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“Hmm…” he rumbled low in his throat, then slowly tore a piece of bread with his fingers, not taking his eyes off her. “So, I am not allowed to flirt with anyone, yet you’re free to kiss other lords on the balcony?”

Victoria’s eyes widened, and her face burned from shame. “You… You saw that?” Since he had been gone from the ballroom for a long time after Kensington had pulled him aside, the fact that he could have witnessed the kiss hadn’t even entered her mind. Besides, she’d spent the rest of the night trying to forget it ever happened.

“Yes,” he bit out. “I did. And here I thought you said we were supposed to act like a couple very much in love.”

Suddenly it all made sense. His abrupt change in demeanor, the silent hostility toward her. He thought that she had betrayed him when she had not.

Well, she had let another man kiss her… But she didn’t mean to! She should have fought him harder, she knew. She shouldn’t have entertained the idea of a kiss, giving Porter an opportunity to press his lips against hers. But she’d froze, and that made her feel guilty and confused.

What if she did kiss him on purpose? The deal she’d made with William didn’t include not keeping lovers. She was free to do so, not that she would.

But his attitude, the way he sulked for the entire night instead of telling her what bothered him, instead of confronting her left her feeling quite cross. “Yes, we agreed to act as a couple very much in love. But I also have an image of an unpredictable and eccentric princess to uphold. Loyalty was never in the bargain.”

William’s fingers curled into fists. “Are you saying that you shall continue acting this… unpredictably? That you will continue kissing other men during our social outings?”

Victoria straightened her spine and lifted her chin for good measure. “I might,” she said, just to be contrary.

“Oh.” William bristled. “Then I shall do the same.”

“You will kiss other men?” Victoria asked with a raised brow.

William simply shrugged. “Men, women, do you really care?

Victoria gasped. “You wouldn’t dare!”

William crossed his arms over his chest. “I would.”

“You already have an advantage over me! You are free to leave this house in the middle of the night to go devil knows where. I never know where you go or what you do, while you know my every step. And now you want to continue flirting and start kissing women at an event where I am present? Then why did you even want me back?”

“I wanted you back as my wife. Completely back. Body and soul. But since you are renegotiating the terms of our agreement, then I shall have the freedom to do the same.”

“Not kissing other men was never a part of our agreement!” she bristled.

“Well, it is now,” he growled. “And if you think that your little rebellion won’t go unpunished, then you have a surprise or two waiting in the wings.”

“Punished?” Victoria cried. “You are going to punish me?”

William lowered his head and resumed eating with a great deal of show.

Victoria narrowed her eyes at him. “If this is how you’re going to act, then I shall spend as little time as I can inside this house.”

He snorted. “As if you’re ever home as it is.”

She gasped. “Then you won’t mind my leaving now, will you? Please, ask the driver to prepare the carriage and escort for me right now.”

William finished chewing in tension-filled silence before asking, “And where is it you wish to go?”

Victoria tossed her head. “The women’s shelter in St. Giles.”

He scoffed. “For a woman who dislikes peasants, you sure spend a lot of time with them.”

Victoria bit her lip, remembering the thoughtless remark she’d thrown his way a few days ago. She couldn’t believe he was still angry about that. Especially since she’d visited the women’s shelter a few times already and he had never made the same remark. “I didn’t mean to offend peasants by my statement the other morning. I cannot fault anyone for where or to which family they were born.”

“Except for me, apparently,” he grumbled under his breath.

“I do not fault you for the circumstances of your birth, you understand,” Victoria said emphatically, placing her butter knife on the plate with an audible clink. “What I do fault you for are the consequences of your actions.”

“What you must understand, my dear wife,” William said, not taking his eyes off his food as he fished around his plate with his fork, “is that my actions are a direct result of the circumstances of my birth.”