“Is that so?”
They stood next to each other at the edge of the water, their horses’ heads lowered to drink. Eddy reached to lace his fingers in hers.
“For the record, I’m happy to be seduced,” he said softly.
Hélène tugged him closer, letting her lips brush lightly against his. The kiss was languid at first, her blood pulsing contented and slow through her veins.
But it took only a moment for their kisses to grow feverish. Eddy’s nearness sent a flood of heat through her body, making her feel molten and shivery, a delicious contrast to the cool air on her skin. It had been far too long since she’d felt the simple pleasure of touching him. After all, she was a guest in his sister’s house right now; there had been no sneaking around late at night.
Hélène reached for Eddy’s shirt and tugged it impatiently from his belt, then slid her hand beneath its hem and up over his skin.
Who knew how far things might have gone. They might have tethered their horses and made love right there in the forest of Ballochbuie, except that they both went still at the same moment, their hunter’s instincts on sudden alert. They were no longer alone.
When she saw the creature a short distance to their right, Hélène gasped.
The horses had turned to living statues; even the huff of breath from their nostrils seemed to have stilled. Their eyes were trained on the majestic gray figure that stood atop a boulder, watching them.
In the mottled shade of the forest, the wolf’s eyes glowed a fierce amber. Hélène felt pressure on her wrist: Eddy was grabbing her in silent warning, urging her to stay still, not that she needed any convincing.
The wolf drew her lips back in a growl. Hélène wasn’t sure why she felt so convinced it was a female, but she would have put money on it. They all stayed as frozen as figures in a tableau.
Finally, the wolf nodded in something resemblingacknowledgment, then turned and darted off in the opposite direction.
With that, the spell was broken. The sounds of the forest seemed to descend around them again: the horses whickered nervously and stomped their feet, and birds resumed their chirping in the trees.
Hélène glanced to Eddy. His expression was alight with wonder.
“I can’t believe that just happened. It’s so uncommon to see a wolf in the middle of the day; they usually only come out after dusk.” Eddy shook his head. “In medieval times people would have considered it an omen. The question is, what kind of omen—a good one, or bad?”
“She nodded to us. It must be a good omen,” Hélène declared.
“You think so?”
“Who cares! We live in modern times; we can make our own luck.”
“That’s what I love about you: the sheer force of your convictions,” Eddy told her. “When you get passionate about something you are so…”
“French?” Hélène offered, with a laugh.
“You are wondrous.”
Hélène drew in a breath, startled by the sincerity in Eddy’s voice. It was the first time either of them had used the wordlove—That’s what I love about you,he’d said, even if it wasn’tI love you.
To hide her confusion, she walked over to her horse and reached for the reins. Eddy came to stand next to her, bending over to lace his fingers into a makeshift stirrup.
“I don’t need your help getting into the saddle,” Hélène pointed out.
Eddy smiled, boyish and mischievous again. “I’m aware.”
She rolled her eyes but placed her boot in his hands, allowing him to lift her. “If you wanted to look up my skirts, all you had to do was ask.”
Eddy barked out a laugh. Within moments they were cantering, heading toward the mountains where the rest of the group had disappeared. Hélène urged her horse faster, her body pulsing with adrenaline, her heart still thrumming in the aftermath of Eddy’s words.
A WEEK LATER, SEATED INthe grand salon at Balmoral, Hélène clung tight to those words.
Things had changed the morning after she and Eddy saw the wolf, when Alix and May arrived.
Now each time Eddy tried to come out hunting, his grandmother insisted he do something else instead—take a carriage ride to a nearby town, have tea in the garden—always with Alix at his side. Just yesterday Victoria had tasked Eddy and Alix with fetching bluebells from the fields, though the entire castle was already bursting with bouquets.
