Page 117 of The Good Duke
That’d always been his way. He’d never allowed her to be sad. It’d always been as if he couldn’t exist unless she was happy.
“This is about more than the dinner party,” he ventured with a gratingly gentle knowingness.
Of course. When all boys and men were emptyheaded, Simon had always been clever. Could he not let her be though? Couldn’t he leave her to her misery and just focus on how gloriously perfect his life and future were?
“Simon,” she said tiredly, “it is rude to keep a lady, and at that, a lady you are seriously considering marrying, waiting for you.”
And for a sliver of a moment, there existed within Persephone, a fragile hope that he’d refute her words. That he’d say it was only a walk in Hyde Park and hardly an offer of marriage.
But he didn’t.
Because it wasn’t just an afternoon stroll.
It was a walk that indicated far more andwould leadto far more between Simon and Lady Isabelle.
For a second time, tears threatened, and desperate to hide them, she made a show of bending down to retrieve Astrid’s leash. The moment she collected the cord, Simon’s hand, warm and strong and always assuring, covered hers.
Through blurred eyes, she stared at them, how easily they fit together; it was as if they’d been perfectly designed for one another.
Persephone blinked furiously to keep those blasted drops from falling.
“Persephone,” he murmured, and as she couldn’t remain staring at the top of Astrid’s head forever, she straightened.
“This change over you. It has been since Covent Garden,” he spoke haltingly.
Persephone waited for him to finish. She nodded her head slightly, urging him to speak.
And then wished she hadn’t.
“And,” he continued, “I was wondering if, perhaps, it had s-something to d-do with…”
She stared patiently at him, offering him the space with which to speak. Given the emergence of his stutter, whatever it was he sought he struggled to say.
“I-I was wondering…or r-rather, I f-fear,” he continued, still tripping over his words. Simon took a deep breath and spoke on a rush. “I worry with what we’ve sh-shared—” He grimaced. “D-Done together these past weeks, that y-your f-feelings have become inadvertently involved.”
What was he saying?Persephone stared blankly at him.
And then it hit her.
He knew she’d developed feelings for him.
I’m going to die. Nay, I want to die.The Lord, however, would never prove so merciful.
Persephone blanched and recoiled to her core. “No!” she exclaimed. “Never. I would never do something so ridiculous…” She trilled a laugh that sounded shrill to her own ears. “You and me? Me and you?Never!”
Concern radiated from the gaze Simon moved searchingly over her face.
She curled her toes so tightly in the soles of her slippers both feet ached.
He sought the veracity of her assurances. And given how intimately they knew one another, he could easily find it too.
Persephone reined in her panic, smoothed her features into a placid mask, and moved to the edge of her seat.
She took both Simon’s hands in hers. “Simon, I will always love you for having been the dearest of friends,” she said gently, lyingallthe way through her teeth. “But I do not care for you inthatway.”
“T-Truly?”
She gave his hands a light squeeze. “Truly.”
