Page 47 of Romanced By the Orc

Diana turned to her side, and Albie followed suit so that they faced one another. She could stare openly at his wondrous fire-colored eyes.Ask him.Her chest fluttered uncertainly.Are we toremain as we are after the season concludes? Or are we to be man and wife in name only?

But a tiresome nag that spoke in her voice, from inside her own head, insisted that she did not deserve Albie.

“How did you manage such a voyage?” Albie asked. “Few orcs have dared to cross the great sea, yet the English seem to make a habit of it.”

“I kept to my journals and books and spent more time than I care to remember staring aimlessly at the ocean, trying to escape the sour housemaid my parents insisted should stay at my side.”

“Not Miss Isabel, I take it.”

Diana emitted a laugh that came perilously close to a snort. “Hardly! But truly, Albie. I own the circumstances may not have been ideal, but I survived well enough.”

“You thrived. Anyone can see it. Adventure suits you. Boldness suits you. But I still detest your parents for seeing fit to cast you away. That’s the truth of it.”

“I wouldn’t phrase it quite as bluntly. I comforted myself that I should not have to spend the summer months in perpetual boredom at the very least.”

“So we are both town mice rather than country mice,” Albie said. “As Aesop would have it. Though, hopefully, we shall not be stalked by a giant cat as the proud town mouse in that tale.”

She delighted once more at learning something new about her husband. “You read Aesop’s fables in the Hidden Realm? Or did you read the tales here?”

“This Aesop fellow’s stories made it our way in the time of the ancients. We kept foreign armies from our land but welcomed literature from around the world. But I digress. Tell me more of your interest in Lord Mandeville’s ball. It’s not for another week, is it?””

“Which shall hopefully suffice,” she told him. “For I have decided I need a new gown.”

“I thought the ones I chose fetching. Have I lost my knack for the latest fashion?” He propped his body on his elbow and the side of his head in his hand, cocking an eyebrow. This prompted her to plant yet another kiss on his enchanting lips.

“The gowns are stunning,” she assured him. Her fingers trailed the firm length of a prominent vein on Albie’s arm. “They have but one flaw.”

“The colors? Did I lean too hard on the golden hue? I confess I find it beautiful on you. Irresistible, truth be told.”

He ran his fingers, claws retracted, down the outside of her thigh, a touch light as a feather, which must have taken great restraint given his strength. Yet the teasing sensation was already awakening her desire.

“I love each of them. But the issue is their style, you see. They are not Orcan.”

He pressed his hands down before releasing her and sitting upright. “Orcan? When you have the finest English seamstresses at your disposal? What brought this on?”

“Have I made a secret of my admiration for your homeland? I want to embrace my position as a Lady of the Hidden Realm. Here in London. You see, there is something I’ve yet to share.”

She lowered her gaze, threading the tassel through her fingers once more. She hadn’t intended to keep this particular piece of information from Albie, but had never quite found the right time to relay it. The longer she waited the more difficult it would become.

Albie touched her chin gently to lift her head back up, eyes shadowed with worry. “Daisy?”

“My sister is in Chamberly.”

He opened his mouth and then closed it again abruptly. “Why? How?”

“Lil is a brave woman. She wants to be a nurse, emulating those courageous women who provided such service during thewars with Napoleon. My sister traveled to Chamberly with the Benevolent Sisters to attend to those who suffer the most under Rostin’s occupation.”

“But it is dangerous, Dais. Your father permitted this recklessness?”

“He did. And for all I admire her intentions, I am at a loss. I failed to talk Lillian out of it. I failed.”

“You did not fail her, Dais,” he said. “I know something of stubborn siblings. But I still maintain your father should never have allowed it.”

“I pray for my sister, but what use are prayers without action? I hate that she put herself in such peril. But then I remember her noble work … and think about what you told me of women in the Hidden Realm … I lack purpose, Albie. It is most distressing. I have never been as selfless as Lil, but surely there is more I can do.”

“That, I understand,” he said softly. “As a second son, finding purpose in life is not easy. But what has this to do with Lord Mandeville’s to-do next week?”

“I knew you would understand. Now, I want everyone to see that you and Duncan needn’t always emulate our ways. Why should we not take on some of yours? I must dress the part. Then, we will introduce more Orcan ideas regarding the equality of the sexes. That is a fine objective, is it not? A fine purpose?”

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