Your devoted accomplice.
May forgot to breathe. She’d never stopped to think of the woman who was supposed to meet Elias that night at the ball. It was naive of her to expect that the true seductress would never appear again. And now that she had, Elias would know May for the impostor she really was.
This was very, very bad.
But if Elias thought that the note was from her… that meant not all was lost. If she could make it there before the woman who wrote to him, she still had a chance to tell him herself.
May hiked up her skirts and ran for the stables.
CHAPTER SIX
Elias drummed on the polished silver handle of his walking stick as he circled the main hall of the public Dulwich Picture Gallery, surveying everyone in his path. The voices of the leisurely attendees echoed off the arched ceilings. He scanned for May’s familiar silhouette but none of the strolling ladies had her grace nor purposeful stride. Perhaps something had delayed her. He sank onto a studded leather seat across a serene landscape on display but the beauty of it escaped his notice. This morning’s note lingered in his thoughts.
May said he’d know if she changed her mind, and now, she had.
With each passing day, his longing for her corded about his lungs, until Lady May was in every breath he drew. Elias would put an end to that. Hold her and not let go, not until he figured out a way to extract her from under his skin. And perhaps not even then.
That she chose to meet in this public setting felt like an attempt at courting. Something he’d been woefully out of practice in. But for her, he was willing to try. And once theywere back home... his mind raced on, conjuring more daring scenarios with each moment, until he almost missed the figure taking a seat next to him.
“I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, Your Grace.”
The young woman beside him was well-dressed, wrapped in an air of dignity. She leaned toward him with a familiarity that crossed the bounds of propriety.
“You are...?” Whoever she was, she was quite daring to seek him out without prior introduction.
“The one who can help you with your present concerns.” Her voice dropped into a purr.
“What concerns would a duke such as me have?” Elias did not feign his bored tone as he stood up.
The lady’s brow furrowed. “That is something I was hoping you would divulge, Your Grace.”
What in the world? He eyed her incredulously. There truly was no end to those who wanted to use him, nor was there a limit to their brazen ways.
“I must apologize. When I couldn’t make it last time—”
“Elias!”
Whatever the woman said next was rendered inconsequential. And how could it be anything else, when he finally felt the thrill of his name leaving May’s lips? He turned to find his beautiful accomplice running toward him. Surprised onlookers cast their judgmental gazes at this outrageous display of familiarity, but Elias could do nothing but grin ear to ear. No more of that “Your Grace” nonsense. She reached his side at once, her curls falling over her eyes, her chest rising in a frantic rhythm, her lips, the very ones that uttered his Christian name in public, slightly parted as she caught her breath.
With one word, she cut the distance between them to nothing. And all he wanted to do now was make his name spill from her mouth again and again.
She was too late.
His name rushed out of her on pure instinct, betraying the truth of her thoughts. When had she started thinking of him as Elias? She had not even noticed as bit by bit, the serious, bespectacled, sometimes menacing duke had turned into someone whose name she cherished. All too late.
The woman next to him regarded her coldly, but that was on the periphery, and all May could look at was the duke.You’re an impostor, and he knows.Any moment now, his eyes would judge her with the same flinty hardness that he reserved for the likes of Lord Frenwick. She would be marked as just another opportunist in his book.
Wasn’t it better this way? Cut it short, before either one of them could truly get hurt? But even now, her insides twisted at the idea. How could she lose him before she ever had him? What a fool she was! If May was going to be this distraught, she should have said yes to him that night.
“I know I am too late, but I must give you an explanation regardless.” May’s hands wrung the brim of her unworn bonnet.
“You do not have to make excuses for being late, my dearest.” He eased the poor straw bonnet out of her hand and smiled in his maddening way. “You should know by now that patience is one of my many virtues.”
Her blood pumped so viciously that she nearly missed his meaning. The woman next to him pursed her lips and stepped back with a sigh.
“Thank you for your time, Your Grace. I suppose it simply was not meant to be.”
The duke barely even acknowledged her with a nod, leaving May alone to follow her departure with her stunned gaze.I was not late…?That woman looked just like the type to settle private affairs with particular talents. She was everything May could never be—perfectly aloof, elegant, and very clearly born into wealth. Yet, somehow, it was May who watched her leave.
