He had been sitting there for nearly twenty minutes.
The long dining table at Rosewood House had been arranged with the usual quiet precision that characterized every corner of the household. The silver gleamed beneath the warm glow of candlelight, each piece reflecting the flickering flames in soft, distorted shapes.
Plates had been laid out in careful symmetry, the evening meal prepared and waiting in the kitchen while servants stood at their posts with patient composure, but Alexander had not touched the food placed before him.
At first, he had told himself it was simply a matter of courtesy. It would hardly do for a man in his position to begin dinner before his wife arrived. Such things mattered in houses like this, where every action seemed to carry quiet significance.
But as the minutes continued to pass, the explanation felt less convincing. Perhaps she had no intention of joining him. The thought settled into his mind with unpleasant persistence.
His fingers tapped lightly against the side of the wineglass before he realized he was doing it. The faint sound of glass against polished wood echoed softly in the quiet room until he forced himself to still the movement.
The events of the previous night returned to him with unwelcome clarity. For one brief moment, the careful distance that had existed between them had vanished entirely. The fragile balance between them had shifted into something far more dangerous.
And then he had ruined it by doubting her.
At the time, he had believed the question necessary. Rational. A man in his position could not afford to ignore the possibility that someone close to him might have wished him harm. His memory was fractured, the circumstances surrounding his injury uncertain, and caution had seemed the only sensible course.
But the look in Diana’s eyes when he had spoken the words had remained with him long after she left the room.
Shock. Anger. And something deeper that he had not yet learned how to name.
He exhaled slowly through his nose, the breath leaving him in a controlled rhythm that did little to quiet the irritation building inside his chest.
If she had chosen to avoid him this evening, he could hardly blame her.
The thought was reasonable, and yet, it irritated him more than it should have. Avoiding him would solve nothing. It would only create more distance between them, more unanswered questions in a situation already filled with too many unknowns. Diana had already become far more important to him than he cared to admit.
He shifted slightly in his chair, his gaze drifting once more toward the empty seat beside him, when the sound of footsteps echoed faintly in the corridor beyond the dining room.
Alexander’s head lifted. The footsteps grew closer.
A moment later, the tall doors at the far end of the room opened.
Diana stepped inside, and the effect was immediate.
Alexander straightened almost imperceptibly in his chair, his attention fixing upon her. For a moment, he said nothing at all, simply watching as she crossed the threshold.
Lady Salford entered just behind her.
Both women were laughing from genuine amusement. Lady Salford looked thoroughly pleased with herself, while Diana’s cheeks were flushed with a brightness that made her appear younger than he had ever seen her before.
Something warm stirred unexpectedly in Alexander’s chest.
Happiness suited her far more than the guarded reserve she usually wore around him.
“Well,” Lady Salford announced cheerfully as she crossed the room, “I see we have not been abandoned entirely.”
Alexander allowed the faintest hint of a smile to touch his mouth. “I was beginning to wonder if I had been forgotten.”
Diana glanced toward him quickly, the movement brief but unmistakably aware. “No one could forget you, Your Grace.”
The words were polite but the faint color rising in her cheeks suggested something less composed beneath them.
Alexander gestured toward the table. “Please. Sit.”
Lady Salford settled easily into her chair, while Diana took the seat beside Alexander with careful grace.
He felt her presence immediately. It was a strange phenomenon. She had barely sat down, yet his attention drifted briefly to the curve of her neck where a loose strand of hair had slipped free from its arrangement.
