Dorian’s arm remained there as Lady Orton slunk away and Rose’s color returned to normal.
“Did you invite her here?” Rose could not help asking and when Dorian shook his head, she found that she believed him.
“No, we invited Lord Orton as one of the last few of invitations to make up numbers, if you remember. He’s in my club. I had no idea he even had a wife. Well, he has not married wisely, it seems.”
There was no time for further discussion of this matter before the next guests in the line came forward.
Once all the guests were arrived, the ball seemed to move quickly. With Dorian’s support and social competence, Rose found making a round of the ballroom surprisingly painless. He knew everyone, and everyone knew him and liked him. Their addresses to Rose were sometimes curious but respectful.
As Lady Orton had stated so clearly in her own case, the Duke of Ravenhill had not been thought the marrying kind. Yet here was Rose on his arm, Duchess of Ravenhill and not to be ignored.
“How radiant you look tonight, Rose,” Madeline complimented her when they met at the edges of the ballroom, although her attention was soon distracted by her younger cousin beside her. “Francesca!”
At Madeline’s pointed reminder, Francesca sighed and curtseyed to their host and hostess, before raising her pert little face to flutter her eyelashes at Dorian.
“Do you dance, Your Grace?” she asked him, causing Madeline to make an explosive choking sound in her throat.
“Not tonight, Lady Francesca,” the duke answered swiftly and decisively. “Tonight I only attend my wife.”
“Oh,” she said pulling face of disappointment but then glancing eagerly about the ballroom. “Didn’t we see a rather handsome officer over there, Madeline? Perhaps he will want to dance.”
“Francesca, behave yourself,” her older cousin told her sternly. “It is for gentlemen to invite ladies to dance, and not the reverse. I shall not take you to a single ball again if you do not conduct yourself with more decorum.”
“I don’t see why,” the young woman pouted. “It makes no sense.”
“Dear God,” Dorian murmured to Rose with some amusement as Madeline and Francesca sailed away. “Lady Madeline has her hands full with that young lady, although Lady Francesca’s sentiments are not without merit.”
“Do you like to be asked to dance?” Rose inquired with a smile. “Or do you prefer to do the asking?”
“I like both,” Dorian answered with an instinctive grin as they continued their course through the guests. “You should know that by now…”
When invited to dance during their rounds of the ballroom, Rose accepted a handful of invitations with the best grace she could, hoping that her partners would not sense her nervousness. Dorian knew it, though, and remained hovering close to the dance floor each time, retrieving her from her partners almost as soon as the music ended.
“People will take you for a jealous husband,” Rose felt free enough to jest after she had danced a country dance with Admiral Turnbull.
“Maybe I am,” replied Dorian with something like chagrin in his expression. “Admirable Turnbull has an eye for beautiful women. I am not sure I should trust him with you alone, however. You do not know how men can be.”
“I know you,” Rose said.
“Exactly.”
Dorian’s hand caressed her back very lightly and Rose shivered, wanting him to do it again. He did not, however, only resting his arm at her waist.
“I hope you don’t think me too silly for being so shy.”
Her husband shook his dark head.
“I think you very brave to do so many of the things that frighten you,” he told her, “and to do them in your own style.”
Rose smiled at this compliment, glad to be holding Dorian’s arm and wishing she felt secure enough to kiss him.
“Thank you for defending me from Lady Orton earlier too,” she told him now, in case there was no chance later.
Dorian frowned at the mention of that lady’s name.
“She should not have spoken to you so disrespectfully, nor to me with such familiarity in front of you,” he said sternly. “No one insults my wife like that.”
Heartened by this staunch defense, and his previous remarks on her supposed bravery, Rose ventured a further question.
