Page 35 of Caught With the Scarred Duke
I forgive you.She wanted to tell him so, wanted to make peace after their disruptive start to married life, but the words would not leave her tongue. Not with Anthony standing there, making her shy, making her remember how they had ended up married in the first place.
“What are you whispering about?” Anthony chimed back in, raising an eyebrow at the pair of them. “Are you whispering sweet nothings? Declarations of love? Do you know, there are ladies in society who could not have conjured a scheme that successful, yet you managed it quite by chance. Extraordinary, really. I commend you, Your Grace, I really do.”
Teresa shot Anthony a confused look, the piece of a puzzle trying to wiggle itself into a place where itmightfit. Was that why Cyrus had been distant with her? Was that why he stayed away from her? Was that why he had told her that he expected nothing from her? Did he think she had schemed her way into a marriage with him?
I wouldneverdo such a thing.She turned her gaze up to Cyrus, startled to find him glaring at his friend with such ferocity that it made her heart jump.
“Apologize,” Cyrus growled.
Anthony squinted. “Pardon?”
“Apologize to my wife.” Cyrus curved his hand around her arm. “Iknowyou did not mean to, but a lady might take your words as an insult. An accusation.”
Shaking his head, his hand flying to his chest, Anthony gushed, “Goodness, I am sorry. You see, Your Grace, I am a fool. I speak before I think. Of course, I was not suggesting thatyouschemed this. It is more than obvious that you did not.”
“Thank you. There is no harm done,” Teresa said quietly, flushing with secret pleasure at the grip of Cyrus’ hand around her upper arm, and the strength with which he had come to her defense.
His expression relaxed, though his hand did not leave her, his callused palm rough and warm and pleasant against her bare skin, his grasp reassuring. “It is an excellent ball, Anthony,” he said, the quarrel forgotten. “Indeed, I think I might dance with my wife.”
Teresa blinked. “What?”
“A dance,” he replied, gazing down at her. “What do you say?”
Anthony looked equally shocked, his mouth agape. “I never thought I would see the day…”
“Oh, well, I… I…” Teresa faltered, her heart thundering in her chest, her gaze darting toward the dance floor she feared so much.
It was where everyone could laugh and whisper, muttering unkind things about her, pointing at every misstep she made. In her three years in society, she could count on fewer than two hands the amount of times she had been asked to dance, her talents firmly in the library and the outdoors, not in dancing.
Everything has been going so well. I will embarrass him if we dance.
“Perhaps, I ought to find my sister and Beatrice first,” she blurted out, terror creeping through her veins, taking over. “They will be wondering where I am, and I?—”
“I thought I felt my ears smoking,” Beatrice’s voice swept in with her, a glass of punch in one hand, lemonade in the other. “For a moment, I thought I had stepped too close to a sconce.”
Anthony’s face brightened at the new arrival. “Lucky for you, you have two drinks to put out any fires.”
“Why else would I have them?” Beatrice replied with a smile, sipping from one and then the other. “You never know when a lady’s hair might go up in flames. Not two minutes ago, I saw an old dear with feathers in her hair passjustbeneath a candle. She does not know how close she came to catastrophe, but I would have doused her in an instant.”
Anthony stepped forward, putting out his hand to take Beatrice’s. “I do not believe we have been acquainted.”
“Nor shall we be,” Beatrice replied, gesturing with both of her glasses, making a point of having no free hand for him to kiss. “I am here for my dearest friend, not unscrupulous list-writers.”
A horrified gasp escaped Teresa’s throat as a startled cough erupted from Anthony’s. “I beg your pardon?”
Oh, Bea, no! You do not need to do this. I have forgiven it already.The last thing Teresa needed was for her best friend and Cyrus’ to be at odds with one another.
“Do not look so shocked, my lord.” Beatrice smiled. “At least I did not mention your even more questionable endeavors. HowisLady Katherine? No… forgive me, it was Lady Lucille, was it not, who so captured your heart? No, wrong again, it was Miss Setterfield you were proposing to, yes?”
Teresa was about to jump in to rescue Anthony, when the man suddenly grinned, giving a slow nod of approval to Beatrice. “Now, I reallymustknow who you are. I have never met anyone quite like you.”
“AndIhave never heardthatbefore,” Beatrice retorted, smirking. “You shall have to remain in suspense, Lord Leighmoor, for I am going to retrieve a third beverage, and my beloved friend here is going to dance with her husband. If she does not, then who knows what I might say, for I shall have to continue to rattle off the list of poor young ladies that have been charmed and abandoned, and?—”
“I will dance!” Teresa gasped, flashing an apologetic look up at Cyrus. But as she met his gaze, she saw a glimmer there that quietened her fear, an intensity that she had seen twice before. “I… will dance with you.”
His hand slid slowly down her arm, the brush of his skin upon hers making her heart race and her head spin. She could not breathe, his touch like wildfire, leaving her struggling for air as her stomach fluttered wildly. As he reached her wrist, he turned his hand around, resting it beneath her own.
“The music is starting,” he said, leading her off toward the dance floor, unaware of the injuries he was about to gain to his feet.
