“Perhaps a little,” Leah said truthfully. She glanced around them, and as she did, she was sure she saw a few ladies look away very quickly, as if they had been staring and were afraid of being caught. It was a new feeling. Leah was not used to being stared at by members of theton.Usually she was the one who got to melt into the background. It was a bit disconcerting.
“I know this is all very new for you,” Vivian said, putting a bracing hand on her shoulder. “But I won’t let anyone say anything unkind about you. This is my ball, after all, and no one can upset the hostess or her best friend. Ah, look, here is Lady Marbleton! She is always very kind.”
Lady Emily Granger, the Countess of Marbleton, came up to Vivian at that moment and greeted her warmly. Leah, who had been introduced to the Countess on one previous occasion, also curtsied to her.
“Ah , Duchess,” Lady Marbleton said, curtsying low to Leah. She gave her a slightly confused look. “You do not need to curtsy to me, Your Grace. You outrank me now!”
Leah felt herself flush. It hadn’t even occurred to her that she now outranked Lady Marbleton--and almost everyone else at this ball.
“Don’t worry,” Lady Marbleton said with a wink. “I am not the kind of lady who stands on ceremony or gossips about small mistakes in etiquette. Your secret is safe with me.”
She kissed Vivian on the cheek, then swept away. Leah and Vivian glanced at each other.
“You really think she won’t tell everyone I just made my first faux pas as a duchess?” Leah asked nervously.
“She won’t. Lady Marbleton is very kind. And was not always a countess, you know. Before the Earl took a liking to her, she was only a simple Miss.”
Leah nodded, but when she glanced around again, she saw several of the same ladies who had been watching her judgmentally whispering to one another and glancing back at her, now blatantly. She knew they had witnessed this and were ready to tell everyone they knew.
Her heart plummeted. Maybe Dorian was right, and she looked the part of a duchess, but she certainly didn’tfeelor act like one. She tried hard to focus on his words of encouragement, to remind herself that she was a duchess and had nothing to be ashamed of. B ut it was hard to take the man seriously, when on the one hand, he told her she was beautiful, and on the other, he wouldn’t even kiss her--his own wife.
Dorian had to put some distance between himself and Leah. She looked so beautiful tonight that it put him in a foul mood. All he wanted to do--all he had wanted to do for days, weeks--was take her in his arms and kiss her. But that was impossible, and tonight, with her looking so ravishing, he knew that if he didn’t stay away from her, she would destroy his vow completely.
But with every passing minute, it was growing more and more difficult to keep his distance.
“What is wrong with you tonight?” Anthony asked, his eyes narrowing in concern as he watched Dorian grab a glass of champagne from a passing footman and down it in one go. “You are acting like a wildman.”
“You don’t understand,” Dorian said darkly. “You are not married. Once you are, then you will know the particular torture that a wife can cause her husband.”
“Is your wife rebuffing you already?” Anthony said, a small smile playing across his lips. “Dear me. I must say I admire her, if we have finally found a woman who can say no to you.”
“She is not rebuffing me,” Dorian said through gritted teeth. Leah was talking now with her friend Lady Bellmond, laughing at something she was saying, and with her eyes lit up like that and her cheeks flushed, she had never looked so beautiful or captivating.
How does she not realize how desirable she is? She should be the most confident woman in England!
The answer came in a flash:maybe the fact that her own husband doesn’t want her makes her lose her confidence.
But he did want her. Oh, how much he wanted her. It was taking every ounce of his strength to resist her.
“Well then, what else could it be?” Anthony asked. “Is she irritating? Prone to bouts of madness? Redecorating your entire house?”
“Well, yes, she is,” Dorian said, “but I’m not bothered by that.”
“Then what--”
But Dorian was no longer listening. Because at that very moment, that scoundrel, the man who left Leah to the wolves--or more specifically, to Lord Dubois--was approaching her, a fake smile plastered across his lips. It was Lord Eaton.
As Dorian watched, Lord Eaton came up to Leah and bowed low. She turned toward him, smiling genuinely, which made Dorian even more furious.How can she look that coward in the face after how he allowed himself to be bullied by Dubois into not offering for her? If she knew how he had reacted when Dubois said that she was using him…
But she didn’t know that, and when Lord Eaton gestured to the dancefloor in a clear invitation to dance, she smiled widely and took his hand.
“Your wife is being asked to dance by her former suitor.” Anthony sounded highly amused. “Does that make her seem less irritating to you now?”
“I never said she was irritating,” Dorian snapped.
“Alright, alright,” Anthony said, shaking his head. “I’ll let it go. But you are acting like a madman. Still.”
Lord Eaton was now leading Leah toward the dancefloor, a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Dordian couldn’t take it any longer. He made up his mind in a flash. Abandoning Anthony without a second thought, he hurried forward. If he moved fast enough, he would be able to cut them off before they reached the dance floor. He was just a few feet from them--
