up at the ceiling. “Yes, I must look perfect for the wedding.”
“Must look perfect.”
A tingle of warning whispered down my spine.
Must look perfect.
Where had I heard that expression, that voice, before?
“It will be soon, my dear,” and older woman giggled, a shrill annoying giggle. “Very soon, indeed.”
“I do hope so. I must look perfect.”
“Do hurry, child.” Even still, I felt the tap of her fan atop my head. “Good lord, servants nowadays.”
It felt as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over my head. I stumbled back away from the woman. My heart hammered so quickly that I thought I might faint. Gabe’s woman. Gabe’s fiancé. I’d met her at the Landcaster ball that year ago. The perfect, beautiful, blonde.
“Mother thinks I should wear a light blue, but I want to wear white like the queen on her wedding day.” Her voice seemed as if it came from far away, even though she stood right next to me. “Oh! And Devon lace, of course! I do care about the country, after all.”
She moved to a gilt-framed mirror, fixing her buttons.
“You are listening, aren’t you?” she snapped.
“Of course.”
I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all. But mostly I wanted to laugh because she honestly thought I would believe she cared about the welfare of workers in Devon. I glanced toward the hall, mentally imploring Miss Lamier to return. I had to escape. I had to leave before…
Dear God, she was alone.
I jerked my gaze back toward her. Young, privileged women were never alone. I tore my gaze from her, and focused on the door. A sister? Mother? Someone had to have escorted her. Where was her chaperone? Who was her chaperone?
“I’m not quite sure yet about my veil,” she was saying. “Or if I will even have one. What do you think?”
A tall, dark shadow moved across the windows, momentarily blocking the dull, fall light. The man paused at the door. My hands fisted. Instinct told me to run, yet I couldn’t seem to move. My entire body had frozen in place, my slippers glued to the floor.
The door knob turned.
The bell above the door jingled.
“Oh, that must be my fiancé! I’m not ready to see him!” She raced toward the back and the fitting rooms. “Please tell him I’ll be out in a moment.”
The door opened fully and he stepped inside. He brought with the scent of fall: of rain, of dirt, of leaves…and him. A scent that had become a long, lost memory. A dream. And suddenly the world was spinning again when it had slowed. Life was vibrant, pulsing, full of energy when it had been dull and empty.
His attention swung toward me.
Our gazes clashed.
I felt like I’d been stabbed in the chest.
It was him.
Him.
The man who had taken my virginity.
The man who had gotten me with child.
****
Gabriel
I thought perhaps I imagined her.
That my obsession had finally reached the point in which I’d gone completely mad, and I was conjuring the woman who had invaded my life, my mind, my soul. And for a long, long moment, I stood frozen in time, in some surreal dream that hung suspended before us. The world faded away. Only she and I remained.
Sunlight pierced the windows giving her a heavenly, hazy glow that made her look not quite solid. A ghost? Figment of my imagination? I’d tried for months to find her, and here she was. A ten-minute carriage ride from my home.
Ten minutes away.
She was real.
She stood there all too solid. All too surprised. That startled look in her eyes could not be conceived by my own imagination. That familiar scent that hung suspended in the air around us was her. Her.
“Ginny,” I whispered.
She flinched.
She was here.
She was real.
Desperate, I took in every fine detail at once. From the way her dark hair shimmered under the dull light coming in through the windows, to those beautiful blue eyes. The way her figure curved, rounding out her bodice, the hips of her skirts. She seemed fuller, womanlier. More stunning. The same person I’d known almost a year ago, yet…different.
My heart thundered so madly it actually hurt.
I wanted her. Even here, now, as blood pounded through my veins. An animal deep within had awoken. An animal that had a year ago, claimed her as his own. An animal that recognized her now and roared,
Mine!
“Oh, Miss Lamier,” Miranda exclaimed from a back room, startling Ginny. “How lovely the lace is!”
Ginny took a stumbling step back. She hit a pedestal,