Dating the Duke (The Aristocrat Diaries 2)

“It’s lovely,” I said, looking at the cake that was covered in edible glitter and sugar flowers and multicoloured sprinkles.

“Blow out the candles so I can eat!” Olympia bounced on the balls of her feet. “Pleeeease!”

“Like you haven’t been eating strawberries all morning,” Boris said.

“I’ll blow them out, I’ll blow them out.” I pulled my hair back and leaned over, ready to do it.

“Make a wish!” Olympia insisted.

“I will.”

“Can I help you blow them out?”

“Olympia!” Alex shook his head.

I looked from him to her. “Go on then. On one. You ready?”

She nodded, tucking herself in next to me.

“Three, two, one!”

We both blew as hard as we could, resulting in the candles all being blown out in one go. Everyone else cheered, and I hugged Olympia into my side.

“Thank you. I couldn’t have done that without you.”

She grinned up at me. “Can I eat now?”

“Excellent idea.” I released her to Elizabeth, and she and Boris fussed over getting her a plate of food.

Alex walked over to me and held out his hands. “I promised you a nice breakfast.”

I nodded, smiling. “You certainly did. Thank you. This is very sweet.”

“It’s not all me. Mum and Boris did most of it. I was in charge of stopping Olympia dipping her fingers into the sprinkles.”

“And did a terrible job,” Boris said without turning around.

I dipped my head, smiling.

Alex pulled me against him in a tight hug, and I wrapped my arms around his neck.

“Happy birthday, darling,” he whispered in my ear, quietly pressing a kiss to my earlobe.

“Thank you,” I whispered back, letting him hold me for one more minute before pulling away.

But I really didn’t want to. I just wanted to stay there for a moment longer, with his arms around me, just breathing in the moment.

I also didn’t want to give Elizabeth any ideas, given that she’d looked at us the second he’d approached me, and her eyes had been on us for the entire embrace.

She’d only looked away when I’d turned around.

Fortunately, I didn’t have too much time to dwell on that.

I was hungry.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN – ADELAIDE

“Presents!” Elizabeth exclaimed, clapping her hands together after Boris left. “Adelaide, dear, we have some presents for you.”

I looked at all three of them. “You do? You didn’t have to do that.”

“We wanted to.” Alex grinned, stealing her line from earlier.

Elizabeth brought a gift box over and set it on the now-clean island in front of me. “Here you go, dear.”

“Thank you.” It was a flat, rectangular box, and I slowly undid the carefully tied bow on top before pulling off the lid. Inside was a big, thick hardback book, and a title that read, Britain’s Bloodiest Dynasties. “Oh, wow,” I breathed, carefully lifting it out of the shredded tissue paper that hugged it.

“Alex said you like history, and well, I have a few friends. One tracked this down for me. I believe it covers most of the Middle Ages right through to the Tudor era, and I thought you’d find it interesting. There aren’t many copies around.”

“Elizabeth, this must have cost you a fortune.” I looked from the book to her. “Thank you so much.”

She accepted my big hug by returning one of her own. “Better to be read by you than sitting on a shelf somewhere collecting dust,” she said, patting my back.

I sat back down and stroked the cover of the book in awe. It was beautiful—and thick. It was going to take forever to read and digest everything on the pages, and I couldn’t wait to get started.

“Well, we know what you’re doing this afternoon,” Alex teased me.

“I’d beat you with it, but I like the book more than you,” I tossed right back, grinning at him. He laughed, and I returned the book back to the box to keep it safe until I was ready to read it.

I might not even read it.

Just take it out.

Stare at it.

Stroke the pages.

Smell it.

It definitely had that old book smell.

That was like crack to a bookworm.

“Mine, mine!” Olympia ran into the pantry, eliciting a frown from all of us, especially when she didn’t immediately return. “Papa, I need some help.”

Alex bit back a laugh and ducked inside. “Yes, sweetheart?”

“That’s heavy.”

“All right.” Alex re-emerged with a vase full of beautiful wildflowers that were identical to ones I’d seen on the grounds. The only exception was the big sunflower in the middle. Olympia was right behind him with both a gift and an envelope in her hands. She dropped a piece of paper that she quickly swept back up.

“Peter helped me choose them,” she said, pointing to the flowers. “And I liked the sunflower for you.”

I reached out and touched the petals of the huge head and smiled, then leaned in. “Oh, it smells amazing. I love them, Oly, thank you.”

She leaned over and sniffed. “Ooh, pretty.”