Colin cleared his throat, and she whirled around in shock.
“What are you doing here?” Elizabeth asked, her voice as cold as her brother’s had been all those months ago.
“I wanted to personally congratulate you on your upcoming matrimony.”
“Thank you.” She glanced at the closed door behind him. “You should go now.”
“Are you happy?”
“About what?” She asked absent-mindedly.
Colin let himself look at her. Reallylook,not stolen occasional glances. He felt like a starving man who was finally given a meal.
“Your future husband. Your new life in the country,” he clarified impatiently.
“Yes.”
Colin took two steps towards her. “I wish to shake your hand, as your friend.”
“We are no longer friends,” she said as she lifted her chin.
There is that temper,he thought.
“Now, now, Miss Elizabeth,” Talbot said, as nonchalantly as he could. He loved the taste of her name but rarely let himself savour it. “Just because you say something doesn’t make it true. I should know.”
There. In his mind, the apology couldn’t have been clearer.
Elizabeth frowned. He took another step towards her and reached for her ungloved hand. He stared at it for a while (neither of them appeared to be breathing as he did so) before letting go of it in order to remove his own gloves and throw them on the table next to hers.
They were finally skin to skin. Colin turned her palm up and traced its lines with his index finger. Elizabeth’s chest was heaving, and he could see her heartbeat pulsing in the hollow of her throat.
Somewhere outside, someone laughed, breaking the spell between them, and Elizabeth snatched her hand away.
“I need to leave,” she said in a strained voice and tried sidestepping him, but he anticipated her move and took his ownstep to the side, which caused his leg to become lodged firmly between her skirts.
Elizabeth retreated (and he followed) until her back was pressing against the window. Colin was standing between her legs, and he used the back of his index finger to tilt her chin up. Lizzie’s hazel eyes appeared almost black.
“Curious,” he whispered and, without thinking, leaned down to trace the side of her neck with his nose.
He heard her gasp and was trying to interpret why her entire body had arched into him when, suddenly, the door of their sanctuary flew open.
“What do we have here?” Lady Helena asked in a nasty tone.
Several voices started talking at the same time. Talbot felt Elizabeth’s body go utterly still. He looked into her face, and it seemed that all the blood had drained from her cheeks. She looked like a doe cornered by hunting dogs. He realised that he was gripping her waist, and he slowly let go of it.
They both turned to the door to face the crowd Lady Helena had assembled. Most of them looked intrigued, some were appalled, and one man wasabsolutely furious. As he ran out of the room, Harding loudly called for Lizzie’s brother in what Talbot guessed was his military voice, "Hawkins!"
The duke had initially assumed a relaxed stance against the wall in order to conceal his visible response to Elizabeth’s earlier closeness, but he stepped in front of her when he saw an angry Nicholas striding towards them.
“Get out of my way, Talbot,” Nicholas said as he grabbed Elizabeth by the elbow and dragged her out of the room.
What have I done?Colin asked himself, and, with a start, ran after them.
When he exited the Pearsons’ home, he saw Nicholas climbing into his carriage and driving away. Talbot quickly found his own carriage and followed them.
In the cocoon of the carriage, Colin went over the events of the last two hours, then the events of the last two months, and then he went back as far as his first meeting with Elizabeth more than two years ago. None of it made any sense to him.
He could hear his mother’s venomous tone in his ear, telling him that he had made a mockery of his dukedom by getting caught in such a compromising position by his peers.
