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“It is not about winning,” the old woman tutted. “It is about the two of you performing your duties… and I could not attend such a ball alone.”

A wry laugh slipped from Anthony’s throat. “Grandmother, you will not be going to the ball at all. If my wife and I must be there, then someone shall have to remain with William.”

“Mrs. Havers can do that,” Harriet protested. “Now, what do you say to a walk, Marina? It will do you the world of good to take in some fresh air.”

Marina had to laugh at the older woman’s tenacity. “I was just telling Anthony that a walk will reinvigorate me.”

“Then, let us meet in the entrance hall in half an hour. I shall tend to my darling great-grandson while you ready yourselves,” Harriet said cheerily, as she rose from the chaise and hurried out with surprising speed for a lady of her age.

Likely to avoid being told a second time that she would not be going to the royal summer ball.

The moment she was gone from the room, Anthony twisted around and cast a very serious look at his wife. “Do you really want to attend this silly ball?” He paused, his tone softening. “You do not have to if you feel uncomfortable, or if you feel you will not have the strength for it. Ignore what my grandmother says; society can wait to gawp at us.”

Marina shifted on the soft mattress, rubbing the back of her stiff neck… as the flash of a memory caught her off guard: his hand cradling her nape, the closeness of him, and the strength with which he had swept her up into his arms and carried her here, to her bedchamber.

“It is probably no secret that I do not care for the Season and its events,” she said, dropping her chin to her chest, too bashful to look him in the eye. “But… I do not want to put off the inevitable.”

“There truly is no pressure,” he told her, his hand stretching across the coverlets as if he meant to take hold of her hand.

But he stopped himself, his hand remaining between them, as if he were just leaning instead.

“No, I know, but… I should like to go,” she said, her stomach twisting into knots. “Rather, I do not want to avoid it.”

“You are determined?”

She gave a slow, uncertain nod. “Yes, I think I am.”

After all, people stared at her regardless. Perhaps, for once, it would be nice to know that they were staring at her because she was a duchess and not because she was covered in scars that no ointment or oil could fix.

“In that case,” he said gently, “I shall send in your maid and leave you to get ready.”

She nodded. “Thank you.” Drawing in a breath, she smiled. “Besides, how bad can a royal ball be?”

CHAPTER TWENTY

“This is simply not possible!” Anthony called across the seemingly empty gardens. “Some of you, if not all of you, are cheating!”

It had been William’s idea to play a game of hide and seek, as a means to strengthen Marina’s spirits in the fresh air of the sunny morning.

“I think just a walk,” Anthony had tried to argue, but his son had been ready for the challenge.

“But this will help her mind as well as her physical health. And you don’t have to run or do anything strenuous with hide and seek,” he had insisted.

“If I can play, then a young thing like Marina certainly can,” Harriet had agreed, putting Marina under undue pressure yet again. Something that was beginning to annoy Anthony more than he cared to admit.

In the end, it had been Marina herself who had relented, agreeing to the game as long as she was permitted two minutes to hide, and she was not the first to seek.

As misfortune would have it, Anthony had volunteered to seek first. Considering he only had to find an eight-year-old boy, a seventy-year-old woman, and a woman who had been bedridden for two weeks, he had expected it to be easy.

Yet, it had been almost half an hour of hunting through the extensive ornamental gardens, and he had not found a single person.

“We agreed that no one would hide beyond the walls!” he called again, bewildered as to where the three of them could be.

There were only so many places that someone could hide in these gardens, and unless they were moving their hiding places as he searched, he could not understand how they were continuing to evade him.

No one responded to him, no doubt thinking it was a trick to get them to expose their location.

Have they gone back inside? Am I the one being tricked?