Page 64 of Wedded to the Ruthless Duke

“I never said you were.”

“Yet you are acting like it,” she hissed. They parted, and she turned on the spot, coming back to face him. They went back to the beginning of the dance, circling one another and holding hands. “How would you feel if I instructed you that you were never allowed to touch another woman until death do us part? That you could not help an older woman trying to cross a street to keep her safe from carriages?”

“There’s a difference —”

“No, there is not!” she hissed, her cheeks red with fury. “It’s just as mad, just as absurd, for me to ask you not to even think of touching another woman again.”

He didn’t reply, for he could not, and she seemed to have reached the end of her tether.

Rather than taking his hand for the next figure of the dance, she stepped back. She broke line, surprising the other dancers around her, then turned and marched off the floor early.

Philip watched her go, well aware that he should have been furious at this sense of impropriety, but there was another feeling shouting this one down. It was much stronger and certainly overwhelming.

He stepped off the floor too, allowing the other dancers to fill the space as some watching on whispered and pointed in his direction.

“I do not think I could touch another woman now, My Duchess,” he whispered possessively.

CHAPTER21

“Oh, I cannot stand him!” Grace flung herself toward Eleanor and Tabitha.

The two women had taken refuge in the corner of one of the smaller assembly rooms. Eleanor was seated, evidently needing the rest, with Tabitha keeping her company beside her.

“Grace, I’m so sorry.” Tabitha looked almost in tears out of worry. “To think you are married to such a beastly man who causes you such pain.”

“Beastly?” Eleanor’s eyes flashed with sudden anger as Grace threw herself into the seat beside Eleanor. Whatever was going on in Eleanor’s mind at the insult, she managed to restrain herself from barking back at Tabitha. “Could you do me a favor, Tabitha. Could you give us some privacy? I need to speak to Grace alone for a minute, please.”

“Of course.” Tabitha stood. She offered a comforting squeeze to Grace’s shoulder then left.

Grace watched her go, seeing that at the other end of the room, Tabitha was greeted by Grace’s mother.

Grace hadn’t even seen that Althea was here tonight. She realized in shock that her own mother hadn’t even bothered to come and greet her.

“My brother is no beast,” Eleanor said with fierce protection in her tone as she turned to face Grace.

“I’m not the one who described him as such,” Grace hastened to remind her. “Though I have a few choice words I could describe him with now.”

Eleanor looked sorrier than anything else, shaking her head in sadness for Grace’s situation.

“I know he’s a difficult man,” she said softly. “He has never been the easiest of men, but he’s had hardships of his own to deal with. Hardships that have made him into the man he is today.”

“What hardships?” Grace asked, but Eleanor didn’t say. She merely winced. Grace sighed, realizing that despite their close friendship, Eleanor and Philip’s sibling bond ran very deep indeed. Eleanor would not betray his trust. “You are both admirable in your protection of him and infuriating in equal measure.”

“I know.” Eleanor sighed with the words. “I wasn’t expecting Philip to come up as he did so. To see him so possessive of you? Outlandish! Quite incredible.”

“Possessive indeed. How about dominating? Controlling?” Grace hissed angrily. “I will not be controlled by him, Eleanor.”

“Then don’t be.” Eleanor smiled with victory. “You’re too free spirited to ever let a man control you anyway.”

“Why on earth does he have to be so demanding all the time?”

“He can be demanding.” Eleanor’s expression cracked into a grimace. “It’s his way. He especially seems to me to be more demanding when he’s trying to protect people around him. It’s how that protection comes out of him.”

“Hmm.” It was Grace’s non-committal reply. As far as she was concerned, Philip was a man who was often protecting himself.

He had married her to save her reputation, yes, but wasn’t he also saving his own? He focused so much on propriety that his own rescue was probably the prominent thought in his mind.

“He may be a demanding man, but I promise you this.” Eleanor leaned toward her, conspiratorially. “He has a good heart, deep down. He just hides it well. He hides it beneath reserve and —”

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