He caught a glimpse of ivory disappearing into the darkness of the orangery and quickened his step.
Inside the sweetly fragrant glasshouse, Cordelia moved unerringly down the third alley, her feet clicking on the stone floor. Braziers were lit even on such a mild night, coddling the rare orchids, the exotic fruit trees, the lush grape vines in the arbor.
"Christian? Are you here?" Her voice sounded unnaturally loud in the silence as she came to the end of the aisle and looked around in the semidarkness.
"Here." Christian stepped from behind a palm tree. His face was pale in the gloom. "Is it true? You're to go to France, to marry some Prussian prince?"
"Yes," she said softly, "but listen. Why don't you accompany me? You can find a new patron at Versailles and be your own master, not a pupil any longer. If I can persuade the empress to release you, as a sort of wedding present, then you'll be free of Poligny."
"But even if the empress does release me, I have no money. How can I make the journey?"
"Why do you always look for difficulties?" Cordelia said impatiently, punching his arm with her small fist. "We'll manage something."
Christian still looked doubtful, but turned the subject to Cordelia's concerns. "Is this him?" He poked the miniature pinned to her dress with a fingertip, as if it were something disgusting or harmful.
"Yes. I have to wear it." She tipped it up and peered down at it. "Do you think I shall like him?"
Christian examined the miniature more closely. "He looks hard. But perhaps that's just the portrait," he added hastily, anxious to reassure her. "People always look too composed in portraits."
"Mmm." It was Cordelia's turn to look doubtful. "I wonder if he'll like me."
"Of course he will. How could anyone not like you?" He hugged her tightly to him. "I'm going to miss you so."
"No, you're not," she mumbled against his chest. "Because you're coming too."
"Are you both insane?"
Christian jumped back with a startled cry, his hands falling from her body. He stared over Cordelia's head into the pale glimmer of Viscount Kierston's face.
"Of all the stupid, reckless things to do. Lady Cordelia is betrothed; the palace is crawling with guards, officials, guests. And the two of you kiss and cuddle among the orange trees like a pair of village simpletons!"
Cordelia stared at him, forgetting the strange effect he had on her in her resentment at this furious and bewildering castigation. "We weren't doing anything of the kind, as it happens. Not that it's any of your business what I do," she stated, as Christian was still trying to recover his wits.
"You forget. I am to stand proxy for your husband," he said curtly. "That makes your business very much mine, my lady. And most particularly when it leads to this kind of self-indulgent idiocy. Have you given any thought to what would happen if you were discovered?" He stared at them, anger fading to exasperation. "What a pair of foolish children you are."
He turned to the still tongue-tied Christian and said more kindly, "Be off with you, now. Your business here is done. If you wish to do Cordelia a favor, you'll keep out of her way until she leaves here. It will be easier on both of you." A smile glimmered in the dimness and he patted
Christian's shoulder. "First love hurts, I know. But it does ease.
Christian looked blankly at the man who he assumed was Viscount Kierston, since he'd said he was Cordelia's proxy husband. But he seemed to have taken hold of the wrong end of the stick. Christian cleared his throat and said, "Of course I love Cordelia, sir, she's my best friend. But we're not in love, if that's what you're implying."
"No," Cordelia agreed tartly. "We were simply having a friendly conversation."
"A friendly conversation at dead of night, locked in each other's arms in a secluded orangery!" Leo scoffed. "What kind of a fool do you take me for?"
"One who's blind as a bat," Cordelia retorted. "Christian was just hugging me."
"I think I'd better go," Christian said, reading Leo's incredulity without difficulty. "We're not having an assignation, sir, but it's true that Cordelia shouldn't be here with me. It's not appropriate for the empress's goddaughter to make a friend of a mere musician." He spoke with a quiet dignity, bowed stiffly, and walked away.
Leo's exasperation faded. The lad's composure was convincing. Maybe he'd come to the wrong conclusion, but it didn't alter the fact that Michael's betrothed had no right to be doing whatever she had been doing, however innocent it might have been. He turned back to Cordelia, who now stood silent and still in the shadows. He crooked a finger at her. "Come here, my lady."
Cordelia stepped into the dim light. She returned his scrutiny. All her anger had dissipated and that strange thing was happening to her again. They were alone in this dark and fragrant place, and she could think of only one way to dispel the confusion raging in her brain, pouring through her veins with every heartbeat. "Would you kiss me, like you did this afternoon?"
"Would I what?
"Please kiss me," she repeated patiently. "It's very important."
"My God, you are beyond belief!"
Cordelia didn't say anything, merely stepped up to him. He wanted to move back but he couldn't, it was as if she'd bound him with invisible threads. He could feel the heat of her body, smell the fragrance of her skin and hair. She looked silently up at him, her eyes wide and luminous.
"Please." She raised her hands to hold his face and then pulled his head down to hers.
Why couldn't he move? Why couldn't he stop this? But he couldn't. He couldn't resist the power of her passion or prevent the rush of his own. His hands encircled her throat, feeling the pulse beating wildly against his thumb. Her mouth opened beneath his, her tongue darting against his, tasting the flesh of his cheeks, the moist underside of his tongue, running over his lips. Her breasts rising above the low neckline cried out for his touch. His hands slid down the column of her throat, moved over the soft swell of flesh. A finger dipped into her neckline, and her nipple was hard and erect as he touched it. All the while her hungry mouth engulfed him, seeming to draw him up from his body's core, her demanding sweetness heady on his tongue.
With a supreme effort, he broke free of the web her body was spinning around him, a web whose gossamer strands were made up of her scent, her taste, the lithe feel of her beneath his hands.
"Holy Mother! Enough!" He pushed her from him and ran his hands over his face, his mouth, tracing her imprint on his flesh. "What kind of sorceress are you?"
Cordelia shook her head, saying with soft wonder, "No sorceress. But I love you."
"Don't be absurd." He struggled to regain his composure. "You're a spoilt and headstrong child."
"No." She shook her head again. "No, I'm not. I've never loved anyone like this before. Oh, once Christian and I thought that perhaps we loved each other in that way, but it didn't last a week. I never wanted him to kiss me the way I needed you to. I know what I feel."
There was such calm conviction in her voice, in her eyes, in her smile. She looked as smug and satisfied and as sure of herself as any cat with a saucer of cream.
Leo laughed, thinking desperately that maybe tolerant amusement would puncture her intimidating self-possession. "You know nothing, my dear girl. Nothing at all. You're at the mercy of a host of emotions you don't as yet understand. They belong in the marital chamber and you'll understand them soon enough. I blame myself. I should never have kissed you."
"I kissed you just then," she corrected simply. "Because I needed to."
He ran a hand through his hair, disturbing the thick black locks waving off his broad forehead. "Now, listen to me, Cordelia. It was all my fault. I should never have teased you the way I did in the gallery earlier. I didn't realize, God help me, that I was playing with fire. But you must now put all this nonsense about love behind you. You're going to be the wife of Prince Michael von Sachsen. That is your destiny. And you will only hurt yourself if you don't accept it."