She shivered at his touch.
“Yes,” he said huskily.
Her heart quickened, an ache forming deep within her chest as she swayed towards him.
His pupils were dark and deep, endless wells in a sea of molten silver.
There was nothing she wanted more than to lean against him, lift her mouth and?—
A bang tore them apart, and the sky exploded in fireworks.
Lena licked her lips and pressed her hand against her racing heart.
“The festivities are ongoing,” the Duke said, his voice slightly breathless. “I believe Count Razumovsky is hosting a party.”
“Shouldn’t you be there?” Lena asked after collecting herself.
“I prefer to stay here.” He lifted his face to watch thefireworks in the sky, but Lena watched him instead—the line of his jaw, the delicate curve of his mouth, remembering how close they’d come to kissing.
She cleared her throat.
“I suppose we should go back. The children…”
“Yes. The children.” After a moment’s hesitation, he held out the diary. “Don’t you want it?”
Lena glanced at the journal, its brown leather faded and cracked. She knew what it contained. Minute descriptions of her daily life at Aldingbourne Hall. Embarrassing, childish confessions for the man who had been first her betrothed, then her husband. Love poems, filled with naive hope. And later, entries that spoke of growing loneliness and longing.
All that pain, that sadness. She needn’t relive all that.
She shook her head. “I don’t want it.”
An incredulous look passed over his face. “Don’t you want to know what you wrote? Don’t you want to remember?”
Once more, she shook her head. “Perhaps I will, one day. I trust you’ll keep it safe for me. As you have done so far.”
His expression softened. “It’s my greatest treasure. I’ll guard it with my life.”
They walked back home in companionable silence, but Lena felt as if they had reached a new level in their relationship; something there that hadn’t been there before. Was it friendship? Was it trust? Or something deeper? Whatever it was, she was certain, for the first time, that it was not the hollow memory of a bygone love.
That was why she had refused the diary—her pastemotions confused her. She wanted what was here now. Something real, solid and present. Something new, and something to build on.
And it was all within her grasp.
Chapter Thirty
After supper,the Duke gathered the whole family in the drawing room. He placed his miniature in the centre of the table, and everyone stared at it.
“This shouldn’t surprise any of us,” Theo eventually spoke up, rubbing his forehead. “But it’s still shocking to see such an incredible likeness.”
Hector’s reaction was interesting. He threw a quick glance at it and shrugged. “I will look exactly like you when I am old,” he remarked. It was the closest he had come to acknowledging the Duke as his father.
“It is time to bring this experiment to a close. Starting tomorrow, I will turn the tables. You will join me in the city for an entirely different kind of life. You may perform if you wish, but only for private functions held in my house, and not for pay. You may continue your interests and medical studies.” He nodded at Theo.“But you will have additional responsibilities.”
“Such as?” Theo asked.
“You and Mona will be introduced to society andexpected to attend social functions. Achilles and Hector will have a new tutor to teach them the basics: Classics, arithmetic, science, history, and geography.”
Both boys started to protest, but the Duke raised his hand. “You will also have lessons in dancing and fencing.”
