But he reached out and caught her by the arm. “Hold on a moment,” he said.
She tried to pull away from him. “Sir—unhand me, please.”
“A moment. I’m sure I’ve seen your face before,” he told her. “Now, where would I have seen you? A ball, perhaps? But if so, why can’t I recall? And do you truly mean what you say when you tell me you don’t remember me at all? I feel as if something must have happened between the two of us…”
She pulled away from him again.
His grip tightened on her arm, and a scowl overtook his face. “There’s no need to be so hasty,” he said sharply. “I’m trying to figure out where I’ve seen your face before, and youwillremain still and allow me the time to look at you.”
Fear swept through her.
But it had no time to take hold. She heard the sound of her husband’s voice. “Cousin, unhand my wife at once. What do you mean by this?”
The baron released her, though the ugly scowl didn’t fade from his face. “I recognize her from somewhere, Levi,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out where.”
“Well, you’ll keep her hands off of her while you figure that out,” the duke snapped. “This is my wife, Charles. You won’t disrespect me like this, and you won’t disrespect her either.”
He held out a hand to Caroline. “It’s time to go,” he said.
“Wait a moment,” Caroline’s father spoke up, and only then did she realize the whole table had fallen silent to watch the three of them. Everyone had noticed the outburst. Now Caroline’s father had begun to rise to his feet. “The wedding breakfast is not yet over,” he objected.
“It’s over for us,” the duke said firmly. “We’ll be taking our leave now, thank you very much.”
Caroline half expected her father to go on arguing, but he didn’t, of course. He stood there in stunned silence as the duke led her from the table and out through the foyer. Caroline’s father would never argue with a duke. He had never had that kind of strength, and he didn’t have it now.
A carriage awaited them, and Caroline allowed herself to be helped into it. Unlike her father, she would have been willing to argue if she had disliked what was happening. She would have been willing to tell the duke she was not leaving and wanted to finish breakfast.
But between one thing and another, she found that she did not want to stay. No one was treating her particularly warmly, and they all seemed more interested in who she wasn’t than in who she was. And she certainly didn’t want to wait for Charles to figure out why he recognized her. It was bad enough that the duke knew.
On the other hand, now she was on her own with her husband. And that was something that filled her with dread.
As the carriage pulled away, she drew a deep breath and forced herself to make eye contact with him. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “Thank you for helping me with him.”
The duke let out a grunt of acknowledgement.
“Why did you do it?” she asked.
He glanced at her briefly. “You’re my wife,” he told her. “No one may put their hands on you without my permission—it dishonors me, and I won’t allow it.”
“I suppose that’s what you care most about? Your own honor?”
“You can’t expect me not to care for my honor.”
“No, I suppose I can’t.”
“You’re my wife. No one touches what’s mine.”
The words sent another shiver down her spine—they were so possessive. “You didn’t much care who you married,” she said. “You wanted a wife, that was all.”
He didn’t answer. She supposed she could hardly fault him—she had not asked a question.
She tried again, taking care to ask one now. “What does it mean to you, having a wife?” she asked him. “Why have you set so much store by it? What do you want—what do you expect from me?”
She could hardly believe she’d dared to frame the question so openly. It frightened her.
He surveyed her. “It’s good that you asked, because I do have expectations,” he said.
“You might have brought them up before we married.”
