“Please.”
Blinking, she set her cup and saucer on the table and sighed. “I have heard you were terribly disfigured. So ugly you could not go out in public, which is why you are never seen outside of Dunfey Park,” she said. “Which is ridiculous, because...” She stopped, her cheeks once again reddening with embarrassment.
“Because?” he prompted.
“Well, because... well... you’re rather handsome,” she stammered.
Recoiling as if he’d been slapped across the face, Andrew grinned. “Oh! And what’s this about a beast?”
Angelika’s mouth opened and closed several times before she lifted a shoulder. “There’s been talk in town that you’re a beast. I’m not sure if it’s because they thought you mightlooklike a beast or if it’s because they thought youbehavedlike one, but... that’s what they say.”
He made an odd sound in the back of his throat and leaned back in his chair. Did she think him capable of such poor behavior? Now that she had met him? Now that she had spent time in his company? “I am not a beast. I would never behave as one, unless someone did something unforgivable,” he murmured. “To someone I cared about.”
“I know,” she replied.
“So... if you do not fear me, then why must we have a chaperone?” He paused when he realized she was about to rise from the chair, her hands gripping the arms so her knuckles were white.
“I fear whatIwill do, Andrew. Again,” she whispered.
The duke blinked before his gaze darted about the room. “Did you...?”
“Kiss you. Yes,” she admitted. “In the guise of determining if you had a fever, but...” She swallowed. “Yes.”
He recoiled slightly. “You kissed my forehead. I dreamt that was my mother,” he whispered. “Your scent is the same as hers.”
Angelika seemed to have trouble breathing as she dipped her head. “Is that how she discovered if you had a fever?”
He nodded. “Will you do it again? I’m feeling rather feverish.”
