Chapter 409: A Kiss for a Knight
Lyria's POV
Duke Thorncrest did not give me an opportunity to reply.
He insisted that we return to the palace at once, and before I could gather my thoughts sufficiently to protest, he had already begun walking, his stride brisk and entirely too purposeful for a man who might have paused, even a moment, to hear my objection.
His hand remained loosely at my elbow.
It was a perfectly proper gesture beneath the circumstances, particularly with the hour being so late and the streets so quiet, yet I was acutely conscious of it all the same.
He guided me through the darkened streets in silence, and I wondered, not for the first time, whether he was accustomed to them, perhaps even more than I was myself, given how easily he moved through shadow and stone alike.
But I was not given a chance to say anything.
Not as we moved through the sleeping streets of the capital, past shuttered windows and doors barred for the night.
