Page 6

Ah. That explains it, Adam thought, as he took in her haphazard state of dress. “Miss Green.”

The governess hurried into the room, and Adam turned his daughter by the shoulder, gently, toward her. Miss Green quickly took Eloise by the hand and started to lead her away.

“But Papa…” Eloise started to complain, craning her neck to look back at the woman. “I want to talk with the princess some more! Can’t you see? She stepped out of a storybook!”

Adam thought the storybook was more likely a horror novel, or maybe some kind of satire.

“Can’t you see…the dress…”

A ruined dress.

“Good night, Eloise,” he responded.

“It is a magnificent dress!” Despite her protests, his daughter let herself be guided to the door, looking back twice as she went.

At the threshold, she turned fully. “It was very nice to meet you,” she said to the woman by the fire, lifting one hand to wave. “I hope you are still here in the morning!”

Adam frowned. It was not as though he could send a woman away in the night. He could, of course, but he didn’t think it wise. The night was not kind, and he wasn’t sure he could sleep well knowing he’d sent a woman who’d obviously come from far away into the darkness.

“It was nice to meet you as well, Eloise,” the woman replied, and Adam thought her voice sounded like the sweet trilling of birds.

He also noted that she neither affirmed nor denied his daughter’s hopes of her still being around in the morning.

The door closed, and Adam turned back to face the woman. She was still standing, her hands clasped in front of her, and what looked like some papers clutched in her grip.

When he moved toward the fireplace, she shifted slightly to keep him in view, and the fire threw its light across her fully. Despite her general appearance, the sight of her halted him in his steps.

She was…beautiful.

Seeing her fully now utterly arrested him. The line of her jaw curved in a manner that invited him to look even lower, to the hollow of her throat catching shadow. And her eyes, watching him with a steadiness he hadn’t expected, were the gray-blue of early morning sky, and rounded so prettily he could hardly look away.

Hardly.

Because now, in the enlightening circle of the light, her body was not helping his composure. Her bodice was fitted tightly and cut low, the damp silk pulling taut across her chest, offering up her décolletage to him with an intention that was sewn into the stitches of the design.

Adam’s body was an uncomplicated mechanism; it already registered that with an eagerness that operated well below conscious thought.

Focus.

His eyes snapped back up to her face at once before turning away.

What was he thinking? Or had he underestimated his body’s needs in the last few years?

He cleared his throat once and straightened up, looking at the wall behind her to center himself. “Ahem.”

He didn’t know how to start a conversation; his reclusive living habits over the last seven years had effectively destroyed what little skill he’d ever had in making conversation.

She straightened up, patting down the front of her dress before she spoke.

“Your Grace,” she said, and dipped into a curtsy that was rather more dignified than her muddied wedding gown should have allowed. “Your staff let me in out of their kindness. If you are displeased with my presence here, I ask that it falls on me. Not them.”

Adam raised an eyebrow. What would she do if he truly intended to take out his displeasure on her?

Judging by the regal set of her chin, she seemed capable of handling whatever he decided to throw her way, her gaze determined in a way that intrigued him as much as it annoyed him.

“You have neglected to mention,” he finally said, “why you are in my house at this late hour, madam.”

Her eyes flew wide at his words before she quickly composed herself.