Nicola Cornick – Christmas Wedding Belles: The Pirate's Kiss / A Smuggler's Tale / The Sailor's Bride (страница 9)

She tried not to look at him, afraid that if she did it would in some way give him away. She was surely the only one present who knew his identity. A little flicker of anger heated her blood to think that Daniel was taking her silence for granted, that he believed that she would not betray him. He had the audacity of the devil himself, and a part of her thought he richly deserved a fall. Another part of her was terrified that he would be found out.

‘My dear Mrs Melville,’ the Duchess of Kestrel was saying. ‘You have gone very pale. Are you quite well?’

‘I am very well, thank you,’ Lucinda said, recovering. ‘I feel a little chilled. It is a cold night.’

‘You should dance, you know,’ Sally Kestrel said, smiling. ‘Just because one is a chaperon…’

‘Oh, I do not dance these days,’ Lucinda said.

‘Not even when the most handsome man in the room is intent on asking you?’ the Duchess enquired.

Lucinda looked up. Daniel was now cutting a very determined path through the small crowd towards her. He was looking straight at her, with a mocking challenge in his eyes. He was taunting her, daring her to denounce him. Lucinda drew herself up a little straighter in her chair.

‘Madam,’ he was bowing over her hand now. ‘Allow me to introduce myself to you—’

‘I remember you,’ Lucinda said, before he could finish. ‘We have met before.’

She savoured the first faint sign of wariness that she saw in his dark eyes and smiled. ‘How do you do, Mr Raleigh?’

He raised her hand to his lips in an old-fashioned gesture and pressed a kiss against it—a real kiss rather than a formal brush of the lips. Her skin tingled, and she tried to withdraw her hand, but he held her fast for a long moment.

‘I am flattered that you remember me, madam,’ he said.

‘Oh, I had all but forgotten you until you walked in,’ Lucinda said airily. ‘But then I thought that you seemed vaguely familiar. Pray permit me to introduce you to Her Grace the Duchess of Kestrel. Your Grace, may I introduce Mr Raleigh?’

Daniel bowed, smiling, and Sally Kestrel looked delighted. ‘Mrs Melville! You did not vouchsafe the fact that you and Mr Raleigh were already acquainted. How do you do, sir? What brings you into this part of Suffolk?’

‘Business,’ Daniel said promptly. He smiled at Lucinda, a smile of cool confidence, and to her annoyance she could feel herself blushing like a schoolroom miss.

‘But when I saw Mrs Melville across the room,’ Daniel added, ‘I was tempted to renew our old acquaintance and mix business with pleasure.’

‘A capital idea,’ Sally Kestrel said promptly. ‘I was remarking to Mrs Melville only a moment ago that it is an evening for dancing…’

‘My sentiments precisely, Your Grace,’ Daniel said. He held out a hand to Lucinda. ‘If you would do me the honour, madam?’

‘I am here to chaperon Miss Saltire, not to dance myself,’ Lucinda began, but Sally gave her a gentle little push with her fan.

‘I will watch over my cousin, Mrs Melville. What could be more appropriate? You and Mr Raleigh must have a deal of news to catch up on.’

Daniel’s fingers were insistent against hers. ‘Come, Mrs Melville. It is the waltz, I believe, and I am sure that you were given permission to dance it many years ago.’

‘More than I care to remember,’ Lucinda said. She allowed him to draw her onto the floor and into his arms. ‘You are insufferable!’ she added in an undertone, as the music struck up. ‘Why not tell me I am at my last prayers and have done with it?’

Daniel smiled broadly. ‘Oh, I do not believe the case to be quite as bad as that.’ He sobered, though the smile was still in his eyes. ‘Truth to tell, you look very beautiful tonight, Lucinda.’

Lucinda stamped down hard on the little quiver of awareness that his words caused within her.

‘Truth, is it?’ she said coldly. ‘I thought the truth was that you had no desire ever to see me again? You certainly went to a great deal of trouble to make me believe so when last we met.’

The smile died from Daniel’s eyes. ‘Oh, I had the desire to see you,’ he said quietly.

Lucinda met his eyes very directly. ‘Then why try to drive me away?’

A rueful smile twisted his lips. ‘I was trying to do the right thing for once, Luce. Belatedly, cruelly and probably pointlessly, but for the right reasons all the same.’

His use of her old nickname tugged at her heart. ‘Because…?’ she whispered.

