I could feel his eyes on me like a caress. All through the ceremony, through the lengthy photographic shoot, through dinner and speeches and now, when the dancing had begun, I could still feel them on me. It wasn’t an unpleasant sensation, although from the outside looking in it might seem a bit stalker-ish. On the contrary, it soothed me, despite the turmoil I felt inside me, and wasn’t that just messed up. I should feel nothing towards him, I should still be angry at him, but having him watch me all day had gone a long way to calming my anger towards him. I felt things in his stare, things that I wasn’t quite ready to acknowledge, things I wasn’t quite ready to believe, but still he stared at me, whether I was ready to acknowledge them or not.

I wasn’t the only one who had noticed his undivided attention on me. Jeanette had given me knowing looks herself, some with raised eyebrows and others narrowed in censure. I knew she wanted me to talk to him, to hear the full story, but I was still recovering from the heartbreak of finding out the truth about our first date and I wasn’t keen to take any more beatings.

I tried to pay attention to the ceremony and the speeches and everything else, but always, in the back of my mind, was Dom and what we had begun to build - or rather, what I thought we had begun to build. Was it truly all fake? As much as my logical brain wanted to say yes, my heart disagreed. The way he held me, the way he kissed me, the way he looked at me, that couldn’t all be pretend, could it? Was Dom that good of an actor that he could convince me that he was falling in love with me?

I shook my head to dispel the thought. Dom didn’t love me. He may like me, but he couldn’t love me. I was a shrew, I knew I was and in fact had cultivated the perception because I hadn’t wanted anyone getting too close. Piérre had hurt me, my father had hurt me and I was determined to not let another man hurt me too. But then I fell for Dom and I had forgotten the pain that came when someone turned out to be not who you thought they were. I would never have thought that Dom, straight laced, upright, disapproving Dom would ever take part in a ruse, but once again I had been proved wrong.

No. Dom didn’t love me and I would be smart to remember that. I would do what Jeanette suggested and I would listen to what he had to say, but I would also walk away and cut him out of my life. Now that I wouldn’t be working with him, well, not as closely as we had been, it would be easy to do. I would still have to see him, that couldn’t be avoided, but the pain would lessen and soon enough this misplaced love that I felt would become indifference. I didn’t want to hate him, hate was far too close to love for my liking, indifference was what I would strive for. Indifference couldn’t hurt me.

“Lady Beaumonde,” a voice said behind me and I turned, my heart in my throat, but it wasn’t Dom, it was Louis.

“Mr Furore,” I replied, thankful that my voice didn’t give away my pounding heart.

“May I have this dance?” he held out his arm to me and I was at a loss as to how to refuse politely.

With a tight smile I took his arm and he led me onto the dance floor. As we waltzed, he smiled at me, but it didn’t reach his eyes, they were sad.

“I have so much to apologise for,” he said and I couldn’t look him in the eye.

“No,” I said, “You don’t.”

He sighed, “But I do. You only heard part of the conversation, the part where I was trying to get Dom to give me something. It was in poor taste to use you like that.”

I looked up at him them. “Is that what you do then? Use people?”

He looked over my shoulder and grimaced. “Unfortunately, up until now, it is the only way I’ve known how to get what I want.” He looked at me then. “Do you know how hard it has been to grow up in the shadow of perfect Dom? If not for my schemes, my father would hardly know I’m alive.”

I didn’t want to feel a camaraderie with him, but I did understand how he felt. Bianca had always been the perfect child with her good looks and her sweet nature. If not for the fact that I had been able to get my father out of debt, I would have been no use to him at all.

“Although I understand where you are coming from, scheming is not really going to do you much good in the long run. Look at my own father for an example or Piérre for that matter. Both of those men used schemes to get what they wanted and now look were they ended up; one in jail and the other practically exiled.”

“I know,” he said with a resigned sigh, “But the one thing I regret more than anything is having come between you and Dom. I know you probably won’t believe me, but he is in love with you.”

I wanted to believe him, I really did, but my heart was too sore, too gun-shy to believe.

“And how do you feel about my sister?” I asked to change the subject.

His smile became wistful. “I am truly enamoured with her,” he said, his voice soft.

“You are both young yet…”

“Oh, I know,” he said, smiling down at me, “And we are taking things slow, but she is special to me.”

I smiled at him for the first time. “Take care of her,” I said, “She is not only young, but a little naïve and I know you would never take advantage of that.”

He chuckled, “Of course not, Lady Priscilla, especially when I know I will have you to contend with if I hurt her.”

After dancing with Louis, I danced a few more dances with different men and I finally began to relax. It was at that point that I realised that Dom was no longer in the room. I suppose I should have felt it the moment his eyes were no longer on me, but it wasn’t until I curtsied to my last dance partner that I felt the absence and I didn’t know what to make of it.

I was momentarily distracted when Bianca approached me. I hadn’t seen her all day apart from a passing glance and as she spoke to me now, I saw that something was wrong.

“Are you okay?” I asked, concern for her distracting me from wondering where Dom had disappeared to.

“No,” she said, “Not really.”

“What is it? What happened?”

She looked furtively around the room. “Can we go somewhere to talk?” she asked, “Or do you need to stay?”

I looked to see Alyssa dancing in the arms of her new husband, her eyes closed and a look of complete contentment on her face and smiled.

“No, it’s okay, I can come now,” I said.

