The Scandal You Started, page 35
“I’m not surprised.” Cassie’s eyes danced knowingly. “They make a very good team.”
Rayna’s heart hiccupped, conscious that Monty might pick up on her suggestive tone, but the older woman was already diverting the conversation with a tilt of her chin.
“I’ll be honest, I want to steal them from you.” She raised her brows at an amused Monty. “I don’t know why you’re laughing, I’m being serious.”
Monty’s expression immediately dropped, causing Kelly to turn into River with a snicker.
Cassie waved a hand around. “I know I can’t steal Dominic, but I would very much like to have Rayna on my team.”
Rayna blinked, her lips parting, having not expected that at all.
“We’re hoping to open a permanent historian position within the Tregency team here at the Fronis Museum, with the possibility of some overlapping work down at Lord Chambers too,” Cassie said directly to her with an earnest tone. “I think you’d be perfect for it, seeing how well you work with the team already. So I’d really like to offer you the role, Rayna.”
“Look at you getting headhunted,” Kelly sang, knocking Rayna’s elbow with her own.
But Monty spluttered on choked sounds, pulling his hands out of his suit pockets. “You can’t steal one of my historians!”
“Why not?” Cassie sassed. Ignoring the man’s stuttered protest, she said to Rayna, “And I know you haven’t mentioned it before, but if you wanted to do a PhD, we could fully support you with that.”
Rayna stared at Cassie with genuine interest and consideration.
Having never been interested in going into academia, Rayna hadn’t been too fussed about doing a PhD after her undergrad and master’s. But if she ever did leave the POTeM project to work elsewhere, having a PhD under her belt could really help progress her career.
But…
“As much as I would love to join the Tregency team here,” Rayna said with an apologetic smile, “I don’t think I want to leave Two Worlds yet. There’s a lot there that I’d still like to do.”
Monty’s full-body sigh of relief was cartoonish.
“I had a feeling you would say that,” Cassie said but lifted her brows in question. “How about if it were part-time, so you could still work at Two Worlds? Would that interest you?”
Rayna felt everyone’s eyes land expectantly on her. She couldn’t explain why, but her gaze went straight up to Dominic, and by the looks of the starry shine in his honey-coloured eyes, he was delighted for her.
She glanced around the circle, pausing on Monty’s apprehensive expression, before finding Cassie again. “Can I have some time to think about it?” she said.
The older woman flapped her hands around. “Of course! Of course. Take all the time you need. We can talk about it in more detail too, if you have any questions.”
“Thank you, Cassie.”
“Rayna,” Monty croaked, his moustache turning downwards with the sadness of a betrayed lover.
She grinned guiltily just as Erin and Jake, who’d interestingly been glued to each other’s sides the entire evening, joined the circle.
“What’s going on?” Erin asked. “Why does Monty look so upset?”
“Rayna might be leaving Two Worlds,” River answered.
“What?” Erin exclaimed, her expression mirroring Monty’s. “You can’t do that!”
Rayna, Dominic, Cassie, Kelly, and River burst out laughing.
Chapter 41
Rayna
“Darling, where are we going?” Dominic asked, amusement adding a richness to his tone.
Rayna’s heels clicked on the exposed wooden floorboards as she tugged him by the hand through a corridor, leading them away from the gala hall.
With the long skirt of her silk dress hiked in a gloved fist, she grinned back at him, her stride easy but mischievous. “We’re sneaking away for a bit.”
“Why is that?”
“Why not?”
Rayna hadn’t planned to slip out of the gala, but after a satisfying three-course dinner and mingling with the guests and her friends in the lively hall, the opportunity to escape through the distracted crowd had arisen. So she’d instructed Dominic to follow her and taken it.
Not just to get away from the noise and spend a moment alone with him, but it also wasn’t every day she got to explore the museum when it was quiet and dark.
There was something so enchanting about the rooms of displays when they were aglow under the moonlight and very little other lighting. Like it made them feel more real, or so different from how they could be viewed during the day. It was creepy too, but in a magical, otherworldly way.
Several turns further down, there was a brighter, slightly larger corridor lined with big Tregency-style windows at two metre intervals and large, gilded paintings hanging between. On the other wall, moonlight streaked across marble busts and smaller paintings, and four full-length statues of naked, muscular men were spaced directly through the middle.
Rayna let go of Dominic’s hand as they came to a stop. An idea that was whimsical and romantic, so not like her, tugged at her mind with cheeky, childlike persistence.
“Can you put this in your pocket?” she said, holding her phone out to him.
He took it without a word and slipped it into the same pocket that housed her staff badge, as she had neither pockets nor her clutch with her.
“Hand, please.”
Like the good boy he was, Dominic put his palm out before her. “What are we doing, my love?”
“Something I didn’t know I wanted to try up until now,” she said, clasping his fingers.
She relied on him for balance as she kicked one ankle up, resting it on the edge of her knee. Flicking her dress out of the way, she unbuckled the strap of her dark green, pointed stiletto heel and pulled it off.
“Hold this.”
He took the shoe by the strap, and she swapped hands to take the other one off too. He took that one off her too, dangling them higher up to stare at them.
