As he did, he continued to look right at her, almost as if he was daring her to match him. She tried her best to hold his gaze, but now that he was confident again, the force of it was overwhelming. For someone who could be as kind as he was, he was still an intimidating figure. And that scar on his cheek was certainly startling.
Yvette faltered and looked away, certain that would be the end of it.
“I would like to apologize,” he said suddenly.
She blinked and looked back. “You would?”
“Last night…” He continued to watch her closely. “If I overstepped or made you uncomfortable, I did not mean it. I was only trying to –”
“It is fine,” she said a little too quickly. “You did nothing wrong.”
“And yet you fled the room as if I did.”
She winced with embarrassment. “I’m not used to talking of my past. Silly, I know, as I was the one who started the conversation.”
“Would you…” He shifted. “If you ever want to talk about it, you should know that I…” He licked his lips awkwardly. “I make a good listener. Mostly because I have never been much good at talking.”
She laughed softly. “You were rather good last night.”
“A consequence of too much whiskey.”
She laughed again. “Thank you. And I will remember that…” Then, she smiled. “My meaning being the value of getting you drunk if I ever wish to learn more about you.”
He laughed too, and the tension began to fade. “I’ll need to be on my guard around you, I think. I’m not usually so honest.”
“Why were you? And don’t say it was the whiskey.”
The Duke’s face tightened, and she knew that she had gone too far. He was still hesitant to open himself fully to her. And while that should not have surprised her, it did hurt a little more than she expected.
Yvette shuffled forward, and she very nearly started to tell the Duke about her own upbringing. Her mother… her father’s drinking problem… her perception of marriage and starting a family of her own. But her stomach churned, she thought she might be sick, so she shut her mouth and looked away.
It was easy to say that she wanted to know the Duke better, just as she wanted him to know her better too. But saying it and doing anything about it were two separate things, and she wasn’t quite ready. Not yet.
The carriage ride continued in silence for several minutes longer, both she and the Duke looking out opposite windows as if they were alone. More than once, Yvette caught the Duke glancing in her direction, and more than once their eyes met and they both looked away quickly.
“Here we are,” the Duke said finally when Yvette’s home appeared on the horizon.
“Oh, that was fast.” That was a lie, as the trip felt as if it took an age.
“Thank you again for letting me join you,” the Duke said.
“Did I have a choice?” she asked with humor.
“No, not really. But that you did not put up a fight…” He shrugged. “It’s nice to know that you are not terrified by the mere thought of spending time with me.”
“Oh, you are not so scary as that.”
That seemed to warm something inside of him. He smiled; it was genuine, and she matched it. For a brief moment, they simplysmiled at one another, still in silence, but it was not tense in the least. If anything, it was comfortable, even safe.
Yvette had wanted to avoid the Duke. She had assumed he would want the same thing. Now, she knew differently.
The truth was that she had judged the Duke too early. When they first met, she had thought him cold and dispassionate, and she had even questioned how he could have left his own son to live on the street for so many years without helping him.
The Duke was not who she thought, and Yvette decided then and there that she was going to stop treating him as she had done when they first met. There was so much more to him than she knew and as strange as it was to admit to herself, she was excited to find out who he truly was.
She wanted to find out more, just as she wanted him to learn more about her. For better or for worse, she was far from down with the Duke of Pembourne.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
