A revelation struck her. It wasn’t any lack in their relationship that kept him from acknowledging that he loved her; it was his past. Hadrian must have walled off his heart at a young age. Perhaps, due to the frequent separations from his mother, he had come to associate love with pain. It would explain quite a lot. With his upbringing, it made sense that he was not a man who could easily give voice to his deepest emotions.

Natalie also realized that she’d expected him to bare his soul when she herself had not done the same. If the prospect made her feel vulnerable, only imagine what it would do to a strong man who had been conditioned to bury his feelings.

She stopped near the corridor that led to the nursery bedchambers and turned to face him. The faint lilt of music carried from downstairs, but the crowded ballroom seemed worlds away from the two of them, cocooned in silken darkness.

Lifting her hand, she stroked his cheek, relishing the slightly raspy feel of his smooth-shaven skin. “I’m afraid I haven’t been entirely fair to you. There’s something I ought to have told you down in your study a little while ago. I love you, Hadrian. I love you with all my heart and soul.”

He went very still, and Natalie wished she could read his expression through the gloom. She felt terribly in need of his arms around her. What was he thinking? Would it be the catalyst for him to finally lower his guard? Or would he back away from such a blatant declaration of sentiment?

His hands tightened almost painfully on her shoulders. “My darling,” he murmured in a low, husky tone, “I can’t begin to tell you what that means to me—”

Just then, a muffled thump sounded behind her. The noise seemed to have emanated from one of the bedchambers. Despite the intensely charged moment, her motherly instincts sprang to full alert.

She twisted around. “Did you hear that?”

“Perhaps Leo fell out of bed. Let’s see.”

His door stood wide open, when he usually slept with it closed. Too alarmed to wonder why, she hastened inside the dim-lit room. A candle enclosed in a glass chimney flickered atop the chest of drawers and illuminated the portrait of Audrey that they’d brought from Oak Knoll, for the boy found the image of his mother to be comforting.

But Leo wasn’t lying on the floor.

Mystified, Natalie tiptoed toward the shadowed cot and set down the plate of sweets on the bedside table. His covers lay in a tumbled heap, but when she leaned over to check on him, a gasp paralyzed her throat.

The bed was empty.

Chapter 26

“Hadrian! Leo is gone.”

Striding forward, the duke threw back the blankets. “Then what the devil was that noise?”

“Who knows? I’m more concerned about where he is.”

He placed a comforting arm around her shoulders. “There’s no need to panic, darling. He likely slipped downstairs to peek at the ball. It’s just what the little brat would do.”