They walked out into the warm summer breeze together, joining Robert and Katherine and their brother Morgan and his wife Lizzie on the top stair. Down below, the carriage door had already been opened, so the crest that might have revealed the identity of their guest was obscured. But it wasn’t a moment before the footman reached inside and an elegantly slippered foot appeared from the darkness. The woman stepped out, her head bent as she paid attention to her footing. Her bonnet obscured her face and Selina laughed back at Nicholas. “I swear, it’s like a game…who is the mystery woman?”
At that moment, before Nicholas could laugh or Katherine could say the name they’d been waiting to hear, the woman tilted her head back to look up the stairs, and everything in Nicholas’s world came to a halt.
“Aurora,” he breathed out loud, because he couldn’t help it.
Derrick pivoted to face him. “What?TheAurora?”
Nicholas couldn’t answer. He couldn’t acknowledge or respond to his family’s questions as they asked him who Aurora was. As Katherine stared at him in shock and dawning horror.
No, all he could do was look down that long set of stairs at the woman who had molded and changed and guided his life since he was hardly more than a boy. The woman who had haunted him every day and every night for almost a decade.
She stared up at him, all the color gone from those cheeks, her full lips parted in just as much as shock as he felt, her hands shaking at her sides. And by God, she was more beautiful than she’d ever been. Tendrils of blonde hair curled from the edge of her bonnet, framing her oval face, drawing attention to those high cheekbones. Her gown was spring green, fresh as the new leaves, and it flowed over her supple curves, hinting at gorgeous breasts and the swell of her hips.
Nicholasshe mouthed, silent, and that broke him.
He slowly made his way down the stairs, the pain that usually accompanied that action dulled by the pain of seeing her. The thrill of seeing her.
“What are you doing here?” he asked as he stopped a few feet in front of her. He couldn’t go closer. If he went closer, his itching palms might force him to reach for her. If he touched her, all was lost. All had always been lost.
She blinked at him. “Nicholas,” she repeated, this time in a shaky voice.
“What is going on?” Roseford called from above, concern plain in his voice.
They were all coming down now to join them. Nicholas felt it rather than saw it, because he couldn’t tear his gaze away from this woman. This woman he had almost convinced himself couldn’t be real. How could such perfection be real?
She ducked her head, breaking their stare at last, and somehow that broke the spell, too. He was still captivated, yes, but now other emotions made their way to the surface. He hadn’t seen this woman since that horrible evening when he realized she’d never planned to marry him, no matter what promises they made in secret. She’d lied to him and sent him on a spiral that had nearly killed him.
Looking at her, the emotion that rose in his chest, long-ignored and pretended away, was anger. He was angry that she was still so irresistible. Angry that she was here at his brother’s house when she had to know their connection. Angry that she could look away from him, turn away just as she always had, when he couldn’t stop staring.
“What’s going on is a very good question,” he said, still looking at her even though he was answering Robert. “And only LadyLovellcan answer it.”
“Nicholas?” Katherine whispered, touching his arm and drawing him back to the part of the world that wasn’t Aurora. Such a small world now. Such a dull one. “Please, what is going on?”
“Lady Lovell and I knew each other as children, Katherine. Or didn’t she share that fact with you?” He noted how Aurora flinched, high color re-entering her cheeks. “Or did we know each other, my lady? Did we everactuallyknow each other?”
Aurora’s gaze jerked back toward him. Tears glistened in her eyes, and for a brief, horrible, wonderful moment all Nicholas wanted to do was step toward her, gather her close, soothe her. Even after everything that had come to pass, he was still such a weak fool.
But he couldn’t be. Not anymore. Not with a future to plan and a life to build. No, he had to walk away, just as she had done all those years ago. Until he could control himself, he had to walk away.
He pivoted on his heel and did so, limping back up the stairs and into the house. But even though he’d cut off the contact between himself and Aurora, the attraction, the thrill of seeing her was still there. He hated himself for it. Hated that years and sorrows and near-death hadn’t cured him of this desire.
But he didn’t hate her. He might have been harsh with her on the stairs, but he hadn’t been able to hate her. And as he entered a parlor and all but collapsed on the nearest settee, he realized that had to change. He had to find a way to hate Aurora. Otherwise, he wouldn’t survive her.
Aurora couldn’t breathe. She stood before her carriage, knees shaking, as Nicholas walked away from her, and she couldn’t breathe. Even when he was gone, she gasped for air.
How could he be here? And how could he be even more handsome than he had been all those years ago? Then he’d been a boy, his face still youthful. Now he was all angles, all soft ruddy beard, all piercing gaze of a man who had seen the world. He was everything she’d dreamed of, everything she’d longed for in those never-ending, empty years…and more.
And now he was here. In a house where she’d sworn to herself he would not be. And he looked at her with utter contempt before he limped away, reminding her of all he’d nearly lost when he bravely saved others. He had suffered enormously in the last few years since his injury. Seeing her obviously increased that.
“I…should…leave,” she managed to say to no one and everyone. God, their eyes as the entire family stared at her. She’d left London to avoid judgment. She would have rather faced off with people who thought her fallen than this.
“No!” Katherine said, racing forward to support her elbow. “I don’t understand what is going on, but you aren’t going. Robert…” She turned toward the duke, who seemed to loom above Aurora on the step, his dark gaze focused far too intently on her. “Go speak to your brother. Selina, Derrick and Morgan, go with him. He seems to need all of you. And Aurora, you come with me and Lizzie.”
The groups broke apart, and Aurora felt she had no choice but to do as Katherine had suggested. Plus, she had no interest in getting back into the bumpy carriage and taking a three-day ride back to London. She’d depleted her monthly funds already with the trip over.
So she was trapped.
Her head bent, she followed Katherine and the other woman into the house. They walked in front of her, whispering, and her stomach jolted. It seemed humiliation was bound to be her constant companion now. A punishment for some undefined crime, no doubt.