“How you managed to walk in these all evening is entirely beyond me,” he muttered.
Rayna chuckled. “They’re actually quite comfortable.”
Still, she wiggled her toes, appreciating the freedom of being barefoot, as she grabbed fistfuls of her dress, lifting it up past her ankles.
She rotated away from Dominic, then paused, and faced him again. “You can’t tell Erin or Kelly I did this. Or George or Benedict, either. They’ll never let me live it down.”
Beaming, he gave a single, gentlemanly nod. “Then it shall remain our secret.”
Pleased, she twirled and eyed the distance to the other end of the corridor.
Then she ran. Or jogged, rather.
Like the protagonist of a period drama. A fanciful girl without the big puffy dress. Exactly the way Erin had always described she wanted to do with a dreamy sigh.
It was fun, but maybe because it was so unlike Rayna, it made her feel silly too. So she stopped halfway and circled back around to Dominic. And a giddy flutter travelled up her belly.
A wide, lovestruck grin softened and crinkled his rugged face, the silver light from the large windows turning his irises bright and translucent. The fitted cut of his tailcoat and waistcoat made it look as if it’d been spray-painted on him. But it didn’t look uncomfortably tight. It dressed his big frame elegantly, and his cravat was still as perfect as it had been hours ago.
He was gorgeous. Powerful. Wonderful. Magnificent.
He was hers.
Her time travelling marquess, who could pull off a T-shirt and a neckcloth like he’d been born to wear both.
She wanted him in both. There was no either-or about it.
Her chest expanded, warm and fuzzy, on that sure thought. She straightened with it, arching a playfully sassy brow. “Well,” she said. “Aren’t you coming…Lord Norland?”
How it was possible for his grin to grow further, she didn’t know, but it did. It deepened, and her mind snapped a picture, needing to hold on to the memory of its beauty.
Then he was coming towards her, and she spun with a bubbling chuckle, loving the clack of his shoes following after her.
Rayna whipped around the corner and turned just in time to see Dominic come skidding after her. His brows flew to his hairline when he didn’t stop, arms flailing to keep himself from slipping over. He hinged forward at the waist, and she caught him around the wrists, holding him still.
There was a second where she swore she could hear both of their heartbeats as they stared at each other wide-eyed. A single laugh broke out of her, and a husky reply fell from him. Then all at once, quiet laughter shook their bodies as they huddled close.
He scooped her into his arms, her shoes dangling from one set of fingers. She cupped his shadowed cheeks in her gloved hands, and they melted into an endless string of kisses.
“This is my favourite spot in the museum,” Rayna told Dominic sometime later when they were sitting on a black cushioned bench in the middle of a dark, square room.
His grunt shook through the arm pressed to hers, and one puzzled brow rose. “Of all the rooms filled with brilliant tapestries, silverware, and marble statues, your favourite is the one with the morbid painting of death and suffering?”
“Yes,” she said with a playfully sharp nod. “Because history was morbidly full of death and suffering, especially for women. And I feel like a lot of the time people forget that side of it.”
She glanced between the four massive paintings hanging on each wall, faintly illuminated by the spotlights dotted around each gold-painted border. “And this room…it captures more than morbid suffering. It shows you almost the entire essence of one period in history, and it’s probably the only room in the museum that captures the good and the bad so powerfully.”
She gestured to the painting in front of them. “The suffering and disease.” She gazed across her left shoulder. “The rich, romanticised side of wooing and promenades, and big dresses and houses. The one behind us shows the ruling and conflicts of the nobility.” She pointed past Dominic. “And that one gives you a glimpse into everyday life for the average folk.”
Gripping the edge of the bench, she smiled in marvel. “This room is thought-provoking, even if we’re not sure the people in the paintings actually experienced what they’re depicted doing. It still makes you face the reality of what the early seventh century was like. That it wasn’t just the pretty or interesting parts museums usually prefer showing. It was bleak and painful too.”
Rayna watched Dominic look around the room, trying to imagine how he saw it. What truths he spotted in the paintings.
“When you explain it so,” he uttered thoughtfully, “I suppose I can understand why you are fond of this room. It rather boldly and accurately portrays how different life was for so many.”
“It does,” she agreed. “And I love it. I love the true history they show together.”
His gaze settled on her, and a slow smile lifted his mouth. “Your brain works in a wonderfully peculiar way, my love. I doubt I would have ever come to the same conclusion, and it makes me wonder if I’ll ever be able to keep up with your thinking.” He bent into her. “You will not ever bore of the fact I am not as gifted in such matters, will you?”
She rolled her eyes. “Why would I get bored just because you don’t think about history the way I do? Especially considering you’re not even actually interested in it.” She pressed into his arm with a quirk of her brows. “The one who should be worried about getting bored is you, considering I’m talking about things you’ve lived that I’ve only studied.”
He shook his head. “I could never tire of listening to you talk about something that lights up your eyes with such unbridled excitement.”
Her cheeks warmed, and she raised her chin, letting him plant a long-second kiss to her lips.
