Forbidde to Love You

Chapter Sixteen - Flashback II

After that she had started noticing the way his shoulders had broadened, the quiet confidence in the way he carried himself, the way he seemed comfortable in his own skin without needing everyone around him to know it.

She had begun noticing his voice. His smile.

The way his eyes seemed to soften when he spoke to someone he genuinely cared about.

She hated that she noticed those things.

She hated even more that she remembered them.

At first, she had told herself it was simply because she was older now. William was older too. It was natural to notice someone differently when childhood was beginning to disappear.

But then she had started looking for him. At dinners, celebrations and court. Whenever the Harringtons attended an event where the Beauforts were also present, Serena would tell herself she wasn't searching the room. And then she would find him. Sometimes he was surrounded by people. Sometimes he stood beside his father, listening quietly. Sometimes he was speaking with another nobleman.

But esterday had changed everything when he looked back.

She had gone to the tournament telling herself she was there for Ewan and Alexander. That had been true. But the moment she saw William standing on the field, the lie had become obvious even to herself. She had watched him before the match, during it and after. And when their eyes met, something inside her had shifted.

Then he had fought. Not merely well. Fiercely.

As though her presence had given him something to prove. Serena swallowed.

She still couldn't decide whether that thought thrilled or frightened her. Because William Beaufort wasn't supposed to matter. He was a Beaufort. She was a Harrington. Their families had spent generations remembering reasons to hate one another. And yet, when Serena thought of William, she didn't think of the war.

She remembered the way he had offered Alexander his hand after knocking him into the dirt. And, most dangerously of all, she remembered about the way he had looked at her afterward. As if he had been searching the crowd for only one person.

Her.