Chapter Twelve #2
Angelina looked over the elegantly arranged space with the same sparkle of joy that had lit her face all night. “You have thought of everything.”
“Anything at all for my two favorite people.” He looked from Angelina to Felicity, winking again.
“Why do you keep doing that?” Only after the question spilled without warning from her lips did she realize how potentially accusatory or rude or displeased she might sound.
William didn’t appear offended. “Keep doing what?”
“Winking at me.”
He laughed quietly. “If you aren’t sure, I will simply have to keep doing it until you are.”
That was all the explanation she received before the demands of hosting pulled his attention in dozens of directions.
He still managed to fill a plate for her and make certain she was well fed while he saw to his duties.
He even made time to speak with Angelina, telling her more than once how happy he was to see her enjoying herself.
His was a good heart. Felicity would count herself fortunate to have a claim on any part of it.
“Have you spoken with him?” Angelina asked in a whisper after William was pulled away by yet another guest.
“I’ve hardly had the opportunity for more than two words with him at any one time,” she said.
“But ample time for warm glances between the two of you.”
Felicity bit back a smile, though she felt certain her blush was obvious to anyone watching. “He has been winking at me.”
“Has he?”
She nodded. “And he insists I ought to know why he’s doing so. I know the ‘why’ I would like to be true, but I am hesitant.”
“The time for hesitancy has passed, Felicity.” Angelina motioned with her head toward William, making his way with frequent interruptions back to where she sat. “Seize your future, my dear sister. It is a surer thing than you realize.”
He reached her and took his seat. “I am proving a horrible partner for supper, I’m afraid.”
“You are making me doubt your self-professed talent for eating.”
He chuckled. “I am beginning to doubt it myself.”
She leaned the tiniest bit closer. “I had hoped to speak with you, William. I am rather anxious to, in fact.”
Worry tugged at his brow. “Is anything the matter?”
“No.” At least she hoped not.
“I suspect our only hope of an uninterrupted conversation is to make an escape,” he said. “That, however, would bring down on our heads the judgment of essentially everyone here.”
That was a delicate aspect of their situation. Should they both slip out, whispers would be unavoidable. She didn’t wish to mar the evening or either of their reputations.
“Perhaps tomorrow, then. Of course, Angelina will likely be entirely exhausted and in need of assistance. In a day or two, she should, I hope, regain her strength. Perhaps we might speak then.” Her heart dropped.
Two or three more days without seeing him or speaking with him.
Not only would she struggle to keep her courage up, but she would also miss him.
“Perhaps you might call on us, provided Angelina is equal to having visitors.”
He dipped his head to someone across the table, offered another silent acknowledgment to someone else, then, under his breath, said to her, “After supper, do you think you could quietly slip out to the east terrace?”
She had spent enough of her childhood at Carlisle Manor to know the small balcony he referred to—one off the family wing. It was a public location, but an isolated one.
“I could,” she said. “We would have to be very careful.”
“We will be.”
Enough winding and weaving ensued as the guests returned to the ballroom that Felicity was able to easily slip away down a corridor to a family staircase. The wing was dim, but she knew the area well. Arriving on the terrace was not overly difficult.
She did not have to wait long. William joined her on the terrace, arriving from a seldom-used room in the family wing.
The full moon provided enough light to faintly illuminate him.
Though she was nervous about the conversation that awaited them, the sight of him brought her comfort and a feeling of deep contentment.
Their eyes met. He didn’t look away. Neither did he speak. The tiniest smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“William.” It was all she could say. Too much filled her heart and spun about in her mind. “William.”
He closed the distance between them. “I’ve been anxious for a moment with you. I’m glad you suggested it.”
“Angelina says I need to stop being a ninny.” It was not the sophisticated beginning to this all-important conversation she would have liked, but it was sincere.
“Leonard has been telling me much the same thing.” He took her hand and, to her pleased surprise, raised it to his lips.
“Fate, I am told, would not have crossed our paths in London if it hadn’t intended to bring us together.
” He brushed a soft and tender kiss over her knuckles.
“But Fate can’t do everything for us.” He kissed her fingers once more before enveloping her hand between his.
“Have I reason to hope, my dear friend, that there might someday be more between us than friendship?”
She set her free hand against his chest. “Clandestine meetings and stolen kisses would indicate there already is.”
His arm slipped around her, even as he kept her hand warmly clasped in his other one. “Kissing your fingers is not as scandalous as you seem to think.”
“Perhaps I was making a prediction rather than offering a summary.”
She felt his laughter rumble beneath her palm. “I like this coquettish side of you, Felicity.”
“Like?” Not merely a hint flirtatious, she found herself shockingly bold.
“I haven’t the talent for pretty speeches that I wish I did,” he said quietly.
“I don’t need speeches, William. I don’t need poetry or Shakespearean wordplay. I simply need to know if you— if you love me the way . . . the way I love you.”
Shock, joy, and hope filled his face in an instant. “You love me?”
Felicity had promised Angelina she wouldn’t lose her courage, and she didn’t mean to break that vow. “I do love you.”
William rested his head against the top of hers, both his arms now wrapped around her. “I came here prepared to plead for some hope that you might, one day, learn to love me, ready to offer my heart with no promise of being granted any bit of yours.”
“I spoke the words, William. You needn’t offer them elegantly, but I do need to hear them.”
He kissed her forehead. “I love you, Felicity. I love you deeply, with all my heart.”
She bent her neck, looking up into his eyes. “If only you’d come home sooner, darling. We might’ve managed this moment without breaking so many rules.”
His smile blossomed. “Where would be the excitement in that?”
“I believe we could find a way of making the moment sufficiently exciting.”
He arched an eyebrow. “I am certain we could.”
She slid her hand from its place on his chest, over his collar, along his neck, and cupped his jaw. He tightened his arm around her, bringing her flush with him.
“We truly are breaking rules tonight,” she whispered.
His voice equally quiet and husky in its breathlessness, he said, “Let’s break one more.”
Their lips met without a hint of the hesitancy that had marked their arrival on the terrace. She folded her arms about his neck, clinging to him and the moment. He held her with equal amounts of tenderness and earnestness.
A perfect and wonderful moment.