Page 102 of The Phantom Duke
He raised a brow, expression unreadable in the firelight.
“I didn’t know if you’d want strangers in your house,” she added, quieter now. “But I was afraid. I couldn’t stop the fire alone.”
He stared at her a moment, then reached for her hand, dirty and damp with soot. “You saved my life.”
“I didn’t?—”
“You did,” he said. “You called them. You called me back.”
Her throat closed again, but this time with gratitude. Her eyes returned to the great house. Another portion of the roof caved inward with a deafening roar, sparks cascading into the night sky like a dying star.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, “about Winterleigh. About your home.”
Damien turned to look at the manor with its burning wings and melting windows. The night wind shifted, bringing the smell of ash and scorched velvet. The place he had tried so long to protect was being devoured inch by inch.
But his hand squeezed hers.
“Don’t be,” he said. “Let it burn.”
She stared at him.
“Let it burn,” he said again, softly this time. “We’ll rebuild. Or maybe we won’t. Maybe we can start somewhere new. I’m not afraid of ashes anymore.”
Maria didn’t speak, didn’t need to. She leaned into his shoulder, and for the first time in days, maybe in years, she felt steady.
The flames could have Winterleigh. They had each other.
EPILOGUE
“Ithought it was terribly dull. The hero was so… thin and transparent. Hardly heroic at all. He spent so much time bemoaning his fate and… it was just very unsatisfactory,” Maria said, holding the book in question on her lap.
“Hmmm, I suppose that you are now spoiled for literary heroes by having a real-life one of your own. But you mustn’t let that color your judgment, Maria,” Evelina said.
“She has a point. One cannot imagine the hero of this work carrying two men out of a burning house,” Anna said.
“He is more of an intellectual hero,” Theodora said. “He is perhaps overly introspective. I agree, Evelina, I think Maria’s expectations of men are now set impossibly high.”
Maria laughed at the accusation.
“I can assure you that I do not have high expectations of anyone except my husband.”
“Always before, you gravitated towards the thinking protagonists of the books we discussed. The intellectual hero. That was your preferred type of man, was it not?” Evelina said.
“Yes. I was not attracted by an overly physical male, it is true.”
“And since marrying the Duke of Winterleigh, a very physical man indeed, that has changed?” Evelina probed.
Maria blushed and threw the wretched book down and her hands up.
“I give up! Yes, Damien has jaundiced me against the ordinary sort of man. As far as I am concerned, he is…”
“Zeus?” Anna suggested.
“I was going to say Hercules,” Maria said.
“Ah, a mere demi-god. That makes all the difference,” Theodora said.
“Suffice to say that I think we are probably all in agreement. The hero of this particular book does not exactly live up to the expectations of events in the real world in the last three months,” Evelina said. “An excellent first Corset Chronicles Club meetinghere at Hollowmere Lodge. Well done, Maria, for being an excellent hostess.”
