A Lady for a Duke

by Alexis Hall

beyond their capacity to confront. “And it wasn’t nothing.” The words rushed through her like the waves at their feet. “Don’t you dare believe it was nothing. I know what I did, and I know what it cost—I know what it cost us both, and I did it anyway.” And all at once, the fury was gone, leaving her shipwrecked on the shores of her choices. Hardly knowing what she was doing, she pressed her hands against his chest. “You were everything to me, Gracewood. My oldest, closest, most beloved friend. Your happiness was my happiness. Where you led, I followed with all my heart. I would have died for you—and I nearly did—but I could not live for you.” Another silence, full of the restless silk of the sea as it swept back and forth across the sand. Her fingers curled into his waistcoat—clinging to him as a climber might, bloodying her nails against a cliff face. She felt the near-brush of his palms as his own hands lifted and then fell again. “I did not know,” he said at last. She stepped away, her hands heavy and ugly in their too-tight gloves. “You could not have known.” “I wish to… I wish to now. I’m trying to understand.” The way he was looking at her—confused and sincere and still so utterly betrayed. “But how am I to forgive you?” It