I missed you.
To think he had wasted a week of her month by keeping his distance. Regret crackled in his veins as he paused in front of her, perhaps closer than he should have been, willing her to look at him with the enchanting eyes he had only imagined these past days.
“No… not wrong, exactly,” she replied, her head still bowed. “But it will be… um… inconvenient for you, and I apologize for that.”
His fingertips itched to tilt her chin up, so that he might see what harm he had done at the fair. Would she look at him differently now, after all he had told her about his wife and his mistakes? He supposed he had been avoiding that as much as avoiding Frances herself.
“Inconvenient? What do you mean?” he asked.
Oh… Oh, of course…The answer came to him a moment before she answered herself: she wanted to leave.
“My father has summoned me home,” she said. “The letter arrived not long ago. He needs me to return by the end of next week.”
His brow knitted, his arms folding behind his back so that he would not reach for her and implore her to stay.
He should have known that she would find a way to leave after hearing his story and seeing him for the wretch he truly was, though he had hoped that absenting himself might somehow be enough to make her forget.
And I was just trying to think of a way you could remain with us longer.
“Does this mean all is well with your scandal?” he asked, his tone cooler than he meant it to be.
Her shoulders shifted in a shrug. “My father seems to think so, and he would not ask me to return if it was untrue. Unless he is just completely desperate because Juliet is driving him mad…” She mustered the faintest, saddest little chuckle. “Even then, I would have no choice but to heed his request.”
“There is always a choice,” Dominic said, almost involuntarily, as he took a half step closer.
At last, she raised her head, her breaths softly sawing in and out as if she had run there to the entrance hall. Her eyes were fever-bright and gazing fearlessly up into his, her clasped hands relaxing to her sides, the apples of her cheeks turning rosy as his attention wandered from freckle to beautiful freckle.
“There is?” she whispered, her voice thick.
Swallowing down the regret that crept up his throat, he gently took her hands in his… and felt his heart quicken as those astonishing eyes widened in something like hope.
Was she asking him to help her? Was she asking him to fix this for her? Could it be that she did not want to leave at all? The questions were too loud in his mind, and not to be trusted. Surely, they were just his own wants that he could not be so bold as to project onto her. After all, what possible reason could she have to want to stay here? If the scandal had died down, then therewasno reason.
“Well, you know you are welcome to remain here until your four weeks are finished,” he said tightly, his gaze flitting to her plump, raspberry-pink lips. “There was an agreement. But, of course, you are free to leave if you so choose. You are not a prisoner here. All I ask is that you break the news to Harriet gently; she has enjoyed your presence here.”
As I have.He urged himself to just speak the words aloud, but they were stuck in his throat, unable to get past the block of dismay that she wished to leave.
“I should not defy my father, though, should I?” Frances asked, her hands lightly squeezing his.
Old lessons furrowed his forehead. From his very first memory, he had been taught that a child should never defy their father. Back then, in childhood, Dominic’s father had made it seem as if a great catastrophe would strike if he ever dared to defy him…and it unnerved Dominic to think of how long he had believed that.
Yet, even his mother had constantly whispered, in that high and nervous voice of hers,“Just do as he says, darling. Always do as he says”.So how was he supposed to know any different? And though the grip of those old lessons had loosened with the years after his father’s death, and his mother’s too, there were still moments where the ghost took hold.
“No,” Dominic agreed, his jaw clenched as if his body were trying to fight against the rote he had been taught. “No son or daughter should ever defy their father.”
Frances’ face fell. “You are right, Your Grace. Of course, you are right.”
Dominic. Call me Dominic.
If she was going to abandon her post, then he wanted no formality between them. He did not want to spend her last week as a duke and an earl’s daughter. He did not want to spend it as an employer and a subordinate, either.
He just wanted to kiss her, as a man and a woman.
Compelled by the idea, he moved closer still, until there was barely a space between them. Certainly, not the polite distance written in the dusty old books that Frances had been teaching from. He could see every precious freckle, and the way herdark hair changed hue depending on the light, a whole palette of browns and golds that created her unique shade. He could see how her lips were slightly parted, as if she wished to say something, but could not.
His hand came up to cradle her cheek, but he stopped himself before he could feel that smooth, soft skin against the roughness of his touch.
A kiss was too dangerous to even contemplate, for if he kissed her, then he could not promise that he would ever be able to let her leave. He had been cold and unfeeling to the wife he had not felt anything but pity for, so absent that, even at the end, they did not know a thing about each other. What harm could he inflict toward someone heactuallycared about?
