Page 28 of Her Runaway Duke
The duke's eyes softened at her offer, his grip around her loosening slightly as he finally set her down on her feet.
“You don’t want me to get in your way.”
“You would not be in my way at all.” Her cheeks warmed slightly as she realized how much she wanted him to agree to this. “I would appreciate your company.”
He paused, looking away from her for a moment before he returned his gaze to her and cleared his throat.
"Very well," he replied softly, the faintest upturn of his lips making Siena's heart flutter.
He waved his hand toward two chairs by the window, a small table between them. She took one, noting that he winced slightly while taking the other.
“Did you hurt yourself?” she asked as now with space between them she recalled how quickly he must have moved across the room to catch her. “How were you able to reach me so fast?”
“Old habits,” he said, staring out the window and off into the distance, and Siena had the distinct feeling that, for a moment, he was not with her but somewhere – or sometime – elseentirely. “There was a time when I needed to be able to move gracefully and quietly to stay alive.”
Her breath caught in her throat at the thought of it.
“You have lived an adventurous life.”
His head swivelled back toward her, pain upon his face. “You could call it that.”
She wanted to ask more, but he picked up the book she had set on the table between them.
“I have been through this library so many times and yet, I have never seen this book before.”
“I cannot say what it was about it that drew my attention,” she said with a shrug. “Its cover is old, dusty, and grey. Yet within it seems to hold magic.”
“Very well,” he said. “Why do we not begin?”
CHAPTER 10
Lady Siena thought that the book was magic, but it wasn’t the book.
It was her.
He had asked her to begin reading aloud and suggested they take turns, but before he knew it, he was resting his head on the cushion of the chair behind him, her soothing voice lulling away the pain as he relaxed into the story.
As much as he had been trying to fight it, Levi couldn't help but be drawn to her. It was not just due to the beauty that was obvious in her delicate features and fair hair, but for the strength and determination that shone from her brown eyes.
As Lady Siena continued to read, the words seemed to come alive in the room, weaving a spell as they swirled around them in a dance of emotions and untold stories.
Levi found himself lost in her presence, the world around them fading into insignificance. He stole glances at her delicate profile, the way her lashes fluttered with each sentence, the slight furrow of concentration between her brows.
He found himself captivated by every nuance of her being - the way her lips curved in a gentle smile at the humorous partsof the story, the way her eyes sparkled with mischief when she imitated different characters.
“The descriptions in this book,” she commented, her tone changing at her words, “reminds me of Greystone.”
“How so?” he said, his eyes closed now. “It speaks of a house full of love, light, laughter. That is nothing like Greystone.”
“But the brightly colored bedooms, all in different hues? That cannot be a coincidence. I think that sometimes it is the people that make the home, do you not?”
He snorted. That said a lot about him.
“The emotion of the people, I should say, and how they feel about the house,” she continued as though reading his mind, “it’s all in here. How much the two people loved one another, and their hopes for a life together. Do you know anything about who owned Greystone before your family did?”
Levi shook his head. “Not much. Somehow it came to our family through a marriage dowry although when or how, I am not sure. I don’t believe it has been lived in for years, however.”
“If this book is true, then this was a happy home at one point in time, years ago,” Siena said, her voice warm and light. “Perhaps it could be again.”
