Page 14 of Dance with the Dragon Duke

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Dark retreated to his hoard to dress. While he was there, he fetched a luxurious item from the trunk at the top of his astronomy tower. An item that had once belonged to his sister, Sora Yaga, the Unseelie monarch, but it hadn’t fit her well after she’d had it made. It’d been cut too short. She wouldn’t miss it. She hadn’t come looking for it after all this time—he doubted she’d start now.

Dark turned the knob at the tower door until it clicked three times. He knocked before opening it. The doorway moved where he wanted it to, but it always required that it rest in a room he was familiar with and could recall in detail. When he’d first arrived, there hadn’t been a room for him. Susan had lent him hers and roomed with Margot until one became available.

“Come in,” Susan called.

Dark stepped out of the madam’s bedroom closet to join her, holding the formal dress over his arm.

“Oh, that’s lovely,” Susan said. She stood before the vanity mirror, attaching a dangly pearlescent earring to her ear, watching him in the reflective glass.

Dark held the gown up for her inspection. It was bright gold and trimmed in red taffeta. It reminded him of a sunrise. “Would you please give this to Tomorrow. The clothes she’s borrowed don’t fit her . . . You need not mention where it came from.”

He wanted to see Tomorrow in the gown for reasons he had no business dwelling on, since their relationship was a farce.

“Why, certainly. Just set it on the bed behind you there,” Susan said. “It’s a bit fancy for a Lunar supper, but it’s stunning. She’ll draw a lot of eyes, and that’s the point of your plot, isn’t it?”

Dark draped the dress along the bottom of the bed, leaving her question unanswered. He turned back for the door.

“Did it come from your hoard there?” she asked, a sparkle of interest glittering in her blue gaze as she slid the back of her earring into place.

“It did,” he answered cautiously.

“I didn’t realize dragons gave gifts from their precious hoards. Isn’t that a very, veryspecialthing?”

He paused and looked back to find her studying him still. “The dress wasn’t mine.”

He’d kept it because the fabrics were very expensive and the embroidery rare and . . .it didn’t matter why else.Irritation had his next breath heating in his nose, threatening to steam.

“Aren’t things in hoards usually collected from someone else?” she continued. “Technically none of them were yours originally, yes?”

“You ask too many questions,” he growled.

“One more thing, Darko, before you go,” she said, ignoring the warning in his tone. Her smirk was all-knowing. “Why is it you can’t simply give her this beautiful dress yourself, I wonder? Sweet girl like Tomorrow would be so grateful.”

Dark rolled his eyes. “You and Margot have another bet going, don’t you? Now you’re pumping me for information.”

Susan shrugged. “Always.”

“Mind your business, Susie.” His fingers flexed at his sides. “And give the girl the damn dress, please.”

She kept her knowing gaze fixed on him, unmoved by his grumpiness. “I just can’t think of a reason why someone would hide a nice thing he was doing for another out of the abundant kindness of his heart.” The duke scoffed at that, but she pressed on, “Unless, of course, he had certain feelings for said person brewing deep inside him, like, and he wasn’t quite ready to share those.”

“This is just a little gift of appreciation for the woman who saved me from an iron blade. Nothing more,” he drawled.

“Uh-huh,” Susie said, not sounding at all convinced. “Brewing deep,deepinside him, like. So deep he isn’t quite ready to share it with himself fully either, I think.”

Dark ground his teeth at her. “Not ready to share,” he stressed, “not even with you.”

“That’s all I needed to hear, dear,” she said smugly.

Dark stomped from her room, grumbling under his breath about the nosiness of women.

* * *

Half an hour later, Dark waited at the bottom of the stairs near the entryway. Earlier, Susan had taken Tomorrow to her room to put on the new dress. Susie had returned. Tomorrow would shortly follow, he’d been told.

“You wouldn’t believe the depravity I walked in on this morning.” Margot regaled the footmen at the door of the Gilded Boot with her tale as she and Susan donned their coats and gloves.

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