She Fled Her Wedding — Then Found the Duke Escaping on the Same Train
Chapter 11
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They returned to shore with nobody drowned and Lucius' reputation as a sailor permanently diminished. Rowena declared that she needed tea. Her husband went with her to secure a table, leaving Annora and Piers to follow along the path above the beach.He took her hand where the path narrowed. She kept hold after it widened again."Do you wish me to call you Your Grace?" she asked."Not while you are holding my hand.""Piers, then."He looked at her when she said it. She wished she had tried it long before. They stopped beneath a wooden shelter overlooking the water. There was nobody close enough to hear them, although Annora could see her sister's blue parasol moving toward the tea rooms."I am going to Italy in September," she said.He blinked at the abruptness."With Rowena and Lucius. We were arranging it before you asked me to marry you. I gave it up. Now we have begun arranging it again.""For how long?""Until January, we think."He looked out at the sea. It was a perfectly ordinary journey for people with time and money; it was also four months in which she would be somewhere he was not."I see," he said."I wanted you to know before this went any further."Piers turned back. "I am glad you told me." The answer was correct; the disappointment beneath it was considerably more interesting."Are you?""No," he admitted. "I would rather you stayed. But I don't think I am entitled to pretend September has not been mentioned."She smiled, and his gaze fell to her mouth. For a moment, they stood without moving. There were people on the promenade below; there was a boat coming in. This was not a deserted garden in a novel, but a public afternoon with sand in Annora's shoe and a damp patch on her skirt."May I kiss you?" he asked."Yes."He leaned toward her slowly, giving her time to change her mind. She did not. The first touch of his mouth was warm and uncertain. Then she moved closer, her hand tightening in his, and uncertainty became something that made the noise of the promenade seem far away.When they drew apart, she was smiling in a way he had never seen before."Oh," she said softly.He laughed, a little breathlessly. "I hope that is favorable.""It is insufficiently descriptive.""I shall try again later."They walked to the tea rooms without speaking much. Rowena took one look at them and ordered another pot.That night, Annora lay awake listening to the sea. She had been engaged to this man without once imagining the weight of his hand at her waist; now she could remember almost nothing else. Across the town, Piers stood at the window of his small house and attempted a trick with a coin until it vanished where it was meant to vanish. When he succeeded, there was nobody there to admire it. For the first time that evening, he stopped smiling.