Page 71 of The Duke's Dream
What did tonight mean?
Closing her eyes, she touched her breasts. They felt fuller. Her lips… Would they ever be the same? Helene shook her head briskly. She would not act like Hamlet, brooding over what had passed between her and the tyrant duke. She would not dwell on the bliss, or the risk to her heart, or how she’d feel when he returned to his grand house.
She was an independent woman. She’d enjoyed herself. That was it.
Bracing herself, she padded back to the bedroom, her pulse erratic.
The duke stretched over the mattress, and the bed groaned like an out-of-tune cello. Something bubbled up inside her, a feeling suspiciously close to delight, but she quickly forced her expression to remain neutral. He had a palace of a house. Why would he want to sleep in her garret?
He looked up, a satisfied smile on his face. He was all too pleased with himself, too confident. Smug. Who was this man, and where was the Duke of Albemarle?
“Are you sure you fit in my bed, Your Grace?” she asked, trying to hold her voice steady.
He adjusted the pillows like a man settling in for winter. “From now on, you will call me William.”
Helene suppressed a smile. “Are you sure? Won’t this breach in protocol topple down society as we know it?”
A lock had escaped his ordered hair and brushed his forehead. Helene’s hands tingled to reach for that daring strand and start a revolution. She would incite the rest of his hair into a strike and mutiny his body against the tyranny of clothes.
“Not if we are discreet.”
“Very well. It is a terrible nuisance to keep ‘Your Gracing’ you, anyway.”
Glaring at the little space left for her in her bed, she climbed atop it, facing away from the smug stranger who wanted her to call him William. What would the girls say if they knew he spent the night here? Louise would scowl and plot sabotage. Celeste would sigh and quote Shakespeare. Helene rolled her eyes and pondered the advantages of keeping it a secret. Still, when had she ever been able to keep anything from that meddling horde?
He turned to face her, his hand resting on her hip. “You did the triple pirouette.”
Helene shrugged, trying in vain to escape from his gaze. “I’m glad your counting faculties are sharp.”
He searched her eyes, a sorcerer who could see all her secrets.
“I thought Langley told you not to. To stick with the doubles.”
“You were afraid I would fall flat on my face and ruin your investment?”
“I was afraid you’d get hurt.” His fingers pressed into her waist. "Why did you do it?”
Helene glanced away, her cheeks warming. “I glanced at your box, and I saw you. I knew you wouldn’t let me fall.”
He grunted and gave a nod and then was silent.
Helene exhaled. Thank God he would let her sleep now. Yawning, she tried to settle in her narrow allotment of mattress. So this was how inequalities began—the landowners claimed acres, and the ballerinas were left with a strip of field—barely wide enough to stretch. She was fluffing the pillow and muttering under her breath about tyranny and mattress real estate when William’s arm crossed over her shoulder, and tugged her until she was propped by his side.
Quite against her wishes, she placed her cheek over his chest. A pounding against her ear made her jump. His heart. Of course, she had listened to her own pulse after the allegro jumps. But never this close and this strong.
Helene grumbled a bit. Just a bit. It was nice, this closeness. Too nice.
“There is an ongoing rumor that the Silent Sovereign is repulsed by intimacy.” She brushed her cheek against the fine linen of his shirt, longing for the warmth of his skin.
“I don’t like that nickname. I can be quite vocal when needed. And nothing about you repulses me.” He kissed the top of her head.
Suddenly, it was too much. The opening night, the flowers, the mirror, the making love. Tears burned at the back of her throat, and she made an effort to swallow them.
“Don’t be so nice to me. I said I wouldn’t fall in love with you, Your Grace.”
“Helene, I thought we agreed you would call me by my name now.”
“I won’t fall in love,William.”
