“No,” Anne interrupted. “That is not what I mean.”
“Then what exactly are you referring to?”
“I am referring to the fact that you do not need to change on my account.”
“Change what, precisely?”
She tried not to cringe, hating that he was making her say it outright. She was only trying to tell him that he could do as he pleased, even if she had to admit that she did not want him to.
She knew their arrangement and what it meant for them both, but the thought of him with another woman, let alone Lady Vivian, caused an ache in her chest that she willed herself to ignore.
“Your habits,” she said bluntly. “Your… arrangements.”
That made him stop again.
“What arrangements are you talking about, Anne?”
She looked away immediately. “It does not matter.”
“It does,” he countered. “I can see that it is affecting you, and so it matters.”
A pause stretched between them, filled only by the faint sound of the gardens behind them.
“I am not asking for explanations. I am not asking you to change anything. I am simply saying that I understand how things were before this marriage.”
Dorian stepped closer, but not enough to crowd her, only enough that she could not avoid meeting his gaze. “How things were?”
“With Lady Vivian.”
Dorian did not react immediately.
“What has Lady Vivian told you?”
Anne hesitated, then forced the words out before she could reconsider them. “Enough that I understand why she speaks to you so freely. And enough that I understood what was happening when I saw you with her at the ball.”
Dorian’s brow furrowed slightly. “You saw me with her?”
“Yes,” Anne said. “Later in the evening. You left the ballroom together.”
“Anne, I understand that it might have looked a certain way, but?—”
“I am not accusing you of anything. I am saying I am not naïve. I know your life did not begin with this marriage, and I am not expecting it to change because of me.”
“Anne, what did she say to you to make you think anything has happened?”
Anne looked away again, the garden suddenly too still around them.
“She said enough,” she uttered. “And I saw enough to understand what I interrupted.”
“That is not an acceptable answer. You are accusing me of being unfaithful, which I am not, and I would like to know what has been said to make you think that.”
She wanted to believe him. Truly, she did. She turned fully toward him, already regretting the direction the conversation had taken but unable to undo it.
“She did not need to be precise to make herself understood,” she said quietly. “She implied that you both had an understanding and that what you share has been there for a long time.”
“And you believed her?” he asked.
“I did not, not until you both left the ballroom together. What was I meant to think? You told me that this arrangement would not include romance, and now I know why. I am not—I am not hurt to see that it is true.”