Bianca grabbed my hand and pulled me out onto the terrace. The cool spring air was refreshing after the stuffiness of the ballroom and I breathed deeply. Bianca kept walking along the length of the terrace and then down the stone steps and into the rose garden. The path was lit with fairy lights draped around the rose bushes and I regretted not coming out here earlier to admire the effect. Bianca didn’t stop to take in the beauty of it, but determinedly walked down the gravel path, dragging me in her wake.

“Slow down, Bianca,” I said, “What’s the rush?”

She didn’t answer me, but she did slow, somewhat.

“So what is it, what’s going on?”

“Not here,” she said.

I rolled my eyes and let her lead me down the path and around the corner until we came to the grotto that I always thought of as mine and Dom’s. I looked away from the opening, hoping we would walk right passed it, but Bianca unceremoniously shoved me through it and into the grotto. I turned to scold her for her rough treatment, but she was gone. Slowly I looked around and I knew, before laying eyes on him, that Dom was here.

“I’m sorry for the ruse to get you here,” he said sheepishly, “But I didn’t think you would come if I asked.”

The grotto had been decorated with tea light candles that flickered in coloured glass jars. Colourful cushions were scattered on the stone bench and bunches of roses sat in vases around the small space. I took it all in, the whole romance of it and my heart started to beat faster. I wasn’t ready for this, I wasn’t prepared. I turned to flee, but Dom reached out and gently took hold of my hand, our palms making contact and our fingers entwining. The contact shot through me like a bolt of lightning and stopped me in my tracks.

“Please don’t go,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper, “Not yet, not until I tell you a story.”

I turned around slowly to face him. “A story?”

He nodded. “If you don’t like the story, you can leave, but please, just stay until the end.”

He didn’t let go of my hand and when I didn’t immediately leave the grotto, he led me over to the bench and we sat, our bodies angled towards one another.

“Once upon a time,” he said, “There was a boy. He was not rich, but he had an important job to do in the Palace and it made him feel rich. He took his job seriously, too seriously, and derived his identity from it. He liked that the King and Queen would call on him and seek out his opinion and knowledge on important things. And then one day, the King died and the Queen was replaced with her daughter. The new Queen was young and idealistic and the boy liked the new Queen, but she didn’t call on him like the previous King and Queen and, in fact, she brought in her own advisor. Well, of course, the boy was hurt and outraged that she would supplant him with someone who didn’t have the experience that he had, someone who had not dedicated their life to the learning and education that he had. It made him bitter and when the boy finally met the usurper, he was so tangled up with jealousy and bitterness that he made an instant enemy of her. The girl had done nothing to attract his ire, but faced with his enmity, she had no choice but to reply in kind.”

I listened raptly to the story he was weaving. I could understand why he and I had been at odds from the moment we met, I had known it deep inside me. Of course he would feel put out by me, especially when he’d had such a close relationship to the Prince before he died.

“And then his brother came to town,” Dom continued his story, “And the boy had so much trouble keeping the brother in line that they struck a bargain. He would distract the Queen’s new favourite while his brother could date her sister.”

I gasped. That was what had been behind the bargain? Louis had wanted to date Bianca. Now that I looked back on it, it was surprising that I had missed the signs.

“The boy agreed, reluctantly. He happened upon the girl outside the theatre and suggested they see a play together. By the time the play was finished, the boy didn’t want the evening to end, so he suggested they find somewhere to share a meal. It no longer had anything to do with keeping the girl distracted while his brother met with her sister, it was simply a case of the boy wanting to spend more time with her. By the end of the night he was in thrall with her.”

“Oh Dom,” I said, reaching up to place my hand on his cheek. “Is that the truth.”

“Priscilla,” he breathed, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them again and looking into mine. “I didn’t want to feel anything for you. I had spent five years mourning my wife and didn’t ever expect to fall in love again. After that first night, something changed within me, you changed something within me. I don’t know the exact moment I fell in love with you, but I do know when I realised it and that was when I thought I’d lost you. Seeing you go into the water, pulling you out and discovering that you weren’t breathing, they were the most terrifying moments of my life and I knew then that I couldn’t live without you. I told you then, when they managed to get you breathing again, that I loved you, but I don’t think you were in any state to acknowledge it.”

My mind flashed with images of that day. I had lost sections of time and didn’t remember a lot of what happened, but somewhere inside me, what Dom was saying resonated with me.

“So, I’m going to say it now. I love you. I don’t care that we only got to this point because of my lame brother, I don’t care that our first date was a ruse because without it, without that subterfuge, I would never have gotten to know you, the real you, not the one you portray to the world.”

I should be angry with him, he hurt me, but I couldn’t help but feel… happy. Dom loved me.

Suddenly he was on his knee before me and was holding out a ring box opened to display a flawless solitaire diamond ring.

“I love you Priscilla and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Please say you will marry me.”

My heart leaped in my chest and my lungs seized. Was he really proposing to me? I needed to pinch myself to make sure what was happening was real.

“Come on sweetheart,” he said, “Of all the times for you to be speechless, this is the worst. Don’t leave me hanging.”

I took his face between my palms and placed a kiss on his lips before whispering. “Yes.”

He stood up and gathered me to him, lifting my feet from the ground and twirling me around the small grotto.

“I love you Dom,” I said.

He placed me back on the ground and slid the ring out of the box, taking my hand and sliding it onto my finger. Then he kissed me, his lips sliding over mine, his arms wrapping around me and making feel safe and loved and wanted.

“I love you too, Priscilla, so very much.”