Rogue’s Kiss

Chapter Six - Roses

All the hairs lifted along the back of her neck. Lilia hardly dared to breathe. It was too late to run. Did he have to stand so close? Sidelong she watched him take up the space beside her, setting his own hands on the stone railing. His shoulder brushed against her own.

Lilia looked up, turning to study his features as he looked down at her in turn. Resisting the urge to shift her weight, she searched for a way to excuse herself. Who was George Thade anyway? His clothes were fine quality and not out of place among the nobility, yet he wasn’t one. His jacket was long, with buttons that resembled the military dress of her own Captain. Yet he was not part of the military either. She scanned his hands as they curled around the granite and saw that they were bare, free of the rings that would designate the man as a member of the Myst. Magicians, trained at the Hidden Isle just off the coast of the Capital.

He was waiting for a response. Lilia took a nervous sip of wine before she forced a smile, ‘unless you’ve spent the last three years on the borderlands, I doubt we would have met.’

‘Three years?’ He lent back to look her over again, ‘that’s a long time away from court, Lady Lanai.’

Not long enough, she thought. If he was impressed, she couldn’t tell. It was hard to make out his features in the dim lighting that escaped the thick curtains behind them.

Lilia swallowed her nerve, along with another drink. She wasn’t one to lie, not usually. Which is the only reason she responded with the stark truth. ‘I would rather be anywhere, then here.’ She confided and finished her glass. The wine stung the back of her throat with a bitter after taste.

George reached out, taking the glass from her hand as he leant forward. ‘Here with me? Or here at court?’ It looked like he was smiling. It was impossible to tell if he was insulted or just toying with her.

Lilia edged backward as he set her empty glass to one side. It clinked gently on the stone railing.

‘Court,’ she corrected herself. What was it about the man that made her feel at such a loss? Almost giddy. ‘I meant no offence,’ she looked back at the room. The best way to escape George Thade was to return to the ball. Yet she couldn’t will herself to start walking back into the light. The band was playing a lively tune and she could hear the thud of stamping feet on the dance floor.

‘Lady Lanai it seems you have no true desire to return to the party. Would you join me for a walk?’ George extended a hand towards her. His gaze unwavering as she looked up at him. Heat pooled in her body, curling in the pit of her stomach. This was dangerous, foolish, reckless.

‘I’m supposed to dance,’ she protested weakly. Yet she extended her own fingers to his hand. His skin was warm to the touch, almost uncomfortably so.

He grinned and led her gently towards a row of steps to the side of the terrace. ‘We can dance,’ he promised as he picked up the pace.

That’s what she was afraid of. But she followed in silence as he jogged down the steps and into the dark gardens beyond the ballroom. She could hear her Mother in her mind, furious that she would run off with a man, unescorted at a ball.

There was something thrilling about following George Thade through the dark gardens. Tall hedges rose around them as they walked. His steps had slowed away from the Palace and they moved almost serenely through the night. She could smell cinnamon on the air, and the crisp sweetness of apples starting to decay where they had fallen on the short cut grass. The hum of the ball fell far behind them.

Should she be afraid? Lilia didn’t feel frightened, she was confident in her ability to defend herself if needed. She was a Knight after all, and who was George Thade?

Who was George Thade? He held her hand gently in his own, gently. As though afraid to hurt her. It was an unusual sensation to be treated as someone fragile. She swallowed her nerves, why had she come all the way out here? To destroy her reputation? To talk?

Finally he came to a stop and released her fingers. Lilia paused, looking around the enclosure he had led her too. There was a bench beneath an arch of late autumn roses, just budding in the cool air. Behind the wooden seat was a high stone wall, which she suspected was at the outskirts of the garden themselves. On two other sides were tall hedges with wide leaves, glossy in the starlight.

George turned to study her and once more she found it hard to read his expression.

‘You’re comfortable here,‘ she said it without thinking and felt her cheeks begin to burn with embarrassment. ‘I mean at court, not in the gardens,’ she gestured to the cultivated landscape that surrounded them.

‘I am,’ he agreed and stepped closer once more. ‘What’s more interesting to me however, is that you are not.’

She drew a careful breath, far too aware of the man standing less than a hand away from her. She looked up, defiant of her own shyness. ‘That’s right…’

‘You seem the type of woman that prefers shadows to the spot light,’ he murmured. He reached out, touching his hand to a rogue lock of hair that had escaped its pins.

Lilia hardly dared to breathe. What was he suggesting? What was he doing? Her eyes searched his as he met her gaze once more.

‘Maybe you just need a friend,’ a slow smile pulled at the curve of his mouth.