SHE DANCED ALONE IN THE EMPTY BALLROOM AFTER MIDNIGHT-UNAWARE THE DUKE WAS WATCHING

her. She had learned to move quietly. She set her basket of fresh lilies on the small table by the wall and began to lift the wilted ones from the tall vase.

Their stems had gone brown at the base and smelled sweet in the way that old flowers smell—sweet and a little wrong. She laid them in the basket and did not look at the Duke.

“You danced last night,continue reading …