Page 56 of The Duke and Lady Scandal
“Lunch.” When she began to look around nervously, he took a step closer. She immediately did the same. “Forgive me for sounding like a damned echo.”
She laughed, and every single doubt slipped away, every rational argument he might be able to summon if he wasn’t entirely pleased to have her in front of him.
“A walk, lunch. Both sound appealing.” If she’d asked him to join her to walk a high wire across the English Channel, he would have agreed.
“Of course, I haven’t given you the chance to suggest anything either.”
He glanced over at the newspaper he’d left open on the top of his desk.
“This may sound mad, but would you care to go visit the Crown Jewels?”
Chapter Twelve
Ben felt as if he was living another version of himself—a lighter, freer version. A man who could enjoy his days away from work, court a lovely young woman, and seek out leisure activities as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
Time with Alexandra was everything he had denied himself, but he couldn’t shake the sense that some Dickens specter would soon appear to reveal that it was a glimpse of what could be, but only if he chose another path.
But he couldn’t. His path was set. His goals could not be forfeited. They’d already cost him too much.
So he told himself these moments were ephemeral. He would savor the day with her, and she’d return to her home and he to his. They’d shared a few kisses, and he’d give in to none of his other desires where she was concerned. Nothing that would lead her to believe he could offer more.
“I suppose it’s fitting that we’ve come to see the Crown Jewels,” Alexandra said as they alighted from a cab near the Tower’s fortress walls. “In a way, they’re how we met.”
“They are.” He was grateful to the pile of gold and gems for that reason alone.
She smiled up at him, and he saw such openness and warmth in her eyes that his breath hitched in his chest.
He wanted to tuck the feeling away and save it for the days ahead. She’d go back to running her shop and writing her book and eventually going on the sort of Prince-style journeys her siblings did, and he’d go back to his work. But today would give him memories to savor.
“You’ve never been before?” Ben asked when they joined the waiting queue to enter the Tower grounds.
“My parents never brought us to such places. They always had their hearts set on the next expedition or journey, most of which were outside of England.”
He recalled her sadness when she spoke of being left behind while her family traveled.
“Papa’s wanderlust was all but insatiable. He grew restless after even a few months back in England.” Her hand tightened momentarily where she’d taken his arm as they walked. “Maybe that’s why my brother and sister both prefer exploring closer to home.”
“I confess that I’ve never traveled extensively either.” He looked at her, weighing his next words, acknowledging that it would reveal him as terribly unworldly. “I’ve never been much farther than London, in all honesty.”
“There’s no shame in that. Neither have I. Obviously, there’s much to explore, even for those of us who’ve lived in the city most of our lives.”
Inside the walls of the Tower grounds, they discovered that the queue to see the gems was the longest of all. On the carriage ride over, he’d explained about the removal of the jewels and their recent return.
She seemed to think his theory that it may have been the cause of the musings she’d overheard at Hawlston’s a reasonable one. Though she’d emphasized that the tall man, the supposed Lord Holcroft, still unnerved her when she gave him more than a moment’s consideration.
“Shall we wander a bit or join a tour?” he asked, pointing to a spot where one of the Yeomen Warders was collecting visitors into a group to begin a tour.
“Let’s explore,” she told him eagerly. Ben purchased a map, and they used it to plot a course to the spot on the Tower Green where two of HenryVIII’s wives met their end.
“I can’t imagine the horror of putting one’s head on a chopping block,” she murmured as they stood on the green.
“And the betrayal of one’s husband ordering such a thing.”
“Thank heavens we’ve moved past those days.”
“Mmm.” Ben had a case the previous year wherein a husband had disposed of two wives over the course of five years, the first murder only uncovered because of the second wife’s untimelydeath. There’d been no real rationale for the two women losing their lives.
He didn’t tell Alexandra about the case, not wishing to reveal his own cynicism. He wondered if societyhadmoved beyond the barbarity of the past. The moment was a stark reminder of how much of his work wasn’t fit to share with anyone, certainly not a vibrant young woman who saw the world as a place for hopefulness, improving on its past errors.