‘Because you know it is too late.’ Daniel’s eyes were very dark, his tone a little rough. ‘You said it yourself, Lucy. It was over a very long time ago.’

Lucinda swallowed hard. ‘So why are you here tonight?’

‘I came to say goodbye.’

Lucinda had almost been expecting it, but now that he had said the words she felt swamped by a loss and a loneliness that made her catch her breath.

‘You are insane to take such a risk,’ she whispered.

‘I know.’

‘Why did you do it?’

‘I had to.’ Daniel’s eyes were very dark. ‘I wanted to see you one last time.’

Lucinda’s heart was beating fiercely in her throat. ‘There is no point,’ she said harshly. ‘Ever since we met we have known that what was once between us cannot be rekindled. Why risk all for one last meeting?’

Daniel shrugged. ‘Because I like the danger? And because I…’ He hesitated, and for one mad moment Lucinda thought he was going to tell her that he loved her.

‘And for one last dance,’ he said, drawing her closer. His cheek brushed hers. She could feel the beginnings of his stubble and it sent a long, cool shiver through her.

‘The least you could do was shave if you were planning on attending a social gathering,’ she said sharply, to cover her feelings, and he laughed and rubbed his cheek against hers again.

Lucinda struggled with her emotions. The intimacy of their encounter, here in a ballroom with fifty other people, seemed extraordinary. She was aware of nothing other than the touch of Daniel’s hands as he steered her through the waltz, the brush of his body against hers, the smile that was for her alone.

‘For the duration of this one last dance, then, the least you can do is tell me the truth,’ she said, and felt him stiffen a little.

‘The truth?’

‘Yes.’ Lucinda looked up into his eyes. ‘Surely the truth is not so alien to you that you cannot recognise the concept? Since we are not to meet again—’ she threw down her challenge ‘—the least you owe me is to answer one question honestly.’

‘What is the question?’

She could feel the tension in him as he waited for her to speak.

‘Since I saw you last I have heard things,’ Lucinda said. She looked around, keeping her voice low. ‘I have heard that it is Sir John Norton who is the traitor and French spy whom Owen Chance currently seeks, not the notorious Daniel de Lancey—though de Lancey is still a wanted man. And some say—’ she lowered her voice still further ‘—that de Lancey is not even a pirate, but a privateer secretly in the pay of the government.’ She glanced up and caught the look of brilliant intensity in his eyes. ‘What do you say to that, sir?’

Daniel’s hands tightened on her waist for a moment and he bent his head close to hers. ‘I say that you should forget you heard those words,’ he said softly. ‘It might have been true once, but not now. Not any more. Now I am a wanted man.’

Their eyes met. His were restless and heated, and there was something there that stole her breath.

‘Don’t ask any more questions about me,’ he said. ‘It is too dangerous.’

Lucinda’s heart pounded. ‘But I have to know—’

He touched a finger to her lips in a fleeting gesture, and she felt the echo of that touch through her whole body.

‘You are too loyal,’ he said, ‘and too passionate, Lucy.’

Lucinda shook her head. ‘No! If I have misjudged you—’

He did not let her finish. ‘You did not,’ he said. ‘Not in any way that matters. I am sorry, Lucy, but I am not the man you would wish me to be.’

Lucinda understood at once what he meant. She had wanted to exonerate him, to think him true and good and honourable. But he was refusing to allow that, and she knew there was no going back for them—no matter what the truth was. Too much had changed.

‘But for tonight,’ Daniel said, ‘I wish it were not so. I never thought to say it, but I wish I could turn back the clock.’

His words silenced Lucinda for a moment, bringing a longing so potent that she could not speak. It was madness, yet instinct deeper than reason, deeper than sense, made her want this man with every bone in her body. She fought the primitive urge that beat in her blood. The touch of his hands burned her through the silk of her dress, the brush of his thighs against her skirt distracted her, making her want to press closer with a shameless, wanton longing. She almost missed her step, and his hands tightened for a second.

In this moment, she thought, in this one dance, she would forget all that had come between them and give herself up to the here and now. Soon, she knew, Daniel would be gone, and this brief time would be no more than a dream. She closed her eyes and allowed the music to sweep her up, and thought of nothing but the pleasure of being in his arms.

‘Why do you wear that foolish turban?’ he asked softly, his breath brushing her ear. ‘I want to see your hair, touch it like I did that night in the moonlight…’