Page 69 of The Duke of Ice
“Yes.” As happy as he’d expected to be after losing Maurice and then his uncle.
She propped herself up on her elbow and looked at him. “Just yes?”
His muscles tensed as discomfort tripped through him. “What more can I say that you would really want to hear, Violet?” He pushed himself up, thinking it was maybe time for him to go.
She sat up too and moved close to him, placing her hand on his shoulder. “Pardon me, please. I didn’t mean to press. I am sure she was a lovely woman; otherwise, you wouldn’t have chosen her.”
He angled his upper body toward her. She was so beautiful in the faint light of the candle behind her. Her eyes were rich and earthy, her hair pale and ethereal. She was a mixture of light and dark, of his happiest moments and his saddest. He didn’t want any more of the latter.
He lifted a lock of her hair from her shoulder and fingered the soft tresses. “I prefer not to look backward. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to share things with you. I just want to forge ahead.”
“I understand.”
“And right now, I’m focused on the fact that we are both here, and you make me feel lighter than I have in years.” A smile tugged at his lips. “Well, once I surrendered to your persistence.”
“My persistence?”
“You don’t think you were persistent at the house party?”
“I’m not sure what you mean. I wasn’t trying to pursue you.”
He ran his thumb along her jaw. “Truly?”
She tried to look him in the eye, but a laugh escaped her parted lips. “I tried not to. Your deterrence was rather effective.”
“It’s difficult not to be won over by a woman who can hold her own after tumbling out of a boat, who can win an archery contest with ease, and who is eager to help my dearest friend.”
“You make me sound far more exciting than I really am,” she said softly, looking away in embarrassment.
He put his finger beneath her chin and drew her to look at him. He stared into her eyes, willing her to believe him. “You are everything I want right now.” He’d stopped thinking about what he wanted, because those things kept disappearing. Even as he said the words, fear gripped him. Maybe he should go…
Before he could take flight, she cupped his face in her hands and kissed him. When she drew back, but only slightly, her brow curved into a provocative arch. “Rightnow?”
“I think so.” He pressed her back onto the mattress and came over her. “Unless you think I should go. I will need to leave before morning, in any case.”
She wrapped her arms around him and stroked the plane of his back, one hand trailing down to his backside. Her touch was divine and exactly what he needed to banish the darkness from his mind. He hoped forever, but accepted it would likely just be for now.
Darkness had a way of finding him.
* * *
The gentleman looking backat him from the glass was hardly familiar. Violet had insisted that he wear something akin to court dress, which he despised and had worn on only a very few occasions. Rather than have something made, he’d sent for one of his suits of clothing from London. Now he was trussed up in a costume of dark green with lilies of the valley embroidered on the coat. The Queen liked flowers.
He looked forward to seeing Violet in her court clothing, almost as much as he looked forwarding to divesting her of it.
They’d spent the last three days in a rapturous bliss. He’d taken her for a boat ride in the canal on Friday, and that evening, they’d happened—on purpose—to encounter each other at a party celebrating All Hallows’ Eve. It had been a festive affair, despite Nick exerting a great deal of effort to avoid the various games of divination. He didn’t need such things telling him his fortune, not when he could be assured it would be bad.
He’d meant what he’d told Violet—he wanted to live in the present and enjoy each moment. And that was precisely what they’d done. He hadn’t seen her today since he’d ridden out to meet the Queen’s procession. Tomorrow they would likely visit the Pump Room when the Queen was there, and the following day they would celebrate Gunpowder Treason Day with everyone else in Bath. It was, he realized, the happiest he’d been in a very long time. In forever, maybe.
Nick turned from the mirror. “Will I do, Rand?”
The valet sized him up and gave an approving nod. “Splendidly.” He handed Nick the three-cornered cocked hat, which Nick placed upon his head. “And now you are perfect.”
“Harrumph.”
Nick departed the house and climbed into his waiting coach. The traffic would be abominable as people had been crowding the streets all day. The city was so illuminated with lanterns that it almost seemed like day.
He wished he were fetching Violet along the way, but they’d decided they couldn’t arrive together. Still, he looked out at her house as they passed her street and saw her coach sitting before it. She hadn’t left yet. Good, he would watch her entrance.
