It did. She nodded and then tilted her head back, parting her lips because she already craved his kiss again.
“You weren’t at the Middlebrook ball.”
“My attendance could have put others at risk. I’ll be scarce until we draw him out again. But wild horses won’t keep me from our prewedding ball.”
The prewedding ball—to be held at Crest House.
Felicity shivered. Unless she was wrong, they would be entering the lion’s den.
But he’d said his father was being watched. Could Axel be protected from the man in his own home? From loyal servants?
She was going to have to trust him.
The wordsI love youwere on the tip of her tongue, and then she caught herself.
She loved him?
She did.
Good lord.
Felicity buried her face against his chest. She’d truly fallen in love with her fiancé this time, and some unknown person was trying to kill him.
“If you don’t show up for our wedding, I’ll kill you myself,” she grumbled and only held onto him more tightly when she felt his chest shake with silent laughter.
“If I don’t show up, I’ll deserve it.”
The Day Before
Felicity stared down at the street below her window, the early morning sun casting a delicate light on the grass and flowers bordering the street.
One more day before she and Axel were to take their wedding vows. And one more day—she couldn’t help but believe—until their marriage would protect them both.
But if the attacks hadn’t originated from Lord Crestwood, then who?
She’d even gone to her father, asking him if he knew of anyone who might want Axel killed.
He’d told her the attacks were likely nothing more than a few pranks gone wrong, but offered to speak with Lord Crestwood about it. Felicity told him that wasn’t necessary.
She’d promised Axel that she would trust him. Surely, he knew his father better than she did?
Asking her father to step in was hardly the way to make good on her promise.
Furthermore, she hadn’t bothered correcting her father’s assumption that the attacks had only been pranks. Because then she’d have to explain to him that she’d felt the air from the bullet as it whistled past them in the park, and she’d have to explain how she’d seen the glint of knives pointed at them with deadly intentions. She’d have to provide some explanation for why she and Axel had been separated from the others at Vauxhall, to begin with.
She hugged her arms in front of her and shivered at the memory of shedding all her inhibitions and relinquishing control of the most intimate parts of her body.
It felt like a lifetime ago. Had it even been real?
The door pushed open, and Susan appeared in her chamber carrying a tray filled with tea and biscuits and a few other breakfast foods.
And another single rose. So far, she had received fifteen, and she’d carefully pressed all but the one from yesterday in her leather journal.
Not bothering to wait for Susan to set the tray down, Felicity hurried across the room, swiping the flower off the tray and opening the note that was attached to it.
Save me a few dances.
Axel
