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“I know it’s a thoroughly impractical thing to do,” she told the shell. “I know it will end badly and I’ll be hurt. But do I really even have a choice?”
Of course the lonely governess tumbled madly in love with the handsome duke. It happened all the time in the novels she read.
It was happening to her right now.
She was plunging headlong and heedless, like Michel and Adele rolling down sand dunes.
She didn’t know where her fall would end. Where did she want it to end? Somewhere with Edgar’s arms around her, warm as sunshine. The twins’ carefree laughter in her ears.
We belong together.
Surely she was permitted to dream a little on a sunny day at the seashore.
The twins raced back into view, leaping over tide pools on their way back toward her. They’d found something to show her. She readied a specimen container.
She had quite a collection of shells and dried, withered things.
They swooped down on her like seagulls on a limpet, capturing her hands.
“Come and see what we’ve found!” cried Adele.
“Another sea urchin?” asked Mari.
“It’s over there,” Michel said, tugging on her arm and drawing her across the sand.
“A sea star?” she asked.
“More like a sea monster,” said Adele.
They laughed merrily, pulling her along.
They rounded the bend and Mari lurched to a halt.
Her eyes must be playing tricks on her, because she thought she saw a devilish duke, rising from the sand like some mythical monster, dark and commanding against the sun.
Until a smile touched his lips and lit his eyes, like sunshine sparkling over the gray sea.
And then, he was merely Edgar.
And she merely loved him. With all of her newly widened heart. She didn’t know what that meant in the grand scheme of things.
She only knew it was true.
Chapter 26
Edgar closed the gap between them, his gait uneven on the shifting sand. All he could see was Mari’s sparkling blue eyes and wide smile.
His heart lifted and flew into the sky like a seabird.
She wore a loosely flowing gown of lavender muslin with a soft gray shawl wrapped around her shoulders and her bonnet dangled down her back.
“You’re being kissed by the sun.” He touched Adele’s nose, his eyes still on Mari’s face.
Mari lifted a hand to her cheek. “More freckles.”
“I like your freckles,” he said.
“Why are you here?” Mari asked. “I thought you were testing your new engine.”
