Lady Derring Takes a Lover - Julie Anne Long Page 0,107

find it to be true. I would be happy to stay an entire evening here at The Palace of Ro—”

A courtier leaned over and whispered in his ear.

“The Grand Palace on the Thames,” he amended.

The king sounded as though he’d been handed a script.

And one wondered if the king had been here before. Perhaps a few decades earlier.

And dear God in heaven, did he plan to stay here?

Was he perhaps the mysterious employer of Mister X?

Surely not. Surely that person would have more subtlety.

“But I fear I cannot stay at present.”

She could not deny a little relief. But she and Angelique did smile at him, with all the radiant warmth in their hearts. After all, in his face, once handsome, now blurred and swollen from excesses, she saw someone who, like everyone else, longed to be loved. Who had never known his mother and really hadn’t a prayer of getting that sort of love from anyone else, marrying mistresses a decade older than he was notwithstanding. Who had lost a beloved daughter, casting all of England into mourning, and mourning himself.

And so they did what they did best: they endeavored to make him feel at home.

“It is, most certainly, a comfortable place to stay, your majesty. Would you like a cup of tea?”

Dot had brought it in, the tray rattling and clinking in her hands.

And so it was that Delilah Swanpoole served tea to the king before the Duchess of Brexford did.

He took a sip—after a nearby courtier took a sip, nodded pleasantly, and did not fall to the carpet, writhing in death throes.

“I understand you’ve a list of rules for people who wish to stay,” the king said. “And that you on occasion have musicales.”

Thus making all of Delilah’s dreams come true.

And as she was fairly certain the Duchess of Brexford was circling outside in her barouche, waiting for an opportunity to speak to Helga alone, her heart soared.

The King and all the various people who’d come along with him stayed for the duration of two sips of tea.

Then he was helped to his feet by four men, and then the lot of them filed out with a good deal of orderly jangling and clomping.

All of them save one.

And so thrumming with the dreamlike thrill of the moment were Delilah and Angelique that they almost didn’t notice him standing in the foyer.

Very still.

Very tall.

Hat in hand.

He wasn’t in uniform. He wore a black coat that fit him as elegantly as his own skin. His buttons were silver. His boot toes glowed.

They stared at him until comprehension set in.

And then Dot’s face went brilliant with delight. “Oh, look, it’s Cap—EEP!”

Angelique had leaped to her feet, seized Dot by the arm, and tugged her up the stairs at a swift clip, herding her with little pats like a sheepdog herds a lamb.

Delilah sank back down onto the settee.

He came toward her, slowly, each pace measured, as though he feared she’d disappear or would thrust her hand out, finger pointed at the door, and shout “Begone!”

Delilah felt lit like a candle. Every cell of her body seemed to sing a soft hosanna.

“Please don’t stand,” he said.

She could not have if she tried. Let alone speak.

Imagine a day in which the King of England’s visit was the second-best thing to happen.

“May I have permission to speak?”

Something was terribly amiss if Captain Hardy was requesting permission.

But she merely nodded, because she could not possibly speak.

He sat down gingerly across from her on the settee opposite. The one lately occupied by a monarch. The one Captain Hardy had elevated to a throne the day he’d checked into The Grand Palace on the Thames, and still did.

He drew in a breath. Released it slowly.

He leaned toward her. Hands folded on his knees.

“I am sailing out tomorrow if the weather is good. Up to Dover, to see Massey get married. Then off across the sea.”

She couldn’t say a word. Her heart gave a terrific jolt, as if it had suddenly sprung to life again. If this was the last time she saw him, she would hungrily memorize his face.

“Delilah, I don’t know that I would have or could have done anything differently. It seemed as though I was doing the right thing all along, until I realized that I could not know what the right thing was anymore, because I have never before truly been in love, and then suddenly I was.”

The brightness that burst inside her was almost unbearable. Like a new star being born. Her