Page 25 of Eliza and the Duke
“It’s not up to Whitechapel standards, I’m afraid.”
He was right. The women all wore large hats of felt and velvet with even larger flowers, plumes, feathers, and all manner of decorations. A slow study of the other women in the crowd found them to be similar. Only a few hats were black. Most were blue, crimson, green, and even purple, dark colors that wouldn’t easily show dirt and would wear longer.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.
“You’re not going to buy a new hat for one night out.”
“How do they knowyouare from around here?” she asked, mildly annoyed.
“I don’t look out of place.” He waggled his fingers at the women and they giggled and turned their attention to the show.
She sat back in her seat, but kept her hand on his shoulder. It felt too good touching him, but also, she wanted thosewomen to think he was hers. She wasn’t very proud of that part of her, but there it was. He glanced at her hand, but she couldn’t tell what he thought before he returned his attention to the stage.
Mr. Leybourne was back, this time without his champagne. He began singing a lovely tune that she hadn’t heard before, but that everyone else seemed to know. There was loud applause when he started, and several people tried to sing along, until their friends shushed them. It was the love song Simon had sung the night he was inebriated. The night they had met.
If ever I cease to love,
If ever I cease to love,
May the moon be turn’d into green cheese,
If ever I cease to love.
She’s as sweet as a rosebud,
And lily flow’r chang’d into one.
And who would not love such a beauty
Like an Angel dropp’d from above.
She leaned forward again. This time she sat so close to him that her lips touched his ear when she said, “I like it better the way you sing it.”
He looked at her, surprised, his mouth so close to hers that they could have kissed. She wanted him to kiss her right there in the theater in the middle of everyone. He wouldn’t do it, though. She knew him well enough now. He’d want to, but he’d talk himself out of it and think he was doing the right thing by her.
It was a good thing she was impulsive enough for both of them. Maybe it was the gin, but she didn’t want to blame it on that. She kissed him and he jarred from the shock of it, but hedidn’t pull away. In fact, he kissed her back. His soft lips moved over hers, parting and tasting. The song finished, and the thunderous applause drew them apart.
Everyone rose to their feet, including them, but Simon led her out of the theater like the hounds of hell were chasing them.
Fourteen
“Why did you do that?”The words burst out of him as soon as the doors closed behind them and they were out on the street.
Eliza didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t walking too fast for her, but he was taking them back toward the main street, and she was having trouble watching her step and his face at the same time. He looked…not angry, like she’d first assumed…but desperate.
“Should I not have?” she asked.
He glanced at her, his brow furrowed as if questioning the state of her sanity. “We’re not courting, Eliza.”
He’d called her by her first name. The little skip her heart gave had her pausing to catch her breath. He stopped to give her a moment, but he didn’t drop her hand.He still held her hand.
“I know that we aren’t,” she finally said. “Is that the only reason to kiss?”
He looked at her and she felt the heat of it all the way to hercore. “We’re not doing that, either.” There was no doubt about what he meant by that.
Hot flames touched her face, those words stoking the fire that always simmered between them. They called up the memory of his nude backside, and her imagination went ahead and embellished, filling out his front side and remembering how it had felt to be pressed against him that night in her bedroom. Perhaps they should do that. At least once.
“Isn’t there a space in between?” she asked instead.
