Page 45 of Wedded to the Loveless Duke
She eyed his smile and frowned. “Why do I have the impression I will have reason to object?”
He grinned. “Why, I could hardly guess, my dear. Come, we are only going next door.”
“The jeweler’s again? Phillip, I told you that I do not need expensive baubles. I meant it in earnest.”
“I know. I just think we ought to browse. No woman’s dress is complete without some pretty trinket to go with it.”
“I have more than enough pretty trinkets at home.” Eleanor let him guide her next door without any resistance, though.
Phillip pulled the door open and gently pushed her inside. “Humor me?”
“Oh, very well. I suppose it cannot hurt to look. Only look, though, Phillip.”
“We shall see. I make no promises.”
The elderly man who ran the shop greeted them with a broad smile, likely remembering the handsome sum he’d been paid the last time Phillip had taken her there. “Is there anything I can do for you, Your Graces?”
“We merely wish to look, Mr. Hanson. Thank you.” Phillip took her hand and guided her to a display of finely worked necklaces. “Do you see anything you would like to try on, my love?”
Eleanor bit her lip. If she tried anything on and Phillip knew she liked it, he’d probably end up buying it for her, and she really didn’t need anything else to wear.
“If you do not choose, I shall choose something for you.” He put his hands on her waist and pulled her back against his chest. “What about this one?”
He reached past her to point at a necklace made of a dark green emerald in the center with wings extending from it and moresmall emeralds hanging from the bottom edges. The whole of it reminded her of something they might see in India or Egypt.
She glanced up at him. “We are only trying it on, right?”
“For now. Let us see how it looks on you.”
The shopkeeper joined them by the display, took the necklace out and handed it to Phillip. “A wonderful choice, Your Grace. The hue of the emeralds compliments Her Grace’s eyes beautifully.”
Eleanor reached out to take the necklace from her husband’s hands, but Phillip shook his head. “Allow me. I want to put it on you like last time. I find I rather enjoy doing so.”
She hid her face behind the fan she’d bought to ward off the heat to cover the blush she could feel spreading from her cheeks to the tips of her ears. When she glanced at Phillip, she saw an uncustomary blush on his cheeks as well, though he seemed less concerned with hiding it as he slipped the necklace around her neck and fastened it.
The shopkeeper made himself scarce as the two of them looked at the necklace around her neck in a small mirror. The woman Eleanor saw looked nothing like her. She had a gleam in her green eyes and a deep flush to her pale cheeks as the sunlight filtered in through the shop windows to glance off her dark hair.
“You are a vision, my love.” Phillip ran his fingers over the emeralds as he stood behind her. “Can you not agree, looking at yourself like this?”
Eleanor bit her lip, meeting his gaze in the mirror.
His smile dropped, but he didn’t release her. “I want to buy this for you, Eleanor. Please, do not argue with me on this.”
She looked at herself again in the mirror and saw why he persisted. The shopkeeper had been right about the color of the emeralds complimenting the color of her eyes. The two were well-matched. “As you please, Phillip.”
“Thank you.” He left her inspecting the necklace and went to pay the shopkeeper before returning to her side with that serious look still on his face. “Eleanor,” he murmured. “I need to tell you something. Something I should have admitted long ago.”
Her heartbeat sped up, and she turned to face him, afraid that it would be bad news and that the fairytale might come crashing down just as she was beginning to believe it would go on forever. “Long ago?”
“Well, properly, that is. The truth is, Eleanor, I have liked you from the first time we met, and you occupied my mind constantly in the days before our wedding. I hated myself for what I had to do to have you, but I wanted you so badly that I was persuaded that the grief I would cause you could be healed. I hope that I was right, though I know it does not make up for what I did.” He took her hands in his. “I know you may notremember, but I did admit the first fact when we were at our first ball as husband and wife. I thought I should tell when we are both sober.”
Eleanor clung to his hands tightly, relieved that it wasn’t anything dreadful. “Oh. That is all?”
“No. If I am honest, Eleanor, what I feel for you now goes far beyond what I felt then. I simply cannot look at you without a rush that leaves me feeling half-giddy as though I were drunk or running high on opiates.”
She flushed and glanced around, but the shop was empty, and the shopkeeper had gone to the back out of earshot. “I… I feel the same.”
Phillip leaned closer, pulling her into his arms. “And I must confess, while I am making confessions anyway, that each day that passes, it becomes harder to wait for the right moment to make you fully mine.”
