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“Lady Aphrodite,” Evander called to me, “I do pray that you accept the request of my letter.”
I stared at his face for a long moment before turning to leave.
I needed to think.
8
Aphrodite
Like fire spreading throughout your body, desire pulsating upon the skin, and an ache in the pit of your stomach. His words repeated in my mind as always but this time with inescapable intensity. I now also had a more profound ability to understand them, but it was not enough for me. Some of his words I still did not understand. I felt that, should we be alone, or as alone as we could be, he would answer truthfully. He would protest just slightly, but he would do so in the end, and that was far more than I received from any other person. The prospect of not being treated like a child who was kept ignorant of the world was breathtakingly freeing.
I was eager to see him again.
“Have you chosen who shall receive your first dance?” Hathor asked as she entered my room once again unannounced, dressed not in pink but red.
“You have changed your color for the evening,” I replied.
“Yes, more catching to the eye,” she said. “I need all the advantage I may get.”
I smiled, toying with the feather in my hands, as my maid finished my hair. “What are you seeking to get, sister?”
“A husband, of course.”
“And yet you have rejected all the callers who have come to see you.”
“I refuse to accept anything less than a duke.” She lifted a vial of scent from my table, sniffing it.
I scoffed. “Then your choices are a duke or a prince. Your standard may be a bit high, for I do not see many princes around.”
“Then I shall have a duke.” She shrugged, placing the scent upon her neck. “Why, are you saying it is impossible for me to be a duchess?”
“No, by all means, you would surely be the greatest of our time.”
She grinned at my words. “I believe so as well.”
“And pray tell, how many dukes are here this season?”
“Three, if you must know, well two, seeing how you are blinded by one of them.”
I tore my gaze from her and glanced back into the mirror to check my hair. “I know not what you mean.”
“Oh, please. All the ton is abuzz with talk of you. Apparently, Mrs. Frinton-Smith saw you and the Duke of Everely speaking rather intensely in front of Madam Marjorie’s shop.”
How did gossip fly so quickly?
“Oh, and?”
“They said you looked rather smitten, and he uninterested…again. Odite, they are saying that you will chase after him and fail once more.”
I placed the feather down and waved off my maid as I rose. “They do not know what they are speaking of.”
“Of course not, but you fuel their fire by entertaining his company.” She followed after me. “It is he who wishes to court you, but because of his past actions, the gossips think you seem desperate for his attention.”
“Are you worried for me?” I put on my pearls. “Would you not rather I am mocked than praised?”
“I am not cruel.” She sighed. “I simply do not wish to always be in your shadow. That does not mean I want you to be mocked. You are the eldest, so if you are the subject of ridicule, so am I.”
“So this lecture is partially out of concern for your fate?” Iasked as the maid handed me earrings.
