Page 59 of Dance with the Dragon Duke

They lay tangled on the rug afterward. Tomorrow’s body ached pleasantly. They’d made a spectacular mess, bits of food knocked from plates, and her clothing everywhere.

“Well, now I desperately need a bath,” she told him. Focusing hard, she scrunched up her features.

“What are you doing now?” he asked suspiciously.

“Trying not to be adorable so you’ll let me leave when I want— Oh! I know. I’ll fart. There’s nothing more crass and impolite than that. You couldn’t possibly find me hoard-able then.”

Dark snorted.

“I mean it,” she said. “I’ll do it!” After a moment of steady concentration, she added. “Well, I can’t do it on command. But I think I can work up to one.”

Dark’s booming laugh shook through her body. The gleeful sound made her heart squeeze. And this time, it wasn’t his touches that changed her mind. It was the words he whispered in her ear. He promised her a bath in a copper tub. A feast fit for a queen. Treasures and dresses and dancing the night away and all manner of beautiful things, if only she’d stay put just a little while longer. He had plans to get her revenge and to see her treated as a proper duchess.

And it was no wonder that revenge no longer sounded so sweet. Certainly, she’d see to her inheritance and her gran’s orchards, but vengeance had no draw for her anymore. It was nothing compared to the motivation of her heart, the desire to be near her duke, to be showered in his laughter and his heat. To feel that brave and brazen spirit he incited in her after struggling so long with her fears.

“Ruby will know when she can open the door. You need blood magic and my permission to turn the knob. I’ll let you out soon,” Dark vowed.

“You had better,” she said, rubbing her nose tenderly against his. He’d buttered her up so well she spoke the threat with all the malice of a fruit pie.

Chapter 14

Tomorrow

Sitting by the waterfall, Ruby offered her frog legs for a snack.

Tomorrow put a hand over her stomach to settle it.No thank you, sweetheart. I don’t like it when my food is still moving around.

Shortly after the fairy finished her meal of amphibians, she announced that they could leave. Her blood magic senses had picked up that the door was ready to open. Tomorrow carried her to the tower on her shoulder. The fairy turned the knob easily. It took a moment for Tomorrow’s eyes to adjust to the change in light, and then the door magically snapped shut behind her, letting off the scent of brimstone.

A copper tub sat in the center of their bedroom at the Gilded Boot, surrounded by candles and carts of food and thick woven towels. The claw-footed monstrosity was so big she wondered how Dark had gotten it inside the room.

The duke had left hours earlier with a chest in his arms and a secret smile on his face. That chest was now sitting front and center, a few feet from the tub, flanked by Susan and Margot.

“Your man’s got plans for you, love,” Margot said with a suggestive wink. “We’re to help you dress for the winter ball at court this evening, and then we’re to escort you there, in luxury.The duke’s orders. Not that anyone’s got to tell us to do anything in high fashion. That’s all we ever do.”

“We’ve got high fashion coming out of our ears.” Susan kicked the chest gently. “Darko said not to open it. He wanted you to be the first to see inside.”

Tomorrow sniggered. “You opened it, didn’t you?”

“Only the second he closed the door,” Margot scoffed. “Silly man. It’s like he doesn’t know us at all.”

“But you’re going to love it,” Susan added warmly.

The eager flutter of Ruby’s wings tickled her ear. Curls of steam rolled invitingly off the water in the tub. She could smell the bread and fruit and the sweet scent of puff pastries, and her mouth watered—but the promise of a surprise was too difficult to resist, despite the demands of her stomach. She dropped to her knees before the chest, threw open the brass latches, and lifted the lid.

“Gods above and below,” she gasped.

The rich fabrics inside, each wrapped neatly in silks that were gossamer thin, were food for the eyes as well as her soul. The beadwork alone on some of the gowns was so intricate it had probably cost a poor seamstress her sight. The colors were vibrant shades of dark purples and blues, rosy pinks, and greens. They glimmered like starlight. She buried her hands inside and found tulle and taffeta, silks and satin, and a velvet so rich she couldn’t stop running her fingers over it.

“There’s so many of them!” Tomorrow said. It occurred to her that, with Margot’s help, it wouldn’t be hard to cut one down into a small frock. “Would you like to wear one too, Ruby?”

Ruby dove into the chest, rubbing her round cheeks against the fabrics she liked best. She blew a raspberry at the purple ones. That was apparently not her shade.

They laid out the gowns over the bed while Ruby made her selection. Tomorrow grazed on the food. Tart berries burst inher mouth. The puff pastries were warm on her tongue and full of a satiny cream that was so sweet, her eyes rolled back in her head. Lifting a silver cloche, she found bacon and peppered sausages, hard-boiled eggs, and a loaf of dark Lunar bread full of nuts and sprinkled in cinnamon.

Ruby picked an off-white dress with pearl-encrusted ribbing. And then the scent of citrus burned in Tomorrow’s nose, and the gown shrank before her eyes.

“Well, would you look at that,” Margot said. “That’s certainly a useful trick.”

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