Then, suddenly remembering herself, she pulled away.
“How dare you?” she demanded, even as she thought,How dare I?
Anger came boiling to the surface once more as she was overwhelmed by conflicting sensations of desire, embarrassment, pain, and longing.
“Cecelia, wait,” he said as she turned away.
She felt his fingers brush her wrist, pleaded silently for him to stop her, but her feet carried her away down the terrace steps and into the garden.
Desperately, more desperately than she needed to kiss him, she needed to be alone.
Chapter 18
Thwack!
George felt the blow of Walter’s foil strike his side as he barely had the time to react.
It wasn’t the first time he had struck him during their fencing practice, and George was growing more and more certain it wouldn’t be the last.
Ordinarily, there was no way Walter could have even got a lick in, but George’s mind was elsewhere.
Every time he blinked, he could still see Cecelia’s face as she gazed up at him, tears in her eyes. He could still feel her lips pressed against his, and the urge to do so again was almost intolerable.
It had been only the night before, and yet, it felt as if an age had passed since last he had seen her.
Thwack!
Another strike, and though it was not an awfully strong blow, George reeled sideways as he attempted once more to clear his mind.
He cursed under his breath and swung his sword low. “I must have a break.”
Undoing the buckle at the back of his face guard, he removed it and threw it to the ground, utterly frustrated.
“Are you quite well, Georgie?”
Having turned away to the refreshment table that had been positioned at the edge of the patio, George cringed at his old nickname.
Instead of answering, he grabbed a glass of water and drained it, handing his foil to his waiting manservant.
He used his now free hand to wipe the sweat from his brow, panting with the effort it had been to even attempt to avoid Walter’s blows.
His friend appeared at his side, his own headguard gone, offering his foil to his own manservant before he took a drink for himself.
Walter glanced sideways at George as he asked, “Is something troubling you?”
George gritted his teeth against the urge to admit the truth, that he couldn’t get Cecelia out of his head.
He bit down on the words, knowing all too well what had happened the last time he had imparted a secret to one of his friends.
This is Walter,he reminded himself, though he still couldn’t bring himself to admit the truth.
Instead, he shook his head and poured himself another glass of water, wondering whether it might be too early to have something a little stronger to help take the edge off his tattered nerves.
“Come on, I may be her brother, but you can tell me if a certain young lady is occupying your thoughts,” Walter insisted. He jabbed him in the ribs, but George wasn't sure whether it was the gesture or his words that almost made him spill his drink.
“Don't be ridiculous!” George exclaimed. The very notion that he might be thinking of Elizabeth in such a way was laughable. And yet, to think of Cecelia in such a way was no more absurd.
He could understand why his friend might believe it so for he had shared a dance and more than one conversation with Lizzie the evening before.
