No. That’s not true at all. I’ve been lying too long. I need to stop lying to myself.
The truth was that there was only one person he really wanted the company of right now—and he had left her on the dance floor.
I’m a fool. No wonder she doesn’t want to be married, if this is the kind of foolish thing people do in marriage.
“You’re leaving us already?” the Marquess asked, lifting an eyebrow. “I was going to offer to introduce you around. If you’re going to be Duke of Heathmare, you need to be familiar with all the most important people in London.”
People you know, I’m sure, and want to introduce to me so that you can take credit later for our knowing one another. I’ll bet that’s exactly what this is. He wants to integrate himself into my life, but he’s too much of a bumbling fool to simply walk up and try to get to know a person. So instead of that, he’s trying to make me feel small so that he can feel big.
A smirk passed over Norman’s face. What a ridiculous trick—and what a fool he would have had to be to fall for it!
But this was common. Lords often thought they were more clever than commoners. As a general rule, Norman would have said that the opposite was true.
He wasn’t going to press the issue right now. “You can introduce me to your friends later, Cleery,” he said. “I need to find my wife. I promised her I would only be gone for a few minutes.”
Or rather, I should have promised her that. Even if she doesn’t want a real marriage, she deserves to be seen with a husband who dotes on her.
He hurried back into the ballroom—where he was greeted by a very unwelcome sight.
Susan was standing just where she had been when he had left, but Michael was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Susan stood face to face with a man Norman did not know. As he watched, the man said something, and Susan broke into a peal of laughter.
His blood boiled. Was that man flirting with her?
Is she flirting with him?
He stormed across the room toward the two of them, intent on breaking it up.
CHAPTER 26
Susan had to race to keep up with her husband as he stormed from the carriage back into the house.
He had been silent the entire way home, and that frightened her. She had never seen Norman quite so serious. He had looked positively enraged as he’d come over to take her away from her conversation with Lord Islington.
She didn’t know what could have happened.
Whatever it is, it’s nothing to do with me,she reminded herself firmly.He walked away from me—left me on the dance floor to go socialize with other members of the ton. So if something happened that made him angry, it must have happened while he and I were apart, and I can’t blame myself for that.
Still, she was reminded forcibly of all the times, when she was young, that she had seen her parents get angry with one another.All the times her father had shouted at her mother, until at last her mother had left.
She squared her shoulders.I’m not going to leave. No matter what he says, I’m not going to leave. I’m not like Mother—I never had any expectations that I would be happy in this marriage. I always knew I was just here to make it work, and I have committed to that. I won’t leave.
But what ifheleft?
It was odd. That was the kind of thing that would have been good, in her mind, if she had conceived of it even a month ago. She might even have considered it to be the perfect solution. Yes, being abandoned by your husband was a bad thing for a lady’s reputation, but Susan’s reputation was the very least of her concerns. If Norman left her, she might be free to return to a life in which she had no obligations to anyone. And better yet, Marina was now happily married to Gilbert, so she wouldn’t have to worry about her sister’s well-being either.
But strangely, she found that she didn’t want that outcome at all.
The thought of him abandoning her made her tremble. To have to return to her father’s house, or to be left alone in the vast emptiness of Heathmare, seemed a terrible fate.
I would miss his company. Even now, with him raging like this, I can see that his company is something I would long for.
So she hurried after him, anxious to find out what was wrong, to reassure herself that it didn’t spell doom for their marriage.
Once they were inside, he handed off his cloak to a valet, then turned to face her.
She was startled by the darkness in his eyes, and the clench of his jaw, and any thought she’d had that his anger was not for her was immediately gone. This was fury, and she was the subject of it. But she had no idea what she had done to deserve it.
“Norman?” she managed, her voice trembling slightly.
