Twice more they had consummated their love during the night, swiftly againwhen a shared hunger had awakened them both, and then the last with poignant tenderness. Holding her in his arms afterward, he had never felt more helpless to change a future that loomed so wretchedly in front of him.
So he felt now, too, wanting desperately to keep her with him forever and never let her go, but Robert was right.
If there was any chance to get her back to her room with no onethe wiser, for her sake, now was the time. He could hear birds stirring outside with their morning calls, a nightingale, doves, a glance over his shoulder at the paned window telling him that the sky was lightening.
Steeling himself for what was to come, Valentin lowered his head to gently press his lips to Estelle’s. Almost at once she shifted against him, sighing so softly, so sweetly, andopened her eyes to gaze up at him.
Luminous brown eyes filled with such love and yet undeniable heartache as she smiled sadly. “Is it time?”
He nodded, his throat so tight he couldn’t speak. He thought she might ask him to hold her for a few moments more, but she seemed to have steeled herself just as he had done and moved to rise from bed. He started to sit up, too, but she turned and gentlypressed him back down upon the pillows.
“No, Valentin. Stay here, please.”
Almost woodenly she rose and gathered up her clothes, turning her back to him as she hurriedly dressed while he drank in the sight of her for one last time.
He thought she might even leave the room without kissing him goodbye. Her eyes were wet when she slowly turned around to look at him, though she’d clearly bittenher lower lip so hard that it bled, to keep herself from crying.
“Valentin, I…” She didn’t finish, but flew around the bed so suddenly that he had scarcely sat up when she threw her arms around him.
He hugged her as fiercely, Valentin murmuring against her cheek, “Estelle, I will go with you to England. Without you, none of this will mean anything to me—”
“Your people love you, Valentin. Theyneed you. I could never live with myself for taking you away from Bratavia!”
She turned her head to kiss him, but only briefly before she wrenched herself away from him and ran to the door.
Desperate to fling aside the covers and follow after her, somehow Valentin made himself stay even though he could hear her running all the way to the front doors.
He heard them open and close, then nothing.
Estelle was gone.
