“Was your mother of nobility?” Anna asked.
He nodded. “Aye, she was a laird’s daughter. We were raised in her father’s castle, and me own father never had any desire to return to England. Ironic, in truth, but me mother didn’t mind so much, as long as we bairns were educated in England.”
His gaze hardened behind his mask, and Anna sensed he wasn’t going to continue with the details of his past. Still, she had to try; it was the most she had been able to get out of him since they met.
“Is that the castle that you lost?”
He shook his head. “It’s still standing, but it belongs to a cousin now. He’s much like yer own.”
Anna pulled a face. “It seems they are a plague upon every corner of this island, from the southernmost tip to the northernmost point.” She paused to complete a complex diagonal hop. “Were your mother and father happy?”
“Aye.”
She could only assume that they were no longer living. Unless that was the family he had been referring to? A small flicker of hope wavered in her chest, praying he might reveal the truth and alleviate her guilt and anger about kissing a married man.
“Are they still… with us?” she asked, in what she hoped was an innocent voice.
He shook his head, and her hope sputtered. “They were older when they met and married.” It was all the explanation he supplied. “What of ye, eh? How did ye end up married to the late duke?”
She shot him a look of disapproval for his discourteous remark, and a little for the fact that he hadn’t given her the relief she had been hoping for. “Well, I shall just say that I did not have much of a choice.”
Her gaze drifted away from Jeremy to search the crowd for the drunken beast who had put her in that situation. It was rather difficult, considering everyone was masked and in costume, with several gentlemen dressed in Tudor attire.
“My cousin,” she added, a soft gasp escaping her throat as Jeremy took hold of her chin and lightly turned her face back toward him.
“I won’t have ye staring at other men when ye’re speaking to me, Duchess,” he said in a low, stirring whisper.
Her stomach fluttered, and her mind raced with visions of herself in the library, pressed against the door: his hand in her hair, his mouth on hers, his other hand lifting her skirts as desire pulsed between her thighs.
She gulped. “I was just… looking to see if my cousin was still here. He is the one who forced me to marry.”
“Even less reason to look his way, when ye ought to be looking at me,” Jeremy replied, as he slowly withdrew his hand.
Too late, however. All around, Anna heard a refreshed wave of whispers and noted the inquisitive stares of the gossipmongers,her skin burning beneath the intensity of their scrutiny. They already believed she was a murderer; after tonight, they would probably call her a seductress, too, though neither was true.
Jeremy seemed to notice the whispers at the same moment, his eyes flashing with irritation as they darted this way and that. Rather hypocritical, Anna thought, after what he had just said, but she did not feel like goading him. Instead, she just needed to focus on getting through this dance without any more problems.
After two promenades and several call-and-response steps, the whispers had risen to a pinnacle. Only then, beneath so many curious stares, did the music finally have the decency to come to an end.
Jeremy did not hesitate to bow his head, his half-covered expression tense with annoyance. “I am going to the terrace for some fresh air,” he said bluntly, as he turned and departed without another word.
Anna watched him leave, suddenly filled with her own burst of irritation. Did he understand nothing about etiquette? Did he not realize how his actions affected her? Leaving a woman alone on the dance floor conveyed a very potent message, and she was not about to let him get away with it… even if it benefited her.
If it was an English education he needed, then he would receive one. And she would not be a gentle tutor.
CHAPTER 14
Cool, crisp night air hit Jeremy in the face like a slap as he stepped onto the terrace. Exactly what he needed to shake off the discomfort of that awful ballroom and all the whispering, gossiping wastrels inside.
The scent of roses enveloped him as he continued on down a shallow set of steps, following a white-gravel path into the expansive gardens. Moonlight reflected off the little stones to guide his way, though he did not really care where he ended up; he just wanted to be as far from that ballroom, those guests, and his memories as possible.
He might have continued walking until he reached Stonebridge, if it were not for the accompanying crunch of footsteps on the gravel.
Jeremy stopped in the shadow of a cedar tree, far inferior to the one at his manor. “Ye should not be out here, lass.”
“Andyoushould not walk away from me with such little decorum,” Anna’s voice fired back. “You say you want me to find a husband, yet you bring me to amasqueradeball, you cause a scene with my cousin, you intrude upon a dance, and then you abandon me on the dance floor! You said you were taught about English customs, but it seems there are some gaps in your knowledge.”
“I must not have been listening that day,” he replied dryly, keeping his back to her.
