“Adelaide!”
“Is calling a fig a fig and a trough a trough a crime? Besides his own exploits, those he chooses to keep as friends should be enough to condemn him.”
“You’re just angry that he hasn’t called on you since?—”
An unholy wail interrupted the conversation, washing Hera in a cold sweat.
“Got you, Fee!” The timbre of the duke’s voice rang dissonant against a second high-pitched squeal.
Frozen in horror, Hera watched as he swept up a now-laughing little cluster of arms and legs and rose to his feet.
Heavens, he was tall. And large. Shockingly so. His gaze fixed on the ladies, his eyes so black, Hera wondered if they lacked irises. Even holding an impish child couldn’t make his presence less intimidating.
You think too much of other people.She heard the words in Karl’s clipped accent.You must remember…we are all just pawns.
She fortified herself with a deep inhale. Her perfect plan may have hit a rub or two. But she could pivot like a well-trained horse and still come out all right. She had to.
Her life wasn’t the only one on the line anymore.
Hope for her deepest desire—the very reason she took this position—flared so painfully she blinked. Immediately, she forced the feeling away—back, for now, into the same lockbox with her memories and her aspirations.
Alright, Karl.We’re chess pieces—bone without flesh or spirit moving about in an endless game. What does it matter, so long as we move to our advantage?
…as I moved against you.
Hurtheven stepped between the ladies and the rose bushes.
“Be off,” he said.
“Hurtheven, I—” Lady Adelaide began.
“Off, he repeated.
With twin gasps of indignation, the women scuttled back across the lawn.
Impressive. Arrogantly,horriblyimpressive.
Suspicion confirmed. Hera knew everything she ever needed to know about the duke, now...and intended to interact with him as little as possible. She lifted herself to her feet as quietly as she could and then turned away.
“I didn’t mean you.”
He was close enough for his breath to raise gooseflesh on her neck. Who could steal up behind a person so quickly and not make a sound? A devil incarnate, that was who.
No matter. She squared her shoulders. She’d faced devils before.
She swiveled around with as much dignity as she could muster. “There you are!” She addressed Felicia. “I’m very disappointed in you, young lady.”
Felicia chewed her lip, glancing between her nursemaid and the duke. With eyes wide and innocent, she wrapped her arm more tightly around the duke’s neck.
“You must be theincomparablenew nursemaid.” Hurtheven’s tone suggested he found her anything but.
“Indeed.” Though she dropped a quick curtsy, she made certain her tone revealed her own disdain. “I’m afraid, however,youhave me at a loss.”
“Do I?” He revealed a line of white, even teeth in neither a smile, nor a sneer, but a chilling combination of the two.
“Well”—she wet her lips—“I imagine I would remember if we’d been introduced.”
“Of course you would.”
