Page 30 of The Duke
The partygoers started to clap as others joined them on the dance floor, the tune picking up the pace as the piece properly started. Elsie knew the minuet, and when their hands touched, despite the material of their gloves, it warmed Elsie’s heart.
“It is going well,” she whispered as they came together and was pleased to see Kit smile.
As the music slowed, both of them looked towards Flora, who was watching the party with great interest.
It was working, Elsie thought excitedly, pleasure pounding through her.
Ashmore started to escort her off the dance floor when the murmurs of the surrounding inhabitants of the ballroom started to cry out.
Elsie’s head whipped around desperate to see what the matter was—was there some minor problem that had been forgotten? Had she not brought the right shade of pink gown? This was the sort of problem that society often deemed worthy of worrying over. But then she saw Lady Flora break away towards her brother and let out an unnatural cry. All sound ceased, even the musicians reacting by pulling back their chairs,their hands raised. And far too slowly, Elsie looked up to the ceiling.
The chandelier had been lowered this afternoon to be fitted with candles, lit, and hoisted high again. She had ensured this would be managed by the servants. But now it hung by a thread high above them—wax dripping, candles quivering, and with a silent scream, Lady Flora pointed up as the entire thing wobbled.
Then it snapped free and fell, hurtling towards the ground.
Heading straight down to land where the three of them were standing.
Elsie closed her eyes. It was so large even throwing herself out of the way wouldn’t do much, not in her long evening dress. It was going to land on her, and it seemed as if all of her defying the curse that the siblings had warned her about was finally going to come home to roost.
A warm heavy body crashed into her, at speed, surrounding her with its heat and strength. Shielding her as the sounds of the chandelier landed around them and the ballroom’s bated breath broke, and the screams rented the air. Opening her eyes, she looked up into Kit’s face.
“Are you hurt?” he asked. His voice was quick and harsh as his gaze raked her face.
“No,” Elsie said. She tried to move, to search nearby, everything save for him seemed to be in movement. “What about Flora?”
“She ran but you just froze.” He let out an uneven breath. “Do you have a foolhardy desire to die?”
Elsie shook her head, trying her best to clear it. She could not entirely explain why she’d stopped dead in her tracks. Perhaps it had been fear. Or the thought surely, surely this could not be happening? It was too unlikely, too unfortunate. It beggared belief. Especially as she’d checked through the ballroom again to prepare it for the most perfect evening—nothing was out of place and yet disaster had struck once again.
Her eyes moved back to Ashmore, their faces inches apart. He was trying to shield her as best he could. His large frame on top of hers. She’d hoped and even attempted some humour that they’d end in this position. But not with a broken evening in pieces around them, nor at the risk of fire, which surely the candles on the chandelier might lead to. A horrid idea occurred to her. The smoking candles had caught, and Elsie could see there was a spreading fire up the nearest set of curtains.
“Did anything hit you?” she asked, and she clasped his shoulders trying to hold him to her.
All around them there were thundering feet, the shouts of their guests as they tore through the ruined ballroom which was filled with smoke.
As Elsie huddled between Kit’s broad back and the ballroom floor, she wondered she had been the fool for not believing the two siblings about their family’s inherited curse. She feared she believed it now, and it was going to be her mission to get both Ashmore and Lady Flora out of this damned place before anything worse happened to the pair of them.
“Come.” He dragged her upright and towards the partly opened doorway some of the guests must have departed through. “You need to leave.”
Shaking despite herself and disliking her nerves, Elsie linked her fingers through his. “You too.”
“I need to make sure the fire doesn’t spread,” Ashmore said as he untangled her fingers from his and then hastily yanked off his jacket, wrapping it around her shoulders. “If you see Flora…”
Nodding Elsie held on to the folds of the jacket as she stepped outside into the cooled night air. All around them there came shouts either inside or out of the house, she wasn’t sure, all her focus was on Kit who was about to go back into the ballroom. Beneath her feet the stone steps seemed absurdly sturdy, whereas everything else felt as if it might vanish into the night.
“Be careful,” she said as he took a step back.
“I have something to come back for.” He gave her a smile that in normal circumstances might have threatened her equilibrium but, in that moment, sent butterflies fluttering through her body. Then he was gone, and Elsie was left alone outside the manor house, staring up at the tall, stretching monstrosity, fearful it might swallow Kit whole.
She must have dozed off,Elsie sat up with a start, the duke’s jacket draped around her shoulders as she woke from the stone bench close to the ballroom. The noises of terror and shouts from the manor house had faded and been replaced with the sounds of nighttime, the hoot of an owl and the distant swish of the sea in the caves. Pulling herself into a more upright position, Elsie hurried back towards the doorway, Kit had pushed her through, hours ago—although in truth she had no idea how long ago it had been since she hurried outside.
Why had no one emerged to look for her? The question frightened her, for it meant they were probably in too much danger to find her? She doubted that Ashmore would leave her out there, unless…
Stepping back into the ballroom Elsie looked cautiously around the chamber. Or rather what remained of it. Gone was all the elegance she’d admired and arranged. How such devastation could be wrecked by such a relatively small chandelier was beyond her, but the dent in the floor would take a skilled workman to fix. Smoke hung in the air, but at least there was no fire beneath it. There were large burn marks dotting the walls and ceiling, and an unpleasant musk hung in the air as if hair had been burnt.
Yet it wasn’t merely the defeated atmosphere in the room that Elsie felt, it was also the knowledge that the catastrophe would destroy the fragile faith Flora had built up, rendering the possibility of leaving the manor as a trio unlikely.
Elsie walked farther into the ballroom, all the way across to where the musicians had been stationed, her hands touching the discarded sheets of music. Destined to go unplayed now. There was something so melancholy about that realisation.
