Page 15 of A Virgin for the Cruel Duke

This was somehow more magical than any real ball could ever have been.

Stephen’s hand was holding her fingertips and she could feel blazing desire across her skin. His gaze was on her own and his eyes were so intense that she felt like she couldn’t breathe. Even though she did not know any of the steps she felt as though she didn’t need to. He drew her with him, took her about the floor with a mastery of movement that made it feel as natural as if they had been doing it their whole lives.

He knew exactly how to move her body and the thought made her heart pound in her chest. Stephen was the center of her world and they could have been surrounded by crowds or all alone and it would not have made a single bit of difference.

When they finally stopped and he bowed to her, she could barely remember herself enough to curtsey back.

“Thank you for the enchanting dance, Duchess,” he said, the hint of a smile at the corners of his lips, his eyes blazing..

“It was my pleasure, Your Grace,” she murmured, wishing she could take his hand again and that she could keep feeling the way he made her burn with desire. Had any woman ever felt thisway after a simple dance? Was it just her with this man? Why did he tempt her so, devour her with his eyes? Her knees felt weak as she fought to keep a blush from her face.

“Have a good day, ladies,” Stephen said, his face serious and stern once more. “Do try not to disturb the household any further.”

Diana giggled as though he were not scolding them and Elizabeth forced herself to just nod. She didn’t watch him walk away, she couldn’t. Instead she walked to the window and looked out across the grounds as he left. It was a beautiful day, but there was a storm within her heart.

CHAPTER 7

“What about this one?” Sally asked, pulling out a modest pelisse in a sensible duck’s egg blue. It wasn’t fancy or fashionable, but it wasn’t too dull either and Elizabeth was desperate to avoid the embarrassment of having to reuse her wedding dress too soon.

She also suspected that one could hardly wear a gown one had been married in on a perambulation around a park, but it was one of the things that she could only suspect and not be sure of.

“It will have to do,” she said heavily. “It’s not like we have a great range to choose from.”

In fact her room had come with a very large wardrobe and a cunningly fashioned dresser but her possessions were so small in number that she still kept them in her cases out of fear of how sad and foolish they would look against such grand backgrounds.

“If we had a little more time,” Sally said, shooing her to her feet and helping her on with the pelisse with a critical eye. “I could have done more than a little magic with some lace or a bit of ribbon, Your Grace, on my oath I could. And I shall do so this very evening so you shall not be caught out like this again!”

Elizabeth smiled at her friend. “I appreciate it, Sally. I don’t want to be seen to be embarrassing the Duke and his family by being too shabby to be out with them.”

“Maybe he should give you an allowance to get the right clothes then,” Sally said, a saucy note in her voice and Elizabeth looked over her shoulder. She was constantly worried that someone might just walk in as they had back in her old home, and it would be a terrible thing for Sally to get into trouble with the Wilkins family.

“Be careful what you say,” she said softly but firmly. “He has no obligation to do any more than he already does, and I am grateful that we have as much freedom and peace as we have had so far. Is this not better than living under my father’s roof?”

“That’s not a big stile to climb over, Your Grace,” Sally said, pulling back and pursing her lips over the ensemble that they were creating. “There’s not many places that could be much worse.”

“Nonsense,” Elizabeth said briskly. “I have everything I need and more than I expected. Now help me with my hair and let’s talk about what we need to do to prepare for the trip to London in the next few months.”

It was a carefully chosen topic change and Elizabeth smiled to herself as Sally flew into a state of raptures.

“Oh Your Grace, I’ve got shivers just thinking about it! London! To think that I would ever go somewhere so fancy! And you’ll be at all the best places with all the best people, too!”

“I’ll be supporting Diana,” Elizabeth said, feeling a flurry of nerves at the thought that she might be expected to be on show herself as the new wife of the Duke of Westall. “It’s not really about me. It’s her season and we will all do our best to make sure that it is a lovely one for her.”

“Of course, and Lady Diana is a lovely lady, so genteel and sweet to everyone,” Sally said firmly. “She deserves to shine like a star, Your Grace, but you shine like the sun and I hope His Grace will let your light be seen.”

Her hair was fixed cunningly and pinned and Elizabeth took a look at herself in the mirror. While she would hardly turn heads and was far from being a fashion plate, she looked respectable which was exactly what she was hoping to achieve.

“I shall head down to the drawing room,” she said, taking her bonnet and gloves from Sally. “I hope it goes well.”

It had been only the previous evening that Stephen had told her that a young Mr. Dewsbury would be coming to pay court to Selina on the morrow and that he would be accompanying them on a promenade with her at his side.

It had not been a request so Elizabeth did not view it as one, and she hoped dearly that this would be the right gentleman for Selina. Her sister-in-law was loud and forthright about how she felt about women’s rights, the need for more education and inclusion of ladies in various fields, but Elizabeth suspected that the fact that her first season had been six years back was beginning to bother her.

Sally waved her off and Elizabeth hurried down to the drawing room, her heart fluttering at the thought of walking arm in arm with her husband in public. It would be her first appearance as his wife and she was only glad that it was not exactly Hyde Park they would be walking in yet.

“I was reading the other day about that child who discovered those astonishing bones in Dorset,” Selina said, her face animated. “Some scientists claim it is a crocodile, though what a crocodile would be doing on the coast of England puzzles me to no end. I have looked over the bones at length and I do not think they could possibly be a crocodile, I have seen pictures of them and they are lizard like creatures while this beast has a long - sort of like a beak and fins at once, is that not incredible?”

Mr. Dewsbury, a fashionable young man related to a well-placed marquess, had a glazed expression on his face any time Elizabeth caught sight of it from where she and Stephen were walking behind the couple. He nodded a little and Selina continued talking.

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