Page 44 of The Duke's Tempting Widow
“What other reasons?”
How was she to tell her sister that one of the reasons that she was keeping her distance from the duke was to ensure that there was no scandal attached to their name? Kitty and William’s engagement would have been tainted by the fact that she was ending her mourning period so quickly.
“I still have quite some time before my year of mourning is up, Kitty.” Lydia sighed, hoping that the answer would suffice. “My reputation—and by extension your own —would be called into question. Why would I do that? You know I care for you above all else.”
Lydia said it as gently as possible. Though, the love that welled in her sister’s eyes was almost too much.
Kitty reached for her, slipping her hand from William’s arm and grasping her hand tightly. “You have to put yourselffirst at some point, sister. Your feelings for His Grace must be very deep indeed.”
She would, but only after all of the rest of those that she loved and cared for so deeply were properly taken care of. There was nothing wrong with that. Even if she did crave Weston’s hands upon her to the point that her skin ached.
“Whatever my feelings might or might not be is irrelevant, Kitty. I did love my husband, in my own way, and I would not insult his memory by remarrying too quickly.”
Kitty gasped. “Marriage?!”
Lydia’s face flamed. “That is not… I mean…”
Kitty giggled and leaned forward, her nose rubbing against her sisters as she laughed. The wine was clearly going to her sister’s head. She had not made such an affectionate gesture like that since they were children.
“Oh, what happy news. I would be so thrilled! The duke seems like such a lovely man.”
“As does William.”
“I am still so shocked that he has chosen me. I told him everything, you know, before the duke had left for London. Afterall of the blackmailing business came to light, I felt that it was only right. I was so certain that he would turn his back to me, that the threat of scandal in such a sensitive society would be enough to send him running.”
Kitty said with a smile, glancing over her shoulder at William as if she could not bear the thought of being parted from him for too long. “He accepted me, all of it, and then informed me that he was going to ask our father for my hand in marriage.”
“Truly, I cannot have wished for anything better for you.” Lydia smiled.
“The earl would have wished for your happiness. He was a strange man, but he was affectionate in his way. He would have wished for you to fill your days with happiness, he always did. The fact that you could be blessed with a love match? You know he would have never stood in your way. He was your friend, that much was obvious.”
She had a point. Their relationship had always been friendly, and their marital duties were low on the priority burner between the two of them. But it had been successful for them. It had been enough. Lydia could have remained married to him for the rest of her days and would not have regretted it—if it were not for those memories with the duke all of those years ago.
There was no point in lamenting over what might have been, should she have made different life choices, or where sheand the duke might have been now. But she could do something about the way that her future was going to turn out.
“You should not wait. I care not what society might or might not say. There is no point of depriving yourself of happiness for their sake. What has thetonever done for you?” Kitty said.
Even those words alone would have been considered scandalous. But she had a point.
One way or another, no matter how it ended, Lydia was going to find Weston that night.
Chapter 28
Lydia’s nerves did not fully set in until she saw him across the ballroom. Weston, as always, looked breathtakingly handsome. She expected nothing less. His large frame stood a head taller than those around him, and a small crowd of undoubtedly eligible young ladies were encircling him.
It was like a flashback happening right before her eyes. Weston did not seem the slightest bit interested in any of them. No, his gaze seemed to be searching for her just as she was searching for him.
She lingered, waiting for his beautiful eyes to find her, that familiar tendril of heat curling low in her belly the moment that she felt him looking at her. A soft, knowing smile on her face that echoed the one on his own. It was as if he could read her mind despite the distance between them. His gaze raked over her figure, from her neck to her chest, to the curve of her waist, and her heart fluttered in her chest. He was not even touching her. Not physically.
Weston’s head tilted to the side, indicating that she should head that way, and she was only too happy to oblige. Her pulse spiked the closer that she made it to where he was slowly walking to meet her. Behind him, those who had been trying to speak to him were now pouting that he had dismissed them soquickly. Petty, perhaps, but it made her feel just that much more desired.
Whispers gathered as she found him while still wearing her black mourning dress. But Weston clearly paid them no mind as he offered her his hand. Well, they could speculate all that they liked. Lydia was not going to give them any more fuel for their gossip. It was not as if they had not danced before.
She could not have named the moment where words no longer felt needed between them, but it was only too easy to accept his invitation to dance. It was almost as if they were rewriting their own history. Those moments from before that had been a focal point of all of her dreams being overlain by this very moment.
Weston’s hand was warm and steady as she delicately placed her own in his. The callouses from many years of trained swordsmanship grated against the satin of her glove. She longed to feel his rough palms against her bare skin. Patience, she needed to remind herself to be patient.
Her skin burned everywhere that he touched her, even the soft and respectable hold that he placed on her waist. They moved together for the first part of the song, separating and spinning with the others on the dance floor as the song moved from one stanza to the next. They could not keep their eyes off of one another.
