Fortune was on his side in this at least, and damn the conventions about dancing with one's own wife. He had never danced with her before now so he would dance with her however many times he chose and those who wanted to gossip about it would already have their chins wagging about him anyway.
She was warm and light in his arms as the music swept them along, the glittering gown she was dressed in just making her look more fairy-like under the lights. Cedric moved to the music smoothly, not noticing or perhaps telling himself that he would not notice how easily they moved together.
Damned Hector Lennox.
It was certainly novel to have this part of the party outdoors. Usually there would be some dance floor nearby but the Allenby garden had a wonderful raised platform surrounded by rose trellises and as the musicians played couples stood to make their way there to dance under the night sky.
She had been thinking how lovely it would be to dance here, and how she would hate to dance with a stranger now, especially with all the rumors going around about her when Cedric had arrived, been surprisingly and abruptly rude to his own friend theDuke of Murrayand swept her off.
It was a little like how she always imagined flying to be.
Their steps moved in perfect time to the music, the glittering figures swirling around them and lanterns flickering on every side like a fairy tale. Her breath was caught in her chest in case she might break whatever spell this was, and it was a few moments before she could bring herself enough back to reality to look at her husband.
There was such a serious, stern expression on his face when she looked at him that she felt compelled to speak. "Why did you speak that way to your friend?"
"I beg your pardon?" he looked at her, caught out of his own thoughts.
"The Duke of Murray, you were rude to him. Why?"
"He should know better than to stare at another man's wife," Cedric said shortly, his brows drawing together so sharply that he looked quite cross.
It was so sudden and confusing a thought that for a moment Louisa didn't know what to say. Hector Lennox had certainly not been staring at her. He had seemed a kind man, if with rougher manners than she expected from a duke. He had been offering both her and the Lady Stapleton advice on getting rid of greenfly. It had been so charmingly normal a conversation that anything else had never crossed her mind and yet whatever Cedric had seen had sent him across the whole room to interrupt.
"He was simply making conversation, I assure you," she murmured, stuck in a sudden thought as daring as it was alien. Was Cedric jealous? Did it bother him that another man had been talking to her not because there had been anything inappropriate about it but because it wasanother man?
She felt a flush rise up her cheeks at the thought.
"I have seen where such conversation can lead," Cedric said dryly, looking her in the eyes. As always she couldn't read him, his gaze heavy and searching at once. "I have no interest in seeing any man act such a way towards the Countess of Pembroke."
Surely this was it indeed. It was worry about appearances, their marriage already such a focus for gossip and attention. He couldn't beactuallyjealous because he couldn't have feelings for her. He and she were opposites, him a dashing rogue who could have any woman he wanted and her a shy wallflower. There was nothing between them but business and duty.
There couldn't be.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
"How are Abigail and Kenneth progressing?" Cedric said suddenly, moving her around the platform smoothly to the music of a light waltz, his eyes fixed somewhere over her shoulder as though he was barely present with her.
"Very well, my lord," Louisa said quietly. It felt as though he was reinforcing their boundaries, the reason for their marriage. It was not something she needed reminding of. "Kenneth is coming out of his shell more and more, and I believe I may have reached the point where Abigail only gazes at me in dark suspicion for half the time that we spend together."
He laughed softly, surprised. "That is an achievement indeed. She is very protective of her brother, I feel as though every time I speak to them she is trying to read the worst into everything I say."
"She certainly does not want to be caught off guard," Louisa said cautiously. She wasn't sure if she wanted to point out to Cedricthat doing things like using Abigail as a tool to stop her from playing with Kenneth that day in the gardens would hardly help him to endear himself to the small girl.
"I can hardly blame her," he said pensively, glancing at her with an expression that was so perfectly balanced between amusement and sorrow that it made her breath hitch for a moment. "You seem to be growing closer to both of them."
"I hope so."
"It is admirable that you have been able to do so this quickly," he said, a little stiltedly. "I wish I could do the same."
Louisa considered this for a moment as the dance came to an end and they waited for the musicians to start something new. Apparently her husband had no intention of letting anyone else dance with her for the moment, and though she could see more than one interested pair of eyes watching them, she couldn't complain. She had no intention of moving away from the slim protection that he afforded her from the gossip and the questions and the endless dropped hints.
As the new piece of music started and he took her hand once more, she picked her question carefully. It would be easy to point out to him that when she wasn't managing the estate as the Lady of the House, which took hours of her time and gave her increasing headaches, she was talking to the housekeeper about the children and what they needed, spending time with the children for some of their meals, working on ideas for lessons for them and arranging their bedtime so of course they werewarming up to her faster than their uncle, whom they spent so very little time with.
But that, she felt, was not what her husband needed.
"You clearly loved your brother," she said, trying to ignore the way his grip on her hand tightened at her words, almost painful. "Can you tell me a little more about how you became separated from him?"
Cedric looked as though he might not answer for a long moment, his face closed off and dark. But then he cleared his throat and spoke softly, swiftly like he was afraid to stop speaking in case he might not be able to again. "Peter was my younger brother. A very dearly beloved child, the funniest little fellow. I would pretend that I was too old to spend time with him, but I secretly adored how his face always turned to find me whenever we were in the same room. He came to me with everything and I liked that, I liked being the person who could make his world brighter."
