Dorian had not fully recovered either. His eyes had not left her once since he pulled her against him, though it was not urgency now that held his attention.
Anne swallowed hard. “I am fine.”
Dorian did not respond immediately. His gaze flickered briefly across her face, not quite focused in the way it usually was when he was speaking to her. Then his eyes lowered to her lips and stayed there, unguarded in a way that felt far more dangerous than anything he had ever said aloud.
“Dorian,” Anne said, uncertain whether she was warning him or herself.
The sound of his name on her lips seemed to break something inside him. In that moment, he realized just how beautiful she was. She was hardly ever quiet, and with all their back-and-forth, he never had time to truly see her. Yet the moment he had the opportunity, it was all he could think about.
She was tempestuous and far more opinionated than a lady was supposed to be, but Dorian knew that the very last thing he would have wanted was a lady who did not dare speak.
In the moments when she quietened, he also could not help but think she was the most beautiful person he had ever known.
And, in their position, he truly wished to act on that.
“Dorian,” she repeated. “What is it?”
CHAPTER 10
Anne thought for a moment that her husband might want to kiss her.
She was not as against it as she had expected. He might be a distant man, but he had an instinct to protect those around him that she could not deny.
There was also no denying the attraction she felt toward him, even if she wanted to. He was a good man, and her husband, and if somehow hedidwant to kiss her?—
The thud of horses’ hooves broke the moment, right before she saw riders approaching along the far edge of the field. Dorian released her immediately, stepping back as though she had burned him.
Anne adjusted her footing at the same time, turning slightly toward Tempest as though the horse needed her more than she needed not to be seen near her husband.
The riders crested the rise moments later, unaware of anything that had just happened. Dorian had already moved back to his horse by then, reins in hand as his features smoothed into calm control. Only the brief glance he gave her before looking away suggested anything had shifted at all.
Anne did not look at him again until the riders were gone.
But she did not have time to think on it for long, for they were to host a dinner that night. She had agonized over it with the staff, and as she sat among the guests, she wondered if she had been successful in such endeavors.
She sat at Dorian’s side, having not discussed what had happened earlier that day with him. The guests were watching her not as a novelty, but as a duchess, and she could not help but wonder if she was worthy of such a title.
Across the table, Margaret leaned slightly toward her.
“You need not look so ill at ease,” she whispered. “You have done well.”
“I am trying to look pleased,” Anne replied. “It would not do well for me to look too happy with myself. I would not want to come off as self-conceited.”
“You are married to a handsome and wealthy duke, and you are both clearly very happy together. Anyone in your position shouldbe more than pleased with themselves about it. Nobody will blame you for being in love.”
That term,love, did not feel right. After all, the man she had married had taken her horse from her, only to undermine her when she tried to assist him. She was only there for Tempest, not because she loved her husband.
“I have no idea what you are referring to.”
Margaret smiled faintly. “Of course not.”
Dorian seemed to be listening to a separate conversation, though Anne had long since learned that his attention rarely stayed where it was supposed to.
At the far end of the table, Lord Harrow lounged with an air of utter satisfaction, entirely at ease in a way Anne was not. He had arrived earlier in the evening from London without warning, immediately declaring the atmosphere at Ashford Hall to be “distressingly domestic” before helping himself to the wine.
Anne had not decided whether she found him intolerable or entertaining, and she was not certain that she wished to find out by seeing more of him.
“So,” he said loudly, lifting his glass slightly, “how is married life treating you, my friend?”
