The words hit him like absolution he didn’t deserve. Aaron pressed his forehead against hers, breathing in her scent, trying to hold onto this moment when she saw him as something other than the monster he feared himself to be.
“Go back to your room, Louise,” he said softly and pressed a kiss on her forehead. “Sleep. Get some rest, my sweet.”
Louise left without another word, and Aaron stood alone in his chambers, his body aching with denied need, his mind cycling through the evening’s events.
She was satisfied for tonight, and that was enough for him.
No matter how cold his chest felt.
CHAPTER 26
“Buttercup cannot ice skate,” Emily stated with the authority of someone who had clearly given the matter serious consideration.
She stood at the edge of the frozen pond in Hyde Park, wrapped in so many layers of wool she resembled a small, ambulatory snowball.
“Nonsense,” Lady Merrow adjusted the ribbons on what appeared to be four modified boots she had somehow bought for the dog. “With the proper equipment, anyone can skate. Even a great beast with more enthusiasm than sense.”
Louise watched the older woman attempt to secure the contraptions to Buttercup’s massive paws while the dog wagged his tail with enough force to clear snow from the surrounding area.
Around them, other members of the ton glided across the ice with varying degrees of grace, their laughter carrying on the crisp morning air.
“This will end in disaster.” Aaron appeared beside Louise, carrying two pairs of skates.
His breath formed clouds in the cold air, and she found herself distracted by the way frost had kissed his dark hair silver at the temples.
“Most of Lady Merrow’s ideas do,” Louise whispered as she accepted the skates he offered, their fingers brushing through their gloves. Even that small contact sent warmth spiraling through her. “Yet somehow we will all survive, I am sure.”
“Speak for yourself. I’m about to strap blades to my feet and trust frozen water to hold my weight.” He sat on the bench beside her, close enough that their shoulders touched. “This is how dukes meet horrible ends.”
Louise bit back a smile as she secured her own skates. “Are you afraid?”
“Terrified.” But his eyes held amusement as he watched her. “Though I suspect my aunt’s plan for Buttercup poses the greater threat to our collective dignity.”
A tremendous crash, followed by delighted shrieking, proved his point. Buttercup had managed exactly three steps onto theice before his legs went in four different directions. He now lay splayed like a bear rug while Emily laughed so hard she had to sit down in the snow.
“Success!” Lady Merrow declared, although Buttercup’s expression suggested he disagreed with her.
“We should help.” Louise stood, testing her balance on the blades. She had skated often as a girl, before their father’s death, when winter still meant joy rather than worry about affording coal.
Aaron rose beside her, considerably less steady. His hand found her elbow, ostensibly for her support, although she suspected he needed the anchor more than she did. “I should mention that I haven’t done this since I was twelve.”
“Why did you stop?”
His jaw tightened slightly. “Father considered it undignified for a future duke to engage in such frivolous activities.”
Louise turned to face him fully, her heart aching for the boy who had been denied simple pleasures in the name of ducal dignity.
Without thinking, she took both his hands in hers. “Then we’ll have to make up for lost time.”
She stepped backward onto the ice, drawing him with her. His grip tightened as he found his balance, and she saw the momenthis body remembered what his mind had forgotten. The tension in his shoulders eased as muscle memory took over.
“There.” She squeezed his hands before releasing one, keeping the other as she turned to skate beside him. “Not so terrifying after all.”
“That remains to be seen.” But he was smiling now, a real smile that transformed his face from aristocratic severity to something younger, lighter.
They glided together in comfortable silence, their hands linked as naturally as breathing. Other skaters moved around them, some nodding in acknowledgment, others pretending not to notice the Duke of Calborough actually enjoying himself in public.
“Incoming disaster,” Aaron murmured.
