Page 27 of Healing the Duke's Desires
“Hmm,” Emily thought about it for a moment. “I likeDon Quixote.”
Alexander was amused. “What do you like about him?”
“I enjoy the contrast between his idealized view of the world the reality that surrounds him. It is so absurd and ironic, just like his misguided and delusional adventures of fighting windmills that he believes to be giants. It is quite thought-provoking. Only a very moral and just person could write something like that.”
He enjoyed this work as well, although he had no intention of admitting that yet. “Do you know that Cervantes was in prison when he wrote his famous work?”
“Prison?” Emily gasped, pressing her hand to her heart. “Oh, I’m sure you are mistaken.”
“Oh, I’m sure I’m not.” He chuckled.
“But… how?” Emily was frowning painfully.
“Well, that is because Cervantes was all too familiar with a plight that almost every aspiring writer suffered, which is the necessity of having a day job which paid the bills. He was working as a tax collector for the Spanish government.”
“A tax collector?” Emily echoed. “See? Tax collectors have to do calculations, exact numbers. Him going to prison must have been a mistake.”
“It was.” Alexander nodded, even more amused by this conversation and her incredulity. “His.”
“What do you mean, his?”
“He went to prison because of certain… how would I call them? Mathematic irregularities.” His comment made both Henry and Sarah chuckle. Only Emily was still stunned by the newfound knowledge. “But look at it from this perspective. Had he not gone to prison, the world would be poorer for the loss of a literary masterpiece.”
“I suppose so.” Emily was still frowning, but there was a faint smile on her lips as well.
“Good writers squeeze the good out of the worst situations,” Alexander elaborated, enjoying this conversation very much; it seemed he and Emily had a lot in common. That made him hopeful, against all odds. “Reality resonates with them.”
“Just like music resonates with us,” Sarah exclaimed again, and once more, the conversation was steered in a different direction. “Or art. I have recently started to experiment a little bit with watercolors. I just love capturing the play of light and shadow in my paintings.”
“Alexander paints as well,” Emily pointed out, genuine curiosity in her gaze.
“You do?” Sarah asked.
Caught off guard, Alexander hesitated before allowing a soft smile. “Well, there was a time when I used to paint,” he admitted, voice laced with a touch of nostalgia. “It’s been some time, but I’ve always found solace in the act of capturing a moment of nature’s bliss.”
“It is the simply the way art allows us to express ourselves, isn’t it?” Sarah seemed to know exactly what he was referring to, but it was Emily’s eyes that sparkled with interest at his words.
As the game of whist unfolded, Alexander found himself increasingly drawn to Emily, his initial intentions of solitude forgotten amidst the magnetic pull between them. Each word she spoke, each shared interest they discovered, seemed to weave an invisible thread that tugged at his heart.
Her laughter, like a melodic chime, echoed in his ears, creating a symphony that played to the rhythm of his heartbeat. Her smiles, her gestures, and the animated way she engaged in conversation seemed to cast a spell, making it impossible for him to look away.
Alexander’s thoughts kept returning to the stolen moment—the passionate kiss he had shared with Emily within the garden’s enchantment. The memory replayed in his mind, each detail etched into his consciousness. The softness of her lips, the electricity that had surged between them, the way time had seemed to stand still in that fleeting instant.
However, he couldn’t help but feel the weight of his guilty conscience pressing down on him. Every time he remembered the taste of Emily’s lips on his, he remembered that before her, there was another woman, a woman he had vowed to love forever. But the allure of Emily’s presence was undeniable, and all his thoughts seemed to converge into a single, indisputable truth: He was utterly and hopelessly infatuated with her.
***
Each shared laugh, every exchanged glance, and every conversation they engaged in only seemed to make Emily’s heart race faster. Still, no conversation would have been able to banish the memory of their kiss from her mind. It always remained at the forefront, even through their discussion of literature and art.
She could see, just like she did during the art exhibition, the way his eyes lit up when he spoke about painting. It only seemed to deepen the attraction that had taken root within her. Everything about him was so mysterious, so utterly magnetic that she could barely pull away from him.
She couldn’t help but wonder if he felt the same way. Did he think about their stolen moment as much as she did? Did he feel that same magnetic pull, that unspoken connection that seemed to bridge the gap between them?
Their gazes would meet from time to time, a fleeting exchange that held a world of unspoken emotion. Emily’s heart fluttered with every shared smile, and she found herself longing for more, yearning to explore the depths of their connection.
“So, how many tricks have we won?” Sarah asked, amusedly.
“I do believe we have successfully fulfilled our contract,” Henry replied, knowing that they scored points based on the contract. If they did not fulfill the contract, they would lose points. “And that makes ten points for us!”
