“Shhh. You’ll never lose me.” She cupped his face in her hands, her breath catching at the love, the hot desire swirling in those dark gray depths. “I’ll always be with you, Max.”
He smiled. “Forever?”
“Forever,” she whispered, her lips hovering over his. “Now, I believe I was promised a ravishing. Take me upstairs to our bedchamber, Your Grace.”
* * *
“Come, Max. You can’t stand there all afternoon.” Rose glided to the edge of the pond, her arms splayed out to keep her balance. “It’s far too cold to be still for so long.”
They’d woken later than usual after their late-night adventure in the kitchen to find a light dusting of snow glittering on the frozen ground, and a pale gray winter sky above. He would have happily lazed in bed with her all afternoon, but nothing pleased Rose so much as an afternoon of skating, and nothing pleased him so much as watching her.
It was tradition, after all, to skate at Christmastime.
He’d been watching her face as she twirled on the ice, smiling at the memory of the first time he’d seen her like this. The year had flown by in the blink of an eye, every day sweeter than the one before it.
But now he tore his gaze away and glanced down at the pair of skates dangling from his fingers. Flimsy, awkward things. “I’d much rather stay where I am and watch you.”
“No, that won’t do.” She paused in her twirling, a grin on her lips. “You’ll freeze into a statue, and then all the children from miles around will insist upon coming to Fairford to see the frozen duke.”
“My skates are inadequate.”
She threw her head back in a laugh, the joyful sound echoing in the frosty air, and startling a few birds from their branches. “How do you know? You haven’t even put them on yet.”
“And I had much better not.” He brandished the skates, giving them a shake. “Look at them! They’re the most troublesome things imaginable, and that’s to say nothing of the ice, which is sure to collapse underneath me as soon as I venture out.”
“Oh, nonsense. It’s holding me up well enough, isn’t it?”
“That, my dearest wife, is because nature herself adores you, just as I do. She wouldn’t dare lay a single finger on your lovely head. Well, and because you’re half the weight of a hummingbird.”
“I feel quite certain you’ll be safe, Your Grace.” She slid closer and held out her hand to him. “Help me up onto the bank, won’t you?”
He caught her small hand in his and gave her a firm tug that landed her right in his arms. “Ah, now this is much better.” He pressed his lips to her temple, inhaling her scent of pine and fresh winter air. “Perhaps skating isn’t quite as tedious as I thought.”
“Mmmm.” She took a moment to rest her cheek on his chest before squirming loose and taking the skates from his hand.
“Where do you think you’re going?” He caught her by the sleeve of her cloak and tried to catch her in his arms again, but she twirled out of his grip, stumbling a bit on her skates.
“Sit down here.” She patted the flat rock near the edge of the pond. “I’ll help you with your skates.”
He sighed, but he picked his way over the snowy bank to the rock. “I won’t be permitted to take you back to our bedchamber until I’ve skated, will I?”
She smiled up at him and patted the rock once again. “Certainly not, so you may as well do as you’re told.”
“Very well.” He lowered himself onto the rock and stuck one foot out.
She unfastened the buckles on the leather straps, then cradled his foot in her lap, and fitted the wooden bed against the bottom of his boot. “Do you remember the first time we came here together, last year?”
He gazed down at her golden head, half-hidden under a very smart green hat that matched the dark green cloak she’d had made when they visited London in the spring. Did she imagine he could ever forget that day? It was the day he’d come alive again. “I do. It’s one of my most treasured memories.”
As a boy, he’d been taught to distrust love, but since he found Rose, he’d become a man who embraced it. Once he’d told her he loved her, and asked her to be his, neither of them had ever looked back.
“You helped me with my skates that day. I remember I was so surprised when you took my foot into your hands. Your fingers around my ankle made me shiver.” She’d been busying herself with the buckles, her gaze on her task, but now she looked up, her green eyes shining. “I believe that was the first time you ever touched me.”
“It was, and nothing’s ever been the same since.” He touched her chin, tilting her face up to his so she wouldn’t look away. “I didn’t know . . . if someone had told me then I could love someone as much as I love you, Rose, I wouldn’t have believed them.”
“No more than I love you, Max.” She took his hand, pressed a fervent kiss to his palm, then rose to her feet. “Come skate with me?”
“How can I refuse you, when you ask so prettily?” But then, she always did, didn’t she? Rose might be a duchess now, but despite her grand title, she was the same kind lady he’d fallen in love with, and he could refuse her nothing. “I suppose I’d better learn, in any case. Basingstoke and Montford will laugh themselves sick if I fall on the ice, the scoundrels.”
