Chapter 3 #2
Which she very nearly managed to do, that was until she reached the side-path to find it blocked.
“Leaving so soon?” Duke Blackthorne stood in the middle of the path. It was a narrow path, hardly wide enough for two people to walk down, and his shoulders made it seem even smaller than that. “I suppose it is too much to hope that you were coming to find me?”
“Your Grace!” Celestine gasped as she stumbled to a halt. “What are you…” She took a step back. “What are you doing here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” he said. “Waiting for you. I thought to approach you earlier, but I did not wish to frighten you. Although…” He chuckled. “Perhaps lurking in wait like this might have a similar effect.”
Celestine had tried so hard all week not to think about the Duke.
His proposal was one thing, and she had already dismissed it as nonsense. But the man… the effect he had one her… that was nowhere near as easy a thing to ignore.
He stood ten feet down the path, but it was as if he stood right over her. So tall and so imposing, his grey eyes locking onto her so that she could not look away; she felt suddenly trapped and powerless in ways that she hated.
Her mind turned back to last week. Again, not the proposal, but what happened after. How he had stepped into her, pressed himself against her, and then nibbled her earlobe as if to prove just how easy it was for him to take control and dominate her, if he so wished it.
Worse still… it wasn’t nearly as terrible a moment as Celestine liked to believe. Not even a little bit…
“You should not be here,” she said as she glanced over her shoulder to make sure that they were alone.
“Shall we enter the party together?” he asked simply. “Although, I do wonder what people will say if they see us together.”
“I do not mean…” She shook her head to clear it. “If I had anything to say to you, I would have said it. That should be answer enough.”
“Oh, I do not believe that at all.” He started to walk toward her, slow and purposeful steps.
“The thing is, I know your type, Miss Celestine Hargrave. Stubborn to a fault, you would be happy to close your eyes and ignore the walls crumbling around you rather than admit that they might bury you alive. To not speak to you again would be to do myself a disservice.”
“My answer is no,” she said but with little conviction. “Now, leave me alone.”
He stopped five feet away and tilted his head as he studied her. The smirk did not leave his lips, nor did the smile fade from his eyes. “I saw you speaking with Lord Grundon just now. That looked friendly.”
“It was nothing.”
“You believe that to be the case,” he said. “But does Lord Grundon? You think I am persistent? Wait until you see how Lord Grundon treats those who he has his eye on. And from how he looked at you…” He clicked his tongue mockingly. “You best be careful.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“You believe that you can,” he said. “Again, that is your problem. You want to live your life how you see fit while refusing to admit that your life is not your own. For so long as you are single and available, men like Lord Grundon will pursue you. And sooner or later you will have no choice but to give in.”
“And what of you?” she challenged. “How are you different?”
“I have told you what I want,” he said. “One month is all I require. One month and your life will be your own. You want freedom? You want the right to do as you wish and how you wish it? Tell the world that we are engaged. Do as I ask.”
“No,” she said, but again, it was without conviction. “I will not be used by you.”
“Let us use one another…” He took another step toward her, and then another. Celestine tried to hold her ground, just as she tried to look up and meet the Duke’s eyes, but her knees trembled with fear… and something else.
Her mind flashed back to last week. She wanted to believe that she hated how the Duke had forced himself on her.
She wanted to cry out and scream for help!
But deep down, in places that she refused to admit, her body yearned for a touch that was as powerful as it was…
no! Do not think that way, Celestine! Do not be so weak.
“How can I trust you?” she found herself asked. “How can I know that if I say yes, you won’t change your mind and for me to marry you? To trap me.”
“Because I want to marry you even less than you do me.” He took another step forward, towering over her like a mountain that blotted out the sky. “To fall in love? To live happily ever after? These are dreams wasted on the idealistic.”
Celestine looked up at the Duke. She met his eyes. She searched for the lie in them, the deceit that she knew had to be there. Only… she could not find it.
There was a good reason that this last week had been so utterly tragic. Time and again, Celestine had been reminded of how wrong she had been about her place in the world. She was not her own person. She had no power whatsoever. And like it or not, her life was not hers to control.
The Duke’s words were a little too convenient. They were, in truth, exactly what she wanted to hear. And if he was telling her the truth, then doing as he asked might just give her what she always wanted…
“I… I…” She stammered as she felt her walls crumble. “I only want to know that you won’t go back on your word.”
“All I can do is give you my word,” he said. “But say yes…” He took a final step into her. “You want this, Miss Celestine. I know that you do.”
She felt him piercing through her final defense. It shattered and fell and left her exposed so that she had nowhere else to hide. He stood over her, she was completely in his power, and try as she might, she could not fight it.
“All right,” she sighed and bowed her head. “I will… I will do as you ask.”
“Good,” he said. “I am glad to hear it.”
“Please, just don’t make me regret it.”
He reached down and his finger found her chin. He raised her head so that she looked up at him. That same smirk was on his lips, one of utter satisfaction and while Celestine wanted to hate that look, and despise the man who wore it, she felt something else burning deep within…
Her eyes flicked to his lips. She caught her breath. Her body trembled. Alone as they were, now engaged, she started to wonder if the Duke might prove to her just how much power he truly had…
“You will be hearing from me, Miss Celestine,” he said in a whisper. “Know that this was a good decision, one that you are sure to not regret.”
Then he dropped her chin, straightened, and stepped around her.
Celestine gasped as he walked away, the feeling as if something was being torn from her body. She turned just in time to see him vanish around the corner, and while she was glad to see him go, she was just as disappointed.
Celestine did her best to convince herself that she had done the right thing. She had no choice. This was the only way. Yet, she could not escape the feeling that she had walked just willingly into a trap of some kind.
Worse still, that there was no way out.