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“I meant no offense, Marina,” he said, gently.
“And I took none,” she lied, her gaze flitting between his eyes and the hand that still rested on her forearm.
He smiled. “I suppose we ought to go to bed.”
“Pardon?” Her eyes widened, her heart in her throat.
After what they had discussed in her bedchamber the other night, and the visions and thoughts that had sparked in her mind since, she had the sudden worry that he had changed his mind about their arrangement. A worry laced with the tiniest thrill of possibility, of new discoveries. Especially as she had not yet found a book to explain the ‘act’ in enough detail to satisfy the questions of her inquisitive mind.
Of course, she could have just asked him to elaborate, but even the prospect was so mortifying that it brought her out in a cold sweat.
“It is late,” he said, quickly withdrawing his hand. “We should retire to our respective rooms to sleep.”
She relaxed… though there was a small part of her that deflated with disappointment.
“Yes, of course,” she said, lowering her gaze. “Well then, goodnight.”
She made to leave first, confused as Anthony fell in step with her. Then again, their bedchambers were in the same direction, at least until they reached the main landing.
“William will be pleased to hear that you are considering teaching him to ride,” she said to fill the awkward quiet between them, punctuated only by the sound of their footsteps.
Looking straight ahead, Anthony made a low, contemplative noise. “It would be better if you did not tell him.”
“Whyever not?”
“Until I can be sure that I will, he does not need to know of it,” he replied.
Perhaps you do care, somewhere deep down… For why else would Anthony wish to spare his son’s feelings, saving him from disappointment? Although Marina dearly hoped that Anthony would not let his son down.
“Very well,” she said, “but I think you should teach him. I believe it is a father’s duty.”
“It is a duke’s duty to keep his estate in order and to forge a legacy for his heir,” Anthony remarked, his tone cooling.
Marina glanced at him, her heart heavy. “But what is the point of a legacy if your son is estranged?”
“What?” Anthony’s tone sharpened, and Marina guessed she had just trodden on dangerous territory.
Still, she had never been one to back down, simply because the listener might not like what they were about to hear. Indeed, she would not have been much of a student of medicine if she feared what people might say.
She stopped in the hallway, and he halted with her, his green eyes narrowed, his expression demanding an explanation.
With a sigh, she gave it to him as gently as she could. “He is still young, and there is still plenty of time for you two to form a closer bond. Do not squander that. Be careful of how you treat him now, because if you continue to push him away, there will come a day when he no longer seeks to be near to you in any capacity. There will come a day when you barely hear from him, maybe a letter every few months. And when you are gone, and he inherits, you will be forgotten, for he will have no memories worth remembering. A partial amnesia that you caused.”
He stared hard at her as if he did not understand her, his eyes flashing with an anger that tightened every feature of his handsome face, his teeth clenched behind his full lips. Perhaps she had crossed a line, but it was a line that needed to be breached; she would not apologize for it.
“Goodnight, Anthony,” she said with a bob of her head and, holding her housecoat tighter around herself to keep out the chill from his glare, she hurried on ahead of him, and did not slow until she was in her chambers, the door closed behind her.
Sometimes, people needed to hear something they did not want to if they were ever going to change.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Anthony lumbered down the stairs, bleary-eyed and restless, as morning sunlight streaked in through the tall windows of the entrance hall.
He had slept badly, and that was being generous, thanks to his wife’s parting words last night.
My wife…
It had not yet settled in his mind that that was what Marina was to him now, and he could not say that he was finding the marriage all that convenient. When he did not cross paths with her, perhaps, but after last night… No, it was not convenient at all. She was stuck there in his thoughts, and he did not have the faintest notion of how to pluck her out.
