Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“So you three really are not related at all?” William asked, his voice cutting through the swell of the violins as he guided her smoothly into the first turn of the waltz. “Not even distant relatives?”
One, two, three. One, two, three.
Seraphina kept the rhythm marching like soldiers through her mind, her eyes fixed firmly on the pin nestled in his cravat.
To her immense surprise, navigating the floor in his arms was vastly simpler than she had anticipated.
In fact, once she surrendered to the cadence of the steps, it was remarkably easy.
Easier than the lessons had been.
“No,” Seraphina answered smoothly, executing a seamless pivot as he effortlessly steered her around a lingering couple.
“We are not related by blood. But blood is merely a biological marker, William. In every metric that truly matters, Leonora, Euphemia, and I are sisters. The affection between us exceeds that of many biological families.”
“That is remarkable. Your bond is quite something,” he said.
“Well, it is not difficult to forge a bond when you are forged in the exact same furnace of misfortune,” she replied.
“You may have heard whispers, but our fathers were business associates. They pooled their entire fortunes into a single, high-risk merchant venture.” She paused as he drew her through a sweeping turn.
“The venture collapsed overnight. Total ruin.”
William’s expression softened. “Yes. I heard of it back then. It was all everyone really talked about for a while.”
“One night, they stayed out,” Seraphina murmured, looking past his shoulder into the expanse of the ballroom.
“Drinking away the shock, I suppose. It happened to be one of the most brutal blizzards in London’s recorded history.
The cold was unforgiving and they spent the night, drunk and out in the street.
All three of them perished on the same night, leaving three separate households thrown into utter chaos. ”
“Good God,” William muttered softly.
“Lady Byron stepped into the wreckage,” Seraphina continued.
“She knew my mother before she passed, and when the creditors seized my father’s estate, I had no close relatives to claim me.
I was facing an asylum or a parish workhouse.
Lady Byron took me in. She did the same for Euphemia and Leonora through similar connections.
We grew up under one roof, bound by shared ruin and salvaged by one woman’s formidable, if eccentric, benevolence. ”
William watched her face closely. “It sounds like an extraordinary, taxing way to grow up.”
“I will admit it was unconventional,” Seraphina said, a fond smile warming her expression.
“If I were to detail the chaos of our childhood, we would be dancing until dawn. But I am profoundly grateful. Lady Byron gave me unrestricted access to her vast library. I fell in love with reading because she refused to lock her study doors. Most importantly, I gained my sisters. I would do anything to protect them. For years, they were my entire world.”
“You say ‘were’,” William noted, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Has something changed?”
“Well... my world appears to be expanding. There is you. There is Alice. There is Norwyn Manor and the staff. I can no longer claim that my sisters are my only anchor.”
The softest of smiles laced William’s face. His hand resting at the small of her back tightened noticeably... almost possessively as he pulled her a fraction of an inch closer against his chest, sweeping her through a long glide across the parquet.
“I am glad to hear you say that,” he murmured softly.
Seraphina cleared her throat instantly, her cheeks suddenly aflame as she hurriedly resurrected her mental cadence.
One, two, three. One, two, three.
“Tell me, Seraphina,” William said, breaking her focus once more, a dangerous smile playing on his lips. “Are you not the least bit curious about the theory I mentioned earlier? The one I intend to prove?”
Seraphina tilted her head, maintaining her posture. “Ah, yes. I don’t think you told me exactly what that theory is.”
“I believe you are attracted to me,” he stated plainly.
Seraphina’s foot caught the hem of her inner petticoat. Her knee buckled, a gasp slipping from her lips as her balance completely vanished.
Before she could fall, William’s grip turned to iron. His hand on her waist caught her weight seamlessly, his arm locking her against his frame so smoothly that to any onlooker in the ballroom, it appeared as nothing more than a dramatic, swooping flourish of the dance.
“Careful,” William murmured near her ear, his breath warm against her skin as he effortlessly restored her to her feet without missing a single beat of the music. “I anticipated you might lose your footing at that declaration, so I was already prepared to catch you.”
Seraphina opened her mouth, her eyes wide with mounting indignation, but William cut her off before she could speak.
“I know precisely what you are about to say,” he continued smoothly.
“You are about to deliver a highly structured lecture denying it. You will claim it is environmental stress, or nerves, or the size of the crowd. But I am a businessman, Seraphina. I did not rebuild the Norwyn fortunes by ignoring clear, recurring patterns.”
He looked down at her with penetrating intensity.
“I took full control of my father’s estate when I was barely out of my youth, so much so that men called me the Duke in all but title long before his passing.
A man does not succeed at that level without an exceptional ability to read human behavior.
I know when a person is pulling away out of dislike, and I know when they are pulling away because they are terrified of what they feel.
I strongly believe you are developing an acute interest in me, and your vehement denial of it only confirms my hypothesis. ”
Seraphina stopped trying to march her feet to one, two, three. She stared up at him, her mind completely reeling under his relentless, confident scrutiny.
“So, what are you saying?” she asked.
“You are attracted to me,” he answered, searching her eyes.
As soon as the words left his mouth, a blinding light shattered the confusion in her brain.
‘Of course!’ she thought, a wave of relief washing over her internally. ‘What an utter fool I have been!’
As a woman dedicated to the application of empirical science, she had committed the most cardinal error a scholar could make.
Bias.
She had been so terrified of breaking her personal vow, so utterly consumed by the dread of falling into the illogical, messy trap of romantic love, that she had locked herself into a binary line of thinking. She had assumed it was either a terminal heart ailment or romantic love.
It was neither.
She had completely overlooked the intermediate biological phase.
Attraction.
According to standard natural philosophy and human behavioral texts, human interaction progressed through distinct, measurable stages.
Initial sensory attraction, emotional bonding, and deep attachment.
She was not in a state of romantic love at all.
She was simply experiencing high-level physiological attraction.
An entirely basic, primal bodily function triggered by an exceptionally well-built male specimen.
It explained everything. It explained why she had felt the sudden urge to hug him when he promised to protect her.
It explained why her pulse spiked when his hand rested on her waist. Attraction was merely a temporary reaction, an involuntary response to a handsome man.
The best part about simple physical attraction was that it was finite.
It was an urge that could be acknowledged, managed, and eventually neutralized.
“I think you are right,” Seraphina interrupted clearly.
William’s eyebrows pulled together, a look of profound shock breaking through his usual cool demeanor. “I beg your pardon?”
“I think you are entirely correct,” Seraphina reiterated, a radiant smile blooming across her face as they drifted toward the edge of the floor. “I do find you attractive.”
William blinked, his grip on her hand slackening slightly as he stared at her, utterly caught off guard. “You... you admit it?”
Merely thinking he was handsome or appreciating his gentlemanly character would never account for the severity of her physiological reactions.
But a strong, baseline physical attraction?
It accounted for the elevated heart rate, the localized heat beneath her skin, and her subconscious impulse to maintain distance simply to avoid sensory overload.
She had been jumping to absurd, dramatic conclusions, terrifying herself with the dread of emotional entanglements when the simple answer had been right in front of her all along.
It was not love, nor was it some mysterious heart ailment.
It was a transient pull. It was completely temporary, and like any other physical phase, it would pass in due time.
She took a deep, utterly euphoric breath, feeling as light as air. The suffocating weight that had rested on her chest for weeks vanished completely. She was not losing her mind, nor was she falling in love.
“Thank you, William!” she said earnestly, taking his hand and giving it a vigorous, grateful squeeze. “You have no idea what a profound service you have just rendered me! You diagnosed it brilliantly. You truly are remarkable!”
William stood utterly frozen in the middle of the ballroom, looking down at her with an expression of baffled bewilderment. “I... I am confused.”
“Oh, do not be confused at all! You solved it!” Seraphina beamed, patting his arm cheerfully. “Now, if you will excuse me, all this revelation has made me terribly parched. I am going to procure a glass of punch.”
Without waiting for his reply, Seraphina turned on her heel and scurried toward the refreshment tables with a light, bounding step, leaving William standing alone on the edge of the dance floor, entirely speechless.