Lady of Providence by Ellie St. Clair

Author:Ellie St. Clair
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2019-05-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

WHAT HAD SHE just done?

Elizabeth had had full intentions of telling Gabriel tonight that they could no longer see one another, that their time together must come to an end. And then she had found herself being ravished once more in the very same garden as she had years ago! Was there some sort of potion within the scent of these lilies that caused her to lose her senses? Or was it Gabriel himself?

Elizabeth was rubbing at her forehead, perplexed at all that had just occurred, when she walked back into the party room, looking around for Gabriel, but it seemed he had vanished. Instead, Sarah found her.

“Elizabeth?” she asked, looking up into her face. “Is something… amiss?”

“Everything,” Elizabeth said with a rueful laugh.

“Oh dear,” Sarah responded, biting her lip. “The Duke just wandered through here looking rather pleased before he made his excuses and left for the evening. Our host was quite agitated, though the Duke assured him it was nothing of his doing, but instead complimented him on his beautiful gardens. I don’t suppose…”

“That I ruined myself once more, with the same man, in the same place?” Elizabeth asked, arching an eyebrow, and when Sarah looked worried, she waved her hand in the air with a little laugh.

“It’s fine, Sarah, it is a legitimate concern. Particularly because that is nearly what happened.”

“You and the Duke…” Sarah breathed, and Elizabeth sighed in response, looking for a drink much stronger than her previously untouched lemonade. Finding a glass of champagne, she took it in hand and tilted it back, emptying half the contents of the glass.

“I don’t know what happened,” Elizabeth said, lifting her hands in front of her, the golden liquid sloshing in the long glass, threatening to spill over the edges, but she was too agitated to care.

“I had every intention of telling him that I no longer had any wish to be together, that we would have to spend our time apart, with the exception of business meetings. But then… but then… he was kind and understanding, and I allowed my emotions and my attraction to him to overcome all else. Oh, Sarah, I am falling for him once more, and I have no idea what to do.”

Elizabeth sank heavily into a chair at the side of the room, and Sarah took the seat next to her in a far more graceful manner.

“Why are you so upset?”

“Pardon?” Elizabeth asked, turning toward her, puzzled.

“I only mean that, perhaps, this might be a good thing,” Sarah said with a shrug. “Perhaps you and the Duke might find that you are no longer the same people you were years ago and that if you explored this attraction for one another further, you might be very well suited for one another.”

Elizabeth was already shaking her head before Sarah finished speaking. She couldn’t give in—she wouldn’t. She had decided that she could not be with him for a multitude of reasons, and tonight only further proved why it would be a disastrous decision.

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