Page 98 of The Duke’s Hidden Duchess

Nathaniel looked down at them and then at her.

“Am I permitted?”

“You are becoming tiresome.”

“That is not an answer.”

“Kiss me.”

He did.

There was nothing tentative in the kiss this time. He took her face between his hands as he had in the folly, and she rose into him willingly, without rain or fear or an unfinished answer standing between them.

When they drew apart, Selina kept her hands in his lapels.

“I love you,” she said again, experimentally.

Nathaniel’s forehead rested briefly against hers.

“Any adverse effects?”

“None yet.”

“We should continue to observe the condition.”

“That sounds like you.”

“It is the best I can offer.”

Through the tall windows behind him Selina caught sight of Georgiana. She was staring at them from the ballroom with unconcealed astonishment.

Selina raised one eyebrow.

Georgiana’s astonishment became a grin. She turned deliberately away and engaged Lady Helena in conversation.

Selina looked back at her husband.

“I believe we have been noticed.”

“We are married.”

“That has not prevented people noticing us before.”

“No,” Nathaniel said. “Very little seems to.”

This time, when he kissed her, Selina did not look towards the windows at all.

Chapter Twenty-One

The document lay upon Nathaniel’s study desk in the grey light of a morning three weeks after Lady Marwood’s ball.

He read it twice before looking up.

Petherick stood by the window with his hands folded behind him and waited.

“He signed this without alteration?”

“He did; though not without complaint.”