Then the Duke drew back, slow and controlled, his hands curling at his sides with visible restraint.
His gaze traveled over her once more, lingering with an intensity that made her skin warm. “You are unlike any governess I have ever hired.”
Madeline’s pulse fluttered helplessly. She took a step back, but he caught her wrist gently as if he could not quite let go. His touch was warm, but then he released her abruptly, as though realizing it at the same moment she did.
“That sounds,” she said softly, “like the beginning of a compliment.”
“It is not,” he replied.
His eyes flickered with something akin to amusement, betraying the mirth that he was keeping so carefully concealed. When his mouth twitched at the corners, Madeline dared to imagine he might go ahead and laugh, but instead, he remained silent.
She grew rather uncomfortable during that short interval. So, Madeline stepped back finally and made a show of pulling her cloak around her shoulders. “I will go ahead and find Tessa.”
“Yes,” the Duke said, though his stance remained rooted, as though he were not quite ready to let the moment end. “See that the two of you clean up the mess you’ve made.”
She turned toward the corridor, aware of his eyes following her until she disappeared around the bend, her pulse fluttering wildly.
CHAPTER 5
“Have you forgotten how to mount a horse, or are you simply admiring the saddle?” Henry’s voice echoed across the courtyard, bright and unhelpfully entertained.
Wilhelm fastened the last buckle on his glove and swung into the saddle with practiced ease. “I was waiting for you,” he replied dryly.
“A lie,” Henry said cheerfully as he mounted his own horse. “But a charming one, so I’ll allow it.”
Wilhelm clicked his tongue, urging his stallion forward. “Are you coming, or shall I ride alone and enjoy the quiet?”
“Threats already,” Henry mused, gathering his reins. “We haven’t even reached the gate.”
They rode out side by side, the horses settling into an easy pace along the packed snow. Wilhelm kept his gaze forward, letting the familiar rhythm of hooves calm the restless pull in his chest.
Henry had always been like this: quick-witted, irreverent, entirely too perceptive. They had grown up together, shared tutors, fencing masters, half their childhood scrapes, and more responsibilities than either of them ever admitted to feeling. Where Wilhelm was severity and restraint, Henry was mischief in boots, lord of a prosperous neighboring estate and a perpetually inconvenient source of truth.
It made him an excellent companion, and, at times, an infuriating one.
As they rode in silence, Wilhelm willed the steady rhythm of hooves and the cold morning air to distract him, but his mind continued to circle back to the same images that had unsettled him for the past week.
The smear of dirt across Miss Watton’s cheek, the wild looseness of her hair, the warm weight of her body when she collided with him in the corridor, her pulse fluttering beneath his hands. He could not forget the way her wide eyes lifted to his with startled heat or how her lips parted while a faint tremor ran through her when he stepped too close…
A governess should not look like that. She should not occupy his thoughts as though his mind had nothing better to do than repeat the memory of her pressed against him, warm andflushed and utterly unaware of how tempting she had been at that moment.
He scowled at the path ahead.
Completely unacceptable.
Yet the memory persisted, vivid as color against snow.
He shifted in the saddle, irritated with himself, with the quiet, with the fact that his own head refused to obey him. The wind tugged at his coat, cold enough to bite, but not nearly cold enough to rid him of her.
They crested a small rise, the open valley spreading beneath them in pale winter light. Birds lifted from a bare thicket in a sudden scatter of wings. Frost glimmered along the fence line.
Henry inhaled deeply beside him. “Beautiful morning,” he said.
Wilhelm made a noncommittal sound.
Henry gave him a sidelong glance. “And here I thought you might actually enjoy being out of the house.”
Wilhelm kept his tone smooth. “I am enjoying myself.”
