Page 100 of Duke of Sapphire

“And placed your wife where you could see her from every vantage.” Tristan chuckled. “Tell me, Henry. Has anything changed?”

“Nothing has changed.” Henry aligned the cheese on the plate. “I am simply more aware of my responsibilities.”

“Responsibilities do not look like that,” Tristan said. “They do not involve staring at your Duchess every time she removes her bonnet.”

Henry kept his expression neutral. Inside, something shifted.

I saw her laugh with Ian yesterday. I watched her face when George Ashford left. That is awareness. Not attraction.

“You are wrong,” Henry said.

Tristan gave him a maddeningly patient look. “If you say so. But you have spent half the afternoon watching Charlotte instead of joining us. I am going to tell Lavinia. She will be delighted.”

“You will not,” Henry said sharply.

“There now.” Tristan sat back, satisfied. “At last. Something that has changed. You used to let me tell Lavinia anything.”

Henry stared at him.

He is insufferable.

“You should attend to your children.”

“My children are busy conquering the hill.” Tristan rose, stretching. “Come. We are about to be conscripted into some ridiculous game. You may continue pretending nothing has changed while throwing a ball for my son.”

Henry watched Tristan walk toward the oak. His gaze moved, following, and settled on Charlotte again before he could stop it.

She had turned her head toward the field, watching Ian. A smile curved her mouth, quick and fond.

Henry looked down at his hands and set the knife aside.

Nothing has changed. Except, perhaps, everything.

* * *

“I am beginning to suspect marriage is very confusing,” Charlotte said.

Lavinia laughed softly and reached for a slice of cake. “Oh, it inherently is in the beginning.”

Charlotte took a sip of lemonade to hide the way her chest tightened. The air was warm. A breeze lifted the edges of the blanket. Ian’s shouts carried faintly from the far end of the meadow, mingled with James’s smaller cries.

“How so?” Charlotte asked.

Sophia shrugged one shoulder. “You look…different. More settled. Less as if you are planning your escape at every moment.”

Charlotte smiled. “I have fewer trees to climb now.”

“You are welcome to climb ours,” Lavinia said. “Evermere has several that would oblige you.”

Charlotte set down her cup.

Do I look different? Perhaps. I feel different. Less alone. Less as if every decision is being made in another room without me.

She picked up a strawberry. “Marriage is odd. Henry says extraordinarily little. Yet somehow, I see more in what he does than in anything he might say.”

Lavinia watched her. “That sounds promising.”

“I am not certain.” Charlotte plucked a stem from the fruit. “He is forever insisting this is a practical union. A solution. A way to keep Ian safe and my father at bay. He reminds me often.”