“Round one is over,” he whispered in her ear. “You did great.”
“I did?” Prim sighed. “I mean, I did.”
Leo smirked.
“We will probably be separated now. Any time you want, feign a headache, and we are leaving.”
Prim nodded and followed him in the dining hall. She took the place in.
“I will never speak ill of our dining hall again,” he hissed.
“I agree. If ours is a martial courtroom, this is a mausoleum.”
She had to disagree with Prim. This was not a mausoleum. With all that dark wood paneling and those somber candelabras, this place looked more like a coffin. This is where joy came to die.
“Primrose!” Bridget called her over. “You will sit with me.”
Leo wanted to pull Prim to him and glue her to his side. Even more so when he saw that Aaron was going to be seated across from her.
“Your Grace,” the Duke called him, pointing at the chair on his right side.
“Be wary,” he whispered in her ear. “And remember…”
“I am basically the queen in here.”
He smiled at her. She was so brave for doing this for no other reason but to help him die with his enemies.
Everyone was seated, and Leo threw a glance at Prim. She was smiling politely at something Bridget said. His look fell on Aaron, who looked as if he was a cat eyeing the canary up in the golden cage.
The first course was served, and the servants went about when the wife of the nephew, a colorless Lady Nothing-ton looked at Prim with a smile on her face.
“Your Grace, it must be such a shift to dine in such a grand room. You must miss the coziness of your father’s table.”
Leo braced and wanted to slap the woman.
“How thoughtful of you,” Prim replied with her most saccharine, fake smile. “I think that one’s perspective changes with the view he is blessed with.”
The woman bit her jaw. Leo smiled. Prim parried the opening shot with grace. The Duke’s nephew picked up where his wife stopped.
“But your social calendar must be filled. I do hope you’re not feeling overwhelmed. It can be a dreadful burden for someone unused to the spotlight.”
“It could have been,” Prim cut her meat elegantly. “I am lucky to share the burden with my husband.”
Leo snorted audibly. Perhaps this was not a disaster after all. He got to see his wife navigate the Clashing Rocks of the ton and the soup was excellent.
“It is so good to see couples support each other,” Aaron said so sweetly that sent chills down Leo’s back. “I am happy that you ignored all these vile rumors about Leo.”
Prim dropped her polite smile. Leo saw that cold determination that she shows only to him. He was ready to talk, but Aaron had more poison to drop.
“How amazing to find someone who is not intimidated by the rumor of the Unholy Duo and the rakish Duke of Mildenhall.”
Leo fisted his knife till his knuckles turned white. He was keen to hurl that knife across the table when Prim laughed lightly.
“You praise me, Lord Aaron,” she said firmly. “But one doesn’t need praise for dealing in facts and not whispers. And the fact is that my husband,” she looked at Leo, “is an honorable man. More than the rumors give him credit for. Perhaps it is because of that that they stay rumors and nothing more.”
The white-knuckled fist around his knife loosened. Leo looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. In the silence of herdeclaration, she was radiant. He pushed aside all the malice and the murmurs, the hate and resentment. And she defended him.
Prim was not ashamed of him. Instead, she defended him, she became his shield. That girl, alone and defenseless, now sheltered him. No one in his whole life had done that. Not his mother, who abandoned him. Not Edwin, who teased him about his reputation. Not even he himself who believed that this was all it was. He never saw himself as anything more than a reckless rake.
