Alex looked quite thunderous and her heart warmed. “Makes no matter if she does. You’ll be leaving the country.”
“But you won’t, Alex. And your parents and poor Georgy will be pilloried too, all for giving me shelter. It isn’t fair.”
Alex leaned across the table between them and laid a hand over hers, sending a flitter through her veins. “Stop fretting, you little goose. No such thing. Marjorie don’t move in the kind of circles where she could hurt my family.”
“She’s quite capable of sending the story to one of those horrid scandal sheets.”
“Well, they won’t dare name names for fear of a suit at law. And Vergette won’t even disclose the name of this infernal duke of yours to you, let alone giving ammunition of that kind to those vultures.”
“He’s notmyduke,” Apple protested, fastening on to the one thing that rankled above all else. “Besides, it’s pure speculation on your mother’s part that he is a duke at all.”
“Whoever he is, Marjorie won’t know any more than you, so that’s quite enough fretting and fuming about that.”
He sounded quite as autocratic as his old self, and a wave of nostalgia overtook Apple. She buried herself in the cup of chocolate and took balm from the hot, sweet liquid as it slithered across her tongue, which caught a stray drip from her lip.
“I’d best get you back to the hotel.”
The rough tone startled Apple and she looked up, unable to help the question. “Why?”
Alex’s colour deepened and he looked away. “Because I’m hanged if I can stand to be in your company without forgetting myself.”
It was a savage mutter, and a tide of warmth rushed through Apple as she realised what he meant. Taking a firmer hold of the cup, she drank down the chocolate, unable to withstand an instant vision of being clutched in Alex’s arms, his lips on hers. She’d not been plagued by such images for days, having schooled herself to banish them at the first hint. The danger in his company had been dissipated by the turbulent events of the morning, but at this instant, when she felt again all the certainty of his finding her desirable, she was quite unable to bring her recalcitrant mind under control.
With a determined air, she set down the fancy tall cup in its saucer. “I’m ready.”
No words were exchanged as they left the coffee house and Alex called up a hack. But once inside, with the dim interior concealing the colour she was sure must be flying in her cheeks, Apple forced herself to speak in as normal a tone as she could.
“I dare say Mrs Tinkler will be wondering how we fared. Oh, I have not told her the whole, be sure,” she added as Alex’s head turned towards her, “but I had to give her the gist of our adventures.”
“Ouradventures?”
The amusement in Alex’s voice made her giggle again. “Well, you can’t deny I’ve provided you with a degree of adventure.”
“Agreatdeal, as it chances.”
“You weren’t so pleased about it that first day.”
“I didn’t know you then.”
A certain quality in his tone could not but affect her. She adopted a rallying tone. “No, and if you had, I dare say you would not have hesitated to take me back at once.”
He did laugh at that. “Thank the Lord I didn’t.”
She drew a tight breath. “Alex.”
There was a tiny hesitation before he answered. “What’s to do?”
“I might not get the opportunity again to say this, but — but I…” Her voice died, the impossibility of what she wanted to say stopping her tongue.
“But you —?”
The prompt was urgent, and out it all came in a rush.
“I’m so glad I held you up. I’m so glad you refused to take me back, and that you thought I was too feather-brained to be left to my own devices and wouldn’t let me go. I can’t imagine now never having known you, never having this time to — to cherish and remember…”
Her voice became suspended and she turned her head away, gripping her gloved fingers tightly together. For an eon he did not speak, and the sound of the horse’s hooves on the cobbled streets battered at her ears.
At last his voice came, low and vibrant. “Can’t in honour say what I want to say, Apple. Glad ain’t a good enough word for me. Dare say you can furnish one that fits without me saying it.”
