21
STEPPING INTO THE LIGHT
Diana was waiting by the window in only her shift when Temple burst into their bedchamber.
“You’re late,” she said.“You were supposed to arrive a quarter hour ago to help me dress.”
He was certainly not dressed for the ball.The forge still clung to him, ash lining his face and dying his dark hair a black only seen at midnight on a moonless night.He wore only trousers and shirtsleeves, which had been rolled to bare his forearms.This no civilized baron ready to waltz across a ballroom.He was hewn from the earth and beautiful for it.
But it would take forever to clean him up, and they would be late.
“Apologies.”Temple kissed her cheek and picked up her corset.He shook it open and held it out, playing the part of a lady’s maid.“I was tracking down Mr.Squires.Good thing I did, too.He had news of your cousin.News I think will make you less nervous about tonight.”
“Oh?”
Lacing up the back of her corset, he said, “Your cousin is out of town.”
“What?Why?”
“No idea.”
She tied her petticoats.“Hand me the bustle?”He did, and she tied that on, then stepped into her gown.“That means he will not be in attendance tonight.”She exhaled, her body almost collapsing from the loss of weight that had long been sitting on her shoulders.“That does make me feel better.”
He secured the hooks up her back, and she fastened a belt made of the same dark blue as her gown around her waist.
“How do I look?”she asked.
“Like you need stockings.And shoes.”
“Oh!”
She put them on through laughter, swatting her husband’s hands away as he helped her tie the ribbons beneath her knees.She felt so light, like a champagne bubble rising to the top of golden liquid, like a flower feeling sun for the first time after days of rain.
“I might miss playing your maid,” Temple said when they were done.“Tomorrow I’ll bring my cook back, and I’ll advertise for however many maids you need, a housekeeper.”
Tonight everything changed.
“Are you nervous?”he asked before splashing water on his face at the wash basin and scrubbing the forge away.
“A bit.Not as much.Not anymore.”
He grinned and shrugged out of his shirt and vest, and she tried not to let the sight of her husband’s well-chiseled chest distract her.Impossible.Before he could put a clean shirt on, she pressed her palms against his abdomen, kissed the little dip at the center of his collarbone.
It wasn’t enough.For her or him.With the gentlest touch, he lifted her chin and opened her mouth, her soul, with a searing kiss that left her nerves in ashes.She could do anything with him.
He rested his forehead against hers with a wolfish grin.“Let me dress, little queen, or we won’t be going at all.”
“I do not wish to risk the king’s wrath.”She pushed him toward the dressing room then styled her hair as best she could.
She was studying her reflection in the cheval glass when he returned, dressed in stark black and white, hair pushed away from his face, tamed into a coal-black cloud she wanted to sink her fingers into.Later.Now, they must stake their place in society.She must begin her work for the man who’d given so much to her.
“You’re beautiful,” he said, tugging on a curl.
“I’ll do.”
“I’m not used to seeing you in such finery.Everything about you is usually so… simple.Clean.Much more alchemist than transcendent.”
“We must do our best to fit in tonight, and since I cannot glamour myself into an elaborate gown, this must suffice.”In fact, it did quite well.Huge puff sleeves and a wide open neck, skirts big and bouncy.The silk moved like water, its blue color shifting as light rolled across it.
