Page 79 of The Duke's Impossible Deal
“Do not try to hide your radiance.” He reached a hand to her face, gently tilting her chin up so her grey eyes met his. “Promiseme that you will let yourself shine, that you will not hold yourself back. Let yourself not just be beautiful, butfeelbeautiful. And let the ton marvel at it.”
“And what makes you so sure they will marvel at me?” Her voice was small, her eyes boring into his.
“Because I have eyes.” His heart was pounding so hard, he was sure she could hear it. He brushed a lock of hair from her face. “You are beautiful, Rowen, and I would not have you hide it. I would have you show it to the world.”
“Would you now?” There was a teasing note in her voice and something else that he could not quite place. “I thought you did not like to share.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up. “Who said anything about sharing? After all, you will be coming home with me. I just want them to know what they are missing.”
He caught her hand and pressed it gently to his lips, never taking his eyes off her. He saw her lips part and her eyes dart to his mouth.
“I will see you tomorrow night, Rowen.”
He stepped away from her, feeling as though he were a piece of iron trying to detach from a magnet.
Twenty-Three
“Of course, Rowen did not care that the man might be armed. She did not even hesitate; she simply flung herself at him and tackled him to the ground.” Verity laughed and shook her head.
The Salisbury ball was in full swing, and Rowen, Verity, Cora, and Tobias were standing on the edge of the dance floor.
Rowen and Tobias were taking a break from dancing, having spent a good part of the evening waltzing.
The air thrummed with music, laughter, and chatter. Every now and then, she would feel eyes drift towards her, and Tobias’s words would come back to her.
“Do not try to hide your radiance.”
She straightened, smiling broadly and meeting the stranger’s gaze. Sometimes, she would wave at them and delight in thespots of embarrassment that she would see on their cheeks as they realized she had caught them staring.
“And what happened then?” Tobias’s voice pulled her back to the present.
“She reclaimed my reticule, dispatched a Runner to fetch the magistrate, and sat on the man until he arrived.” Cora gave Rowen’s hand an affectionate squeeze.
“You are forgetting the way she tied his hands with ribbons, Cora,” Verity added. “You would think she was securing a present, not a thief.”
“I suspect the magistrate had never received such a prettily tied criminal.” Tobias turned to face his wife, his green eyes sliding over her with such intensity that she felt a shiver run down her spine.
How does he do that to me so easily?
His lips quirked into a smile that sent her heart tumbling around her chest. “I knew you were brave, Rowen, but you have a heart so sure that it would put a lion to shame.”
“I was not so courageous. The man was unlikely to be armed, and what Verity has neglected to mention is that he was easily a head shorter than me.” Rowen gave Verity a meaningful look, but was interrupted by her friend before she could continue.
“But he was twice as broad!”
“Anyone would have done it.” Rowen waved a dismissive hand. “Besides, you also helped me restrain the man. Or have you forgotten how you also sat on him while we waited for the magistrate?”
“Who took his sweet time in arriving, let me tell you.” Cora shook her head. “And then of course, he had the audacity to tell us off for apprehending the fellow in such an unladylike fashion.”
“And I suspect he got the sharp end of Rowen’s tongue?” Tobias cocked his head.
Rowen shook her head. “He would have, if Cora had not beaten me to it. But after the dressing down she gave him, I could not bring myself to add to it.”
“It was hardly a dressing down. It was but a few choice words to remind him that if he had not taken his time in coming to find us, we would not have had to behave in such an unladylike fashion,” Cora said with the air of someone correcting something utterly inconsequential.
“You called him a twiddling fool who had not the wit to form half a thought, let alone a coherent sentence.” Rowen arched an eyebrow at her friend, an amused smile on her face.
“Well, one should always call a spade a spade.” Cora waved a hand in the air and sipped her drink, her eyes twinkling with mischief. “And when you get to my age, dear, you never know which words might be your last, so you may as well make every one count.”
