The music began to fade to a close. Cyrus led Teresa back to the point where they had started, drawing back from her, rejoining the line of gentlemen. His frown only deepened as he stared across the distance between them, and bowed politely.
She curtseyed in return, her unruly mind still granting her one last vision of him as Captain Frostheart, wading through a lake to reach her. Yet, in her daydream, he did not make it to the shore, the lake continuing on and on while she waited for hisarrival, his embrace, knowing deep down that it would never come.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Friends?
Cyrus mulled over the word from the periphery of the ballroom, abandoned by his friends and his wife. He did not mind that, savoring the opportunity to think without interruption.
Are we that? Friends?
He could not see how. He did not behave with her the way he would with any of his acquaintances. He would not have asked Anthony or Silas about the books thattheyliked to read, nor would he be considering how to get his hands on such books. Indeed, he and his friends had very different tastes when it came to literature: he read none, Anthony read of old military campaigns, and Silas liked to read poetry for the sole purpose of ripping the content to pieces.
But if we are not friends, then what are we?
Husband and wife seemed like the obvious answer, but ‘married’ meant so many different things to so many different people. Teresa had made it clear, despite her insistence to the contrary, what she might have liked in a marriage, and he was not that. He could notofferthat.
So, what on earth were they, if he was not the husband she desired and she was not the kind of wife she longed to be?
I cannot fall in love with her. I cannot love her even a little.
For a moment, he felt like he was a boy again, failing at every possible turn, punished without truly knowing what he had done wrong.
“I do not likethatlook,” Anthony said, sliding in beside Cyrus.
Cyrus hardened his expression. “What look?”
“The ferocious glare you were just giving the dance floor. Has it offended you terribly?” Anthony grinned. “You did not seem so displeased to be in its presence a short while ago. Why, I had no notion that you were such an accomplished dancer.”
“You should be entertaining your guests, not talking to me,” Cyrus replied, adjusting cufflinks that needed no adjustment.
Anthony chuckled. “Are you not one of my guests?”
“Indeed, one who prefers solitude,” Cyrus said, while his gaze betrayed him, searching the ballroom for any sign of his wife.
She had departed from his company after the dance, led away on the arm of that Johnson girl. He could only imagine what they were saying about him, gossiping in some corner of the manor no doubt. In truth, he did not know why he was looking for Teresa, when he would have nothing to say to her if she were beside him.
“Anthony…” he said, clearing his throat, swallowing down the discomfort that was trying to claw its way up from his stomach.
Anthony glanced up at him, fortunately not taking the hint about solitude. “Hmm?”
“I have a favor to ask of you,” Cyrus replied, his hands balled into fists.
“Oh? How exciting!” Anthony beamed with all the giddiness of a debutante at her first ball. “What, pray tell, might I do for you?”
Cyrus cleared his throat again. “It is a somewhat delicate matter. I must be certain of your utmost discretion.”
“I may be a terrible gossip,” Anthony replied, feigning hurt, “but I have never gossiped a thing aboutyou. In this friendship, at least, you may rest assured that my lips will be entirely sealed.”
Cyrus took a breath. “What do you know of Captain Frostheart and Miss Savage?”
For a moment, Anthony looked as if he had been smacked in the face with a freshly caught cod. “What doyouknow of Captain Frostheart and Miss Savage? I would never have considered you to be the sort of person who knows of such things.”
“I do not, which is why I am asking you,” Cyrus said, his patience wearing thin. “It is of some urgency, but… I should like a couple of the books, if you know where I might procure them? Better still, if you can procure themforme?”
Glee twinkled in Anthony’s eyes, his smile so wide it threatened to crack his face in two, as he grabbed Cyrus by the arms and shook him a little. Unlike Cyrus, Anthony did not have the discipline to conceal his emotions and, right now, the man was exuberant with excitement.
“I shall have them sent just as soon as I am able,” Anthony gushed. “It may take some convincing, but I am nothing if not persuasive, and this is one task that Ishall notfail. My goodness, if only I were allowed to gossip, this would be my crowning glory. But, of course, I shall say nothing.”
