Page 29 of The Good Duke
Wading there, Simon grinned and then splashed water in Persephone’s direction. “No, you wouldn’t.”
She grinned. “No, I wouldn’t.”
“Turn around, Seph.”
She rolled her eyes. “We’ve seen one another without clothes plenty of times.”
Yes, when they’d been babes in the nursery, but it’d been several years now since he’d bared himself before her.
With the tip of her boot, she kicked water in his direction. “What? Nothing to say?”
He grunted. “It’s different. Will you just…turn around?”
Persephone blew her tongue out noisily. “Oh, fine.”
“My—”
She’d already gathered up his garments, and keeping her back presented to him, she dangled his shirt over her shoulder.
Scrambling from the water, he grabbed the white lawn article and swiftly donned it.
Next, she handed back his trousers.
Hopping on first his left leg and then his right, Simon drew his pants on.
“Are you decent, my lord?” Persephone asked in a perfect impersonation of old Mrs. Richter, the ancient wife to the even more ancient village harness maker.
“It depends by whose standards we’re speaking of. Society on the whole? Not so much,” he said wryly. “By mine and your standards…”
Persephone whipped about and smiled a big, wide smile that went on for days. “Those are the only ones that matter!”
And funny that…it was true. Mayhap that was why he’d never had a stammer around her. For when they were together, he and Persephone, Simon just…was. He didn’t worry about how she viewed him or did not view him.
“Don’t let Polite Society hear you say that,” he said drolly.
She snorted. “As if I would or could.”
Nay, for as close as their fathers were, the fact remained, Simon and Persephone hadn’t been born to the same world. But for short periods throughout the year, he and she moved in different orbits.
“You aren’t missing anything, Seph,” he said quietly. In fact, he would have given anything to trade his current life for a more anonymous one.
She spoke on a rush. “No, I know that. I would be rubbish, absolutely rubbish, at all the proper lady stuff.”
Throwing her arms wide, Persephone sank into an exaggerated curtsy. She let her long, gangly limbs drop to her side. “I just hate that I—” The rest of her words ended on a sharp gasp. “Those cruel, contemptible maggot pies.”
Despite the misery of the earlier part of his day, he found himself smiling.
Persephone glared. “I’m gladoneof us finds this amusing.” Muttering under her breath, she went up on tiptoe and proceeded to examine his left eye more closely.
“I’m fine, Seph,” he said, making soothing noises.
Given how effortlessly she ignored him, he may as well have saved both his breath and efforts.
Her eyes flashed fire. “They said they’d paid you a visit. Told me I could find you back this way.”
“You saw them,” he said dumbly.
“Oh, I saw them all right.” Persephone confirmed with a nod.
