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She looked at him, confused. “What secret?”

At long last, she had thought that there were to be no more secrets between the two of them. What was he going on about?

“When I bought that first dress for you…” he admitted, smirking. “It wasn’t the only one. Just in case, I had bought a few more.”

“Did you?” she said, delighted immediately. She thought back to how she had opposed him when he had first mentioned getting a new dress, and now it was proving useful. “I can’t believe you had the foresight.”

“Well, I probably didn’t think that this dress would end up getting soiled by blood. But my point is that you have choices. I’ll ask the maid to place them in your room, and you can get changed.”

“You think of everything,” she said and then paid him back with a small kiss.

It took her a small while to get ready again but when she stepped out of her room, she was pleased with how put together she looked considering the state of her only a few minutes before.

The new dress was lavender, and Gregory let out a breath when he first saw her in it.

“I’ve decided to buy out all the dress shops in London for you now,” he said as she walked towards him. “Considering you beautifully you fit these.”

“You say that because you love me,” she smiled, blushing.

“I would say this even if I was meeting you for the first time,” he retorted. “Shall we go downstairs? I want to show off the woman on my arms.”

He had changed into a fresh suit as well, and Phillipa found herself admiring him. He bandage was concealed by his sleeve, and if one didn’t look too closely, one could not be able to tell what had happened.

“I feel so devious,” she said. “Going down there and pretending that nothing took place.”

Gregory laughed, and pressed a kiss to her temple before they went back down together.

Several curious glances were thrown in their direction as they descended the steps.

“They’re probably wondering where we had disappeared off to,” Phillipa said, maintaining a smile on her face lest someone tried to read too much into her expression. “They must have seen the commotion.”

“It’s a London ball,” Gregory assured. “It’s not unusual for something or the other to go wrong. I’m sure they won’t spend too much time pondering over it. If anything, they will talk about how beautiful the Duchess looked as she hosted the evening.”

“I think it’s almost time for the childrens’ performance,” she said, feeling herself growing excited.

She couldn’t believe the timing but was grateful at having not missed it.

They lined up in a row, nervously. She could see Mrs Fairley in the sidelines, encouraging them on.

The guests looked curious, too.

The children sang beautifully, when their moment came. small determined voices rising over a ballroom that had no notion at all of what had so nearly happened just a floor above their heads.

Phillipa stood exactly where she had promised, at the very front, with Joan’s eyes finding hers at the opening note and staying there for the whole of the song.

Gregory stood beside her, applauding as loudly as anyone in the room when it ended. If a few guests noticed that the Duke seemed to be favoring one arm, no one said so aloud.

“Are you fine?” Augusta pulled her to the side. “You look… you look rather fresh. How did you manage to clean up so quickly?”

“I had a ball to host,” Phillipa grinned. “Does anyone suspect anything?”

Augusta pressed her lips together in a tight line. “A few guests were chattering, curious about the noises they had heard. I told them that it’s a busy ballroom, and one of the guests must have gotten into a tussle but that they shouldn’t worry about it.”

“And do you think they believed it?”

“Oh, people will believe anything if you say it with enough confidence,” Augusta assured. “I made sure to put up the best act I could. As far as I can tell, there’s no real reason to believe that anyone knows what has transpired.”

A sigh of relief escaped Phillipa’s lips. “Oh, thank heavens.”