“Though,” he whispered as he pulled away. “I had thought you had travelled through the machine before. Was my assumption incorrect?”
“The condition to V adopting me and George was that we couldn’t travel until we both turned twenty-six.” She squinted and shrugged. “I don’t know why twenty-six specifically, but that was the agreement. So no, I haven’t travelled yet. I’ve still got a few months left to wait until I can.”
“Which is why you do not want to leave the project yet?” Dominic added in vague question.
Rayna nodded. “Yeah. That’s why the full-time role Cassie offered wouldn’t work for me. I don’t want to leave the project, not until long after I’ve trained as a Study Scout. Maybe not even then. I love it, and the idea of leaving just isn’t appealing. I feel like I’d miss it too much.”
She shrugged. “But it might be a good opportunity to do some work for the museum part-time. I wouldn’t have to leave the project entirely, and it’d be good for my career to have more experience working on different things. It’s something to consider properly.”
Her intonation left an opening for him to offer his thoughts. Though why she wanted to know, she wasn’t quite sure. It was her life and her choice to do what she wanted.
But…if she planned to give Dominic a place in her life, it wouldn’t make sense to be completely selfish with her choices, would it? She’d never done this relationship thing before, but she did know that consulting a partner about big life decisions was usually a good idea. She didn’t have to listen to exactly what he wanted, but having a discussion was the important part.
Dominic rotated his torso and brushed his knuckles against her cheek. “It does sound like a splendid opportunity, though I must admit, I cannot remember what a PhD is.” She huffed out a laugh, and he caressed his thumb down the line of her jaw. “But what is important is that you choose what will make you happy. I will do what I can to provide you with everything else.”
“I don’t need you to provide for me, Dominic.”
“But I will do no less than provide for you. That is as resolute as any law, and you cannot insist on anything less. I will not allow it.”
She rolled her eyes, her smile growing rather than twisting in disgust or annoyance. Before she could formulate a mocking remark, he pinched her chin and moulded his lips over hers, turning her gooey and warm.
She sensed the wolfish smirk on his mouth before she’d even opened her eyes. “You can’t keep me quiet with kisses, you know.”
His chuckle fanned her skin. “I will certainly try, my love. And one day it shall work.”
They shared a grinning moment, before Rayna reluctantly said, “We should probably head back before people notice we’ve gone missing.”
He stroked absently at the side of her hair. “I suppose we must.”
“We must,” she echoed, though she really didn’t want to. “Can I have my heels?”
Rather than giving them to her, Dominic picked them up from the floor and dropped down on one knee before her. “Allow me.”
Pulling the silk of her dress up out of the way, she lifted one foot. He cupped the back of her ankle, gently slipped the pointed shoe on, and tied the small, gold buckle of the strap. Then he lowered her foot to the ground and raised his focus to her.
“May I ask you to consider something else, my love?” he said.
“What?”
“Marriage. To me.”
Her heart missed a beat and tripped over two more.
As if he knew what he’d triggered, he gave her calf reassuring squeezes in slow intervals.
“There is nothing in this world I wish for more than to make you my wife,” he continued, steadfast. “I know you have your reservations, and I accept every one of them. But I still ask that you consider it. Truly consider the idea of allowing me to be your husband.” He shook his head. “I am not pressuring an answer. I only ask you take the time to give it some thought, and—”
He cut off, hesitating for a second. “And children. A family. Our family. Would you think over that too?” His eyes darted between hers. “You said you were fond of them but had not thought about having any because you never wished to marry. But if marriage is a possibility, if you will consider it, could you consider having a family with me too?”
For several moments, her mind kept stuttering on the fact he was bringing up marriage, as if he hadn’t mentioned it a stupid number of times already. But it felt as if he’d proposed to her. Again. But more seriously. Officially. And now she had to give a proper answer: yes or no.
If only it were as straightforward as that.
“I won’t give up my career,” she eventually settled on saying. “Not for children…not for you.”
“I shall never ask that of you, Rayna. I vow that to you on the Norland name.”
Dominic didn’t make false promises, not on his family’s title.
But wasn’t that what her parents had probably agreed before they got married? And look how that had turned out. What guarantee was there that Dominic’s promise wouldn’t end the same way?
A knot of doubt made itself known within her belly. But it wasn’t one that could be picked apart within a matter of minutes or even days. It was a deeply rooted concern that would take time to untangle.
It would take trust. She had to trust Dominic, and she did.
But did she trust herself?
It was hard to tell, but she wanted to. She was trying to.
Rayna swallowed to loosen the tangle, anchoring her fingers deeper into the cushioned seat. “Do you…do you want children?” she asked.
“Yes.”
He didn’t say it as a “duh, obviously” that was what he wanted because society had told men to procreate mindlessly. It was a genuine, sure reply.
“How many?”
“A dozen.”
His tone was so earnest, it took her a second to realise what he’d said, but her jaw collapsed. Mirth sparkled in his eyes, and his mouth twitched. But that didn’t stop her from trying to shove him away as if he were being serious.
“I’m not giving you a dozen kids,” she exclaimed.
He laughed, loud, deep, and roguish. “Half a dozen then.”
