“I did not know it was your maid.”
“And that is why I do not believe in an eternal love that will flourish despite all its barriers.” She set the candle on a little table beside the shelves. She leaned back against the bookcase and crossed her arms, intelligent eyes turning to him. “Tell me Windham, do you think you could find another to love and marry after such a betrayal?”
He didn’t hear her question at first, too enamored with the way her mouth moved when she said his name. Felix shoved the thought away, knowing it was inappropriate. At the end of the day she was still an imp.
“You loved him then? So much so that he has ruined you for another?”
Miss Alden shrugged. “I thought I did at the time. We were young. Now that I am older, I know it was nothing more than a childish infatuation that was taken too far for simple affection and admiration.”
“Then you have yet to find a man you love?”
Her cheeks tinted a pale pink once more. “There has been no one I love and there will be no one.”
Though he was loathe to admit it, he hated the way she spoke of her ex-fiancé. There wasn’t an ounce of the warm affection in her voice that was evident when she spoke to his sisters, but there was the knowledge that she had been infatuated with a man enough to accept his proposal.
Would it happen again with another suitor? Would she decide that infatuation was simply enough?
Felix cleared his throat and gestured to the armchairs in front of the fire, eager to steer the conversation away from dangerous territory while they were getting along. “Sit with me and tell me more of your thoughts on Shakespeare.”
She looked torn between fleeing the room and sitting with him. “If you don’t like his works, why do you wish to talk about them?”
It is not Shakespeare I wish to talk about. I simply desire to speak with you again.
He stretched his legs out in front of the fire and crossed his arms. “I would like to see if you can change my opinion.”
A challenging look crossed her face. “If you wish to talk about Shakespeare’s works and the romance within them, then I suspect you might be ill.”
“And yet I would still ask you to tell me your thoughts.”
Isabelle pulled her bottom lip between her teeth before nodding and taking the seat beside him. She crossed her legs beneath her, skirts spreading wide. “Twelfth Nightis my favorite play.”
“Why?”
“Because at its center, it is the story of a woman who lost the only person she loved—her brother—and was searching for a way to survive. She helps the man she loves court another woman because she cannot reveal herself to be in disguise. There are fights and love triangles, and things that happen that make their love difficult.”
“You believe that dressing as a man and helping court a woman who does not love their master is the epitome of a good Shakespeare play?”
Out of all the works he expected her to say, he didn’t think her interest would lie in something so unexpected. He thought she would enjoyMacbethor perhapsAs You Like It.
“You wish for a great love then,” Felix said when her gaze connected with his. “You like the drama.”
“I like that there was a struggle. I do not believe that love is easy.” She pulled her hair over one shoulder. “Do I wish to be in love? No. Nor infatuation that can be mistaken as love. Givinganother the power to hold your heart in their hands and crush it is a unique kind of cruelty.”
“And yet you said that you may be willing to marry if you were to find the right man.” He leaned closer to her, though he was unaware of his body moving.
Felix didn’t like the thought of her marrying for less than love, although he knew it was oftentimes an unavoidable truth.
If he was to dig deeper within his own mind he might admit that a small part of him wished that she had yet to experience those emotions which are so often mistaken for love.
If given the power he would erase her ex-fiancé from existence. Or perhaps he would find her a man who would teach her what it meant to be completely in love, though Felix didn’t understand it himself.
I cannot be the one to attempt to teach the imp what true love is.
“I didn’t say that I would love him.”
“Then what is the point of marriage?” Felix challenged her.
In that moment he wanted nothing more than to open her up and understand how her mind worked. He wanted to know what she thought about various things and how similar or different her opinions were from his own.
