Page 7 of The Milliner and the Griffin Rider

The rider looked from his captain to Chloe, his brows rising. “Miss Chloe. What a pleasant surprise.”

She turned her attention on him, smiling as brightly as she was able. “Thank you—” She paused. “I don’t think I got your name on our previous meeting.”

“It’s Fletcher,” he said with a delighted chuckle.

“Thank you, Fletcher,” she repeated, keeping her gaze on him, although she could see the captain in her peripheral vision. “My less than elegant arrival is indeed because of the party.”

Both men shifted in surprise, exchanging a swift look—full of humor on Fletcher’s part and something darker on Captain Harrison’s.

Chloe pushed on, keeping her voice light and unhurried. “I’m afraid I timed my visit poorly, not realizing the Duke was hosting an event. But having come so far, I didn’t like to turn back. I thought I could find another way in so as not to disturb the partygoers.”

“But why are you here?” the captain demanded, his words simple and direct, unlike his usual earlier speech.

She turned astonished eyes on him, rounding them in an expression of confused innocence. “Why, I came in response to your invitation, of course.”

“My invitation?” the captain barked, his eyes darkening.

Chloe turned her eyes on Fletcher. “I suppose, more accurately, it was Sir Fletcher’s invitation. On your behalf.” She smiled back at Captain Harrison.

Fletcher swallowed another laugh, managing to say, “Just Fletcher is fine, Miss Chloe.”

She beamed at him. “Then you must call me Chloe as well.”

He gave a quick bow. “It would be an honor.”

“You came—through the hedge, in the middle of a party—for a tour of the mews?” the captain asked with heavy emphasis, his disbelief clear in his eyes.

Chloe didn’t allow a flicker of doubt or uncertainty to cross her face. If she didn’t want to be unceremoniously dumped outside the grounds by a squad of guards who had been given orders never to allow her within twenty feet of the Duke, she had to sell her story.

“I’m so eager to meet a griffin that I came as soon as I had the chance,” she said. “But I should have asked around about the Duke’s social calendar before setting out.”

“You’re so eager to meet our griffins,” the captain said slowly. “You?”

Chloe remembered her earlier rash declaration that she had no interest in griffins. Why couldn’t Past Chloe have kept her mouth shut?

“I finished the book,” she said, struck by inspiration in the nick of time. “It was so fascinating that I wanted to see a nesting mews for myself. At once.”

“I’ve actually read that title as well,” Fletcher said, openly grinning at his captain. “I believe you loaned it to me, telling me it was one of the more superior volumes on griffins. It’s no wonder that it has excited this young lady’s interest.”

“This is not the moment for your frivolous⁠—”

Fletcher cut his captain off, totally undaunted by his censure. “A gentleman cannot go back on a promise to a lady. So how much less can we—the famous gentlemen riders of Everard—do so? What would our griffins say?” He turned to Chloe. “Griffins have no stock in dishonesty of any sort. Utterly truthful creatures.”

Chloe swallowed, trying not to look alarmed, and he smiled reassuringly.

“Quite injurious to one’s dignity at times, but they make a more loyal companion than one could hope to find anywhere.”

She smiled, charmed by his description in spite of her situation. As long as she took care to say nothing untruthful to one of the griffins, she should have no cause for alarm. The creatures couldn’t read minds.

“Well, Captain?” Fletcher asked, grinning at Harrison.

The captain sighed, closing his eyes briefly before opening them and fixing them on Chloe. “I will certainly show Miss Chloe the mews, if she wishes it.”

“Most earnestly,” she assured him with her most radiant smile.

She would just have to hope they ran into the Duke on the way.

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