will accept being carried if one approaches from the left, offers bread, and waits for Dioynes to finish the bread completely before attempting any physical contact. If one rushes, he objects strenuously." The Duke looked at her over his teacup.
"You know this duck in considerable depth." We have a complicated relationship built over several months of mutual misunderstanding. She set down her cup. I'm sorry about your pond and your morning. I imagine you had a great deal planned. He was quiet for a moment.