Eva saw that her words had surprised him. Reaching for his hand, she urged him down onto the seat beside her.
“It has been many years since I have touched a piano.”
He was nervous, his fingers stiff as he ran them down the keys. He looked suddenly unsure, almost vulnerable, and she pushed aside her worries to comfort him. “Did your mother play for you?”
She saw the answer in his eyes as he began to play. “She played like you, from the heart.”
Eva joined him as he began a slow ballad. He was good, very good, and she enjoyed the feel of his strength sitting beside her, his warmth surrounding her. When the ballad finished, she started another and he followed. They sat there side by side through many more songs until finally their fingers tired.
“I had forgotten how much I loved to play. Thank you for reminding me.”
She heard the emotion in his words. Playing had stirred the memories inside him. “Did your mother teach you to play, Daniel?”
Absently, he took one of her hands in his as he thought about what he would say. “Yes, she taught me to play. She also taught me to love and laugh. She was my life.”
She didn’t know what to say to that so Eva just squeezed his fingers and laid her head on his shoulder.
“Where she was everything that was good and kind, my father was everything that was evil and in the end he killed her.”
“Dear God!”
“It seems we have that in common, Duchess. Fathers who hated us.”
“How did he kill her?”The devastation in his eyes had her reaching for him. Wrapping her arms around his neck, Eva held him.
“He was punishing me and she died as a result.”
His scars were just as painful as hers but buried deeper.
Slipping one arm under her thighs, he lifted her against his chest and strode from the room. Neither spoke again as they undressed and then he kissed her, his mouth seeking something that tonight only she could give him and when he drove deep inside her, she wrapped her arms and legs around him and held him close. For tonight she would give him her comfort and love and tomorrow she would betray him.
...
“Ooh, don’t you look lovely, your Grace.”
Eva stared at the lady in the mirror. “Good Lord, it is me!” Molly had piled her hair high, leaving a few curls to lie on her bare shoulders. Several small diamond clips held it in place. “Molly, you can work magic!”
Ignoring the comment, the maid bustled Eva into her dress. Madame Monterio, her grandmother’s dressmaker, had obviously worked her seamstresses into the ground all afternoon, Eva thought with a tug of guilt. The dress was quite simply the most beautiful thing Eva had ever worn. Made of sky blue satin, it clung and swirled in all the right places, falling in soft folds to the floor. The overskirt made of deeper blue was sheer, and opened at the front to show the beautiful rose satin skirt beneath. The bodice was fitted and her breasts swelled above the neckline once Molly had tightened Eva’s corset.
“Is the neckline not too low, Molly?” Eva chewed her lip, eyeing the expanse of exposed bosom.
“No more than many and a great deal less than some.” The maid moved to do up the tiny buttons that ran the length of Eva’s spine.
The sleeves were fitted to the elbow and Eva slipped on a pair of ivory gloves, while on her feet were matching slippers. Molly draped a gossamer blue shawl around her shoulders and then urged her from the room as Eva thanked her profusely.
“Daniel.”
He turned as she walked into the parlor and the look in his eyes told Eva everything she needed to know.
“I have no words to describe your beauty, Duchess.”
She felt beautiful with his eyes on her as she walked toward him.
“You take my breath away.”
“Thank you, it is the loveliest dress I have ever owned.”
“That neckline is very low.”
