“I have my ways,” he said simply, seeing no need to elaborate. “I am correct in saying that he accosted you?”
“He did not accost me…” She looked away and the drop in her voice told him the truth of the matter.
“What did he say?” Caspian asked her.
“Nothing that needs repeating.”
“What did he say,” he asked again, his tone growing sharp.
Thalia flinched, and then she told him about the interaction.
Caspian knew how to control his temper. He knew how to keep his cool. He also knew that a lord of Donmere’s standing should know better than to speak to his wife as he had done.
As Thalia spoke, Caspian’s hands began to tremble as rage built inside of him. Absurd, he knew. After all the claims he had made that he did not care about his wife, why did this anger him so much?
It is not about that. It is the fact that Lord Donmere thinks he can get away with such things. To speak to Thalia that way is to speak to me the same. I will not have it!
When she finished, Caspian was still shaking, and his hands were clenched by his side.
“Lord Donmere should not have spoken to you like that,” he said with some amount of calm.
“It is quite fine.”
“It is not fine,” he hissed. Thalia’s eyes widened and a smile took over her face. Caspian cursed silently and found calm. “I will speak to him myself at the first chance.”
“Are you upset?” she looked at him, searching for the answer.
“It is principal,” he said. “That is all. You are my wife, and Lord Donmere should know better.”
“So, you are not upset…” She was still searching him, still smiling to herself, and still very much eager to see his reaction. If he did not know any better, Caspian might have said that she had planned this herself.
“What I am upset about is the implication that this raises.” He unclenched his hands, returned his breathing to normal, and looked flatly at his wife. “I was hoping that our marriage would quell the rumors that your actions started.”
“My actions?”
He scoffed. “Let us not go over this again. Our marriage was designed specifically to convince the ton that you and I are in love, and your interruption of my wedding was in protest of my marrying another.”
She laughed. “Oh yes, that’s right. I had almost forgotten.”
He maintained composure. “If Lord Donmere thinks otherwise, he will not hesitate to tell anyone willing to listen. And while you might not care, think of what it will do to Lady Rosaline. Her future is reliant on our marriage remaining scandal free. She needs people to believe it, even more than you do.”
“I did not think of that…”
“Clearly you did not,” he said dryly. “So, now the question is, what are we going to do about it?”
“Do you have any ideas?”
“I do, in fact.” Caspian started walking toward Thalia, a surprise to him, because he did not mean to. But he felt a sudden pull toward her, and was unable to fight it. “Firstly, any notions of a honeymoon between you and I will need to be put on hold.”
“Oh no,” she said with much sarcasm. “However will I survive?”
“The perception people have of this marriage is what matters, meaning that we have to prove to our peers that Lord Donmere’s rumors are unfounded.”
“And how do we do that?”
“Simple,” he said. “Starting immediately, you and I will be attending more social events across the Season. We will be seen together, and when we are, we will prove to all those who dare to question us that we are happy. Dare I even say, in love.”
The surprise on Thalia’s face was evident. She might have even thought he was joking, if she did not know he wasn’t capable of such things.
