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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“ H er Grace will be down shortly, Your Grace.”

Julian nodded, no stranger to waiting. He could be extremely patient and yet, it seemed as though Anna was determined to eat away at every good characteristic within him until all that was left was nothing but need.

He needed to have her again, to keep her attached to him with lust, utterly unable to do anything other than yield to him repeatedly.

Alas, it was as though she wasn’t satisfied with that, but needed to haunt his thoughts and notions differently. He did not know what it was she wanted from him, what she expected him to do, because she couldn’t seem to decide on whether she hated him or not.

And he did not have the time, nor the strength to play games with a person who had a knack for constantly changing the damn rules.

“I’m sorry. Did I keep you waiting?”

At the sound of her voice, Julian turned around to reprimand her – knowing fully well they were not late but still wanting to tease her anyway – only for every single thought in his head to melt and pour out of his head through his ears at the sight of her.

When Anna had assured him that she had many options to wear for the ball, he had wanted to trust her, but still, he couldn’t help but wonder why she would have dresses made, when she