Right?
Except when she rounded the corner to the next corridor, she paused. Her brain felt fuzzy and memory was coming in waves.It’s the spirits! It’s making it difficult for me to remember which corridor Henry’s room is on!
But she didn’t say this out loud to Georgina, who would use it as fuel to dissuade her from her mission. Andnothingwas going to dissuade her from her mission.
Meanwhile, her friend continued to whisper-hiss reasons why she really ought to return to bed and not attempt this.
“Be reasonable!” Georgina pleaded, as Emery set off again down the corridor. “If someone should find us, we will be in deep trouble! It’s unladylike to be traipsing around corridors in the middle of the night like a common thief! And what are you going to say to Henry to persuade him? He is a man of honor, he will not allow you to call off your wedding the night before! I know him, he wouldn’t let his family down like that.”
But Emery was on a mission, and she barely heard Georgina’s words. She was too busy counting doors from the suit of armor under the tapestry of the unicorn. Four doors down… that was Henry’s room.
“This is it,” she said, stopping in front of the right door. Putting a finger to her lips to quiet Georgina, she placed her ear against the door. It was silent inside.He is asleep.
“Don’t do this,” Georgina breathed, but Emery shook her head.
“I’m doing this,” she murmured. “And you’re coming with me.”
And she pushed open the door and held it open for her friend. Georgina, however, hesitated.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “It’s too risky.”
“I can’t wait any longer,” Emery whispered back. “I’m going inside. Come when you’re ready.” And she slipped inside the bedchamber.
If she had thought it was dark in the corridor outside, it was nothing to the darkness that greeted her inside Henry’s bedchamber. Heavy curtains had been drawn over the windows, so that no light could enter, and she left the door ajar, so that Georgina could follow.
I should feel weird about being inside a man’s bedroom, she thought, as she crept toward where she knew the bed was. In the dark, she could only make out a large, dark shape, which she assumed was the bed.But Henry isn't really a man, is he? He’s just Henry.
Stifling a giggle, she reached out and touched the end of the bed. Using touch alone, she made her way around to the edge of the bed to where she could now, very faintly, see the outline of a man sleeping. Now that she was closer, she could also hear his soft, deep breathing, which told her he was fast asleep. And as she leaned over him, she could also feel the warmth of his body radiating from him.
For a moment, she shivered. It had never occurred to her how enticinglywarma man might be. Her heart leapt in her throat, and at the same time a rush of drunken clumsiness came over her, and she fell forward onto the man.
“Oh!” she let out a little cry of surprise just as Henry grunted, as if startled out of sleep, and tried to sit up. As he did, he knocked her off balance, and she fell fully into the bed, landing around where she assumed his lap must be.
Henry inhaled sharply, perhaps in fear, perhaps in surprise. “What’s going on?” he asked, his tone muddled and his voice low and scratchy with sleep. “Who’s there?”
“Henry, don’t worry, it’s just me!” she half-whispered, half-cried, anxious not to wake the entire corridor of sleeping wedding guests. “Calm down, I just wanted to talk! There’s no need to panic!”
But Henry clearly didn’t agree with her, because he thrust her away from him, then leapt out of the bed. She faintly saw him move to the windows and rip back the heavy drapes that covered him.
Moonlight flooded the room at once, and she blinked up into his coldly handsome and furious face.
It was a face she knew well, but it was not Henry’s.
It was his brother’s, the Duke of Dredford.
Chapter Two
“Who are you and what in God’s name are you doing in my bedroom?” Lucien Grove, the Duke of Dredford, thundered as he glared down at the fairy-like woman who was staring up at him from his bed, her eyes wide with shock and fear.
What is she afraid of?He thought furiously.She’s the one that snuck into my room in the middle of the night, not the other way around!
Lucien had been fast asleep when he had been jolted rudely awake by this woman, who had seemed to fall on top of him. And while Lucien was not a man who was easily startled, nor easily afraid, there had been a moment of true panic upon waking to realize that not only was someone in his room, but they werein his bed.
But now, as he stared down at the girl, his fear melted away. She was a pretty, waiflike creature, with delicate features, a sweetround face, and startling blue eyes that stood out against her pale skin.
Her long black hair was unbound and unkempt, as if she had just rolled out of bed. In fact, if he had encountered her in another setting, he might have even found the girl pretty. But in this scenario, all he could feel was a mute, cold anger, rising up inside of him.
The audacity!
