“There is no need of that,” she said, so warmly that he reacted without thought, jerking her towards him, his arms slipping about her. She stiffened against him.
“No, Denzell!”
He did not release her, but held her so, looking down into the pale oval of her face, her features barely discernible except as a silhouette — the mere shape of her lips all too enticing.
“Verena,” he breathed. “Am I to hold aloof forever? Is this all there will ever be?”
His closeness sent her senses soaring, and her stiffness melted away. She felt too weak to resist, even to protest. Her eyes closedwithout volition as the shadow moved above her. Then a gentle pressure, soft and yielding, caressed her lips. A kiss so tender she all but lost her senses.
It could only have been an instant or two later, although it felt to Verena like an age, and he drew back, his hands dropping from about her. Intensely she felt it. So intensely that she almost cried out. She was bereft.
“You had better return to the Rooms.”
His tone was roughened by the strength of the passion he was resolutely keeping in check. To Verena it seemed harshly alien, a painful distancing that threw her on the defensive. But she answered with a calm born of her instant resumption of the control that had ever come in against pain.
“Yes, I shall be missed.”
She began to move away, but Denzell’s hand on her arm stopped her.
“One moment! How long do you wish me to keep up a pretence of disinterest?”
“Only until Nathaniel has gone. After —” She hesitated, for she knew that her next words must wound him.
“After? What then?”
Had he guessed what she would say? There was suspicion in his voice. She drew on her remaining strength.
“After he has gone, we will find another refuge.”
There was a silence. Then Denzell rapped out, “Where?”
“I don’t know. I only know we must remove from here. I cannot trust Nathaniel to accept Mama’s rejection.”
Denzell gave a soft laugh. “I see I must prepare myself to search the length and breadth of England’s watering places to find you again.”
“No!”
“What do you mean, no? Dare I imagine you will tell me where you decide to go? No, that is asking too much.”
Verena came a step closer and reached out to place a hand on his chest. “Denzell, it will be kinder — to both of us — if you let me go.”
His hand closed over hers. “Then I fear I must be unkind.”
She did not withdraw her hand, but a distinct plea entered her voice. “You said this morning I might command you in anything.”
“I didn’t mean I would be willing to commit suicide!”
“Don’t jest!”
“I’m not jesting.”
“Denzell, you will do me the greatest service imaginable if you will only leave me.”
His breath was ragged, but she could see even in the dim light that he was shaking his head.
“I cannot do that, Verena. I would die for you, but leave you I cannot!”
Her hand slipped out of his clasp. “Then you will force me to vanish in secret.”
