“You like?” He acted relieved.
“I like very much.”
“Here is the tempest scene,” he said, referring to the storm that was at the beginning of the play. The set was in the same shape as the forest except now there were waves with, again, sea sprites and sirens hidden in them. “Actually, what I’ve done is created four-sided pillars on wheels that turn. You can reposition them at different areas of the stage. Turn this piece around and it is the forest you just looked at. Here is another scene for another part of the island. Then, the fourth side of the two pillars will be painted stones.” He drew out another paper. “This is for Prospero’s prison or it can be the masque.”
“Brandon, this is wonderful.” She could do this. Her troupe could copy these designs. They were made only of painted wood; the brilliance came from his fanciful drawings, which could be easily copied.
“Excellent,” he said and gave her a smile that said he was both pleased and modest about his work. He rolled the drawings up and tied them with ribbon. He offered them to her.
Kate was humbled. “Thank you. This is an incredible gift.”
“I’m glad you like them. I had some worries.”
“I more than like them. They are brilliant. I wasn’t certain what I was going to do in London. I can afford the pillars you designed. Your talent is wasted drawing bridges and roadways. So is your imagination.”
“Really?” He made a face as if he was a bit surprised at himself.
“Yes, really.”
“And exactly, how much do you like my drawings?”
Kate laughed and walked around the table to him. She put her arms around him. He pressed against her and she felt the length of his arousal. He’d left the top button of his breeches unbuttoned. She undid the second one, feeling the smooth skin of his head. “I like them very much.”
“Very?” He lifted her up to sit on the table and took a stance between her open legs.
Kate wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips. “Let me show you how much.” She undid another button and he leaned her back.
There was no coyness between them, just a blazing desire—
A strong premonition that something was wrong gripped her. It was a warning, a sense that they might not be alone.
He immediately noticed her distraction. He stopped, their bodies joined. “Is something wrong?”
She glanced around the room. There were no drapes on the windows. The outside world was dark. She listened to the quiet. “Are we alone?”
“Yes.”
She frowned. “Do you sense anything? Such as perhaps we are not? I feel as if someone is watching us.”
His response was to blow out the candles, plunging them into darkness. He’d stepped back, their lovemaking forgotten, and pulled up his breeches. “Wait here.”
He went outside. When he returned, he said, “I could find no one. Would you rather go upstairs?”
“I believe so,” Kate admitted. And shortly, she put the whole thing out of her mind as Brandon and she resumed the activity that was her very favorite.
Later, as he escorted her back to the tents, she tried to look deep into the darkness of the woods. No one jumped out at them. Still, she was unsettled with a sense of foreboding that she couldn’t quite shake.
They had reached the line of trees. He kissed her. She put a protective hand over the designs she held in her arms, not wanting him to crush them. Her action made him smile, and then he gave her arms a squeeze as if wanting to hold on to her before saying, “I want to be open about us. I don’t want to hide you.”
She frowned. “What does that mean, Brandon?”
“Mean?”
She took a step away from him. “What are you offering?”
“To tell Winderton about us.”
“Oh, yes.”Of coursehe was talking about letting the duke know. And what would Brandon say? That she was his mistress? Kate experienced a surprising stab of disappointment. “Don’t tell Winderton anything—not unless—” She paused.
