Now, he lingered, cautiously glancing her way like she was a wounded animal.
Perhaps I am. And he knew it. He knew…
She licked her lips. They still felt swollen from a kiss that had happened ages ago. Both she and her husband had changed greatly since. This entire conversation… Everything had changed between them.
Dominic sighed and then opened the door to take his leave.
But Verity felt something sharp through the shock and sadness. Anger came biting. She grabbed the armchair tightly with her nails as she glared at him. Her husband was a different person now.
All this while, he kept me in the dark. He saw me cry and did nothing about it. What sort of person does this?
“Why?” Verity felt, her voice horse and shaking with anger. “Why tell me this now?”
“You asked.”
“I…” A dry laugh escaped her before she could help it. Shaking her head, she stared over at him. “Don’t talk to me like that. Don’t hide behind your manners and stern ways at a time like this. Dominic. For all the control you claim to have, you give and you take however you choose, when you choose. This isn’t fair. I’m not a… a mouse caught in a trap. I am your wife.”
“And I made a promise.”
She pursed her lips together. Her knuckles whitened over her tight grip on the desk. “Does that exceed our marriage vows?”
“Do you wish for me to break my promise?” He asked in return. “I make my mistakes, but I am not the only one. The doors you have opened cannot be closed. Though you may learn thetruth in time, Verity, it will not be a truth that helps you rest. Sometimes the lies are more comforting and sometimes it is best for the people to know nothing.”
“You do not get to decide that!”
“I don’t. And now, neither do you.” Sighing, Dominic brushed a hand through his hair and pushed the door open. The conversation was at an end. But not before he added, “I will not put you in danger, Verity.”
Then he left her alone in his own study.
Verity’s throat constricted as she stared at the sliver of the hallway she could see once he left. The door never closed completely. She wondered if that mattered.
It must not. Nor does anything in this office, I suppose, or he would not leave me like this where I could access anything I liked. He is not a fool. And yet I must wonder if I have been one… What does all this mean? All I wanted was to make sense of my life and now I fear I have upended everything.
Although Verity’s intention had been to rebuild common ground for her and her husband, she wasn’t confident about how this had ended. It was clear that Dominic cared somewhat for her. How much, she wasn’t certain. She wasn’t brave enough to ask. But he was involved. More than she could have ever imagined.
Her cheeks burned for a moment over the memory of their searing kiss. She might dream of that in the years to come.
But she might also have nightmares, like the few she experienced after losing Uncle Will. To hear that Dominic had been there, that he knew…
Verity spent the next two days alone to sort out her emotions. To catch her breath, she went riding and rested and wrote feverishly about everything. She wrote pages and pages worth of questions and conspiracies and doubts and her fears and wishes. Every page was crumpled and tossed into the fire, a waste she should have been embarrassed to acknowledge.
The anger softened into a thorn-ridden grudge that she nursed by avoiding Dominic just as he avoided her. And when she needed a distraction, she went out into society.
She attended a musicale. It wasn’t her favorite since half the volunteering performers weren’t well-rehearsed, and it was hard to hear the whispers. But she needed some time for her mind to clear.
“I don’t know why we’re here,” Octavia murmured at her side whilst fanning herself. “It’s my first Season and it must be my hundredth musicale.”
Seated with her mock sketchbook, Verity glanced at her sister whom she was escorting for the evening since their brothers had vanished. Elowen wasn’t feeling up for the event, so she remained at the family house.
“At least Lacy isn’t performing tonight.”
Verity sighed. “You should try to be more generous with your words. Someone could hear you, Octavia.”
“And think less of me?” Her youngest sister raised an impish eyebrow. “They’ll recover. But Lacy won’t. Last time she left in tears when she didn’t think the applause was loud enough, don’t you recall? And she could not sort out the rhythm. It was such a simple ditty, I don’t know how she could have gone out of tune.”
“Not everyone can be exemplary at music,” Verity whispered in turn with a wry smile. “Just like not everyone may be exemplary at dancing.”
Her sister pouted. “I am improving. My dance instructor told me so.”
