“Rupert,” Adrian began dryly. “As always, I find myself wondering if it is a good thing seeing you here or not.”
Rupert chuckled as he fixed his attention on Ophelia. “Your Grace, it is wonderful to see you again.” He bowed deeply. “I have so many questions for you, but they must wait until you are free from your husband’s side.”
“Oh?” Ophelia asked. “What sort of questions?”
“Ignore him,” Adrian sighed. “His sense of humor is not so much funny as it is frustrating.”
“I take it all is well…” He looked between them, noting the way their arms were linked. “I could not be happier for it. Truly, Vermont. No one deserves it more than you.”
“Thank you.” Adrian narrowed his eyes.
“A good thing, too,” Rupert continued. “Your Grace, I must say that you look ravishing tonight. I could not be more thrilled that Vermont has finally come to his senses. A beauty such as yours should not be wasted or ignored.”
Ophelia flushed at the compliment, apparently quite taken by it. Adrian knew his friend was just teasing, as he was trying to get a reaction from him. However, seeing his wife react the way that she did, how she enjoyed his kind words, made him feel… again, it was a sensation that he did not fully understand, but knew its meaning well enough.
As ridiculous and unheard of as it was to consider, Adrian felt jealous. He did not like seeing Ophelia so taken with another man’s kind words, and he hated that those words had not come from him.
It was so unlike him. Then again, much of tonight was unlike him.
“Rupert, as much as I do love your company…” Adrian’s mind searched for an excuse to walk away, and as it did, his eyes landed on the dance floor. Adrian was not one who danced; he was not the sort who enjoyed it, but he sensed that his wife might be of a different mind. What was more, he realized that if sheenjoyed it, then maybe he would too. “But I was just about to ask my wife if she would like to dance, and sadly, such a thing is for two people only.”
Rupert frowned and leaned back. “Dancing? You?”
“A dance?” Ophelia looked at him hopefully. “Adrian, you do not have to…”
“I want to,” he said to her, pulling her in closer. “Assuming that you would like such a thing?”
“I would,” she said, her smile assured. “Very much.”
So it was that the Duke of Vermont danced with his wife for the first time. Done in front of his peers. Done in front of everyone. Done not because he was trying to prove something, but because he wanted to make his wife happy.
He held her close as he danced. He led firmly, with confidence, and Ophelia gave herself to him with a level of trust that he did not expect. As they danced, the ballroom around them seemed to vanish, the music meant little, and all Adrian could think about was his wife.
It was so unlike him. It was not what he expected of himself, and certainly not of this marriage. But it was happening, and rather than fighting it, as he often would do, Adrian decided then and there that he would embrace this new side of him.
At the very least, he would not run from it. A small step, he knew, but it was a step in the right direction. And that mattered, even more than he realized or was able to acknowledge.
CHAPTER 16
Ophelia and Adrian returned home that night to the sound of crying.
When they walked through the doors together, it took Ophelia a few moments to understand what exactly it was that she was hearing. And that was because she was so distracted.
Adrian might have said little to her on the journey home, but it was not a silence brimming with the same level of awkwardness or tension that it might have once been. There was comfort found in that silence, a sense that they both seemed to recognize just how important and consequential their first night out together was.
It is as if he is a new person to whom I married.
He did not smile as they rode home. He did not appear particularly thrilled or proud of what had happened that night. But Ophelia saw through the mask he wore, able now tounderstand him better than she had before. And because she could, she knew that deep down, he was happy.
The marriage was not perfect. Maybe it never would be. But nights like that one proved without question that she was not alone in this world, or this marriage. Adrian was there for her; he wanted her to feel safe and supported, and so long as she let him grow at his own pace, he might just turn into the man that she knew existed somewhere deep inside that hard shell.
So it was that they entered the manor together, in silence, but not awkwardness. As good as the evening had been, Ophelia knew not to push it. She would say goodnight, she would retire to her room, and she would sleep soundly because she had nothing to worry herself with.
That was when they both heard it.
“What on earth…” Adrian came to a sudden stop as the ear-piercing shrieks reached them.
Ophelia blinked in confusion. “It sounds like…” Her eyes widened, and fear swept her. “Harriet!”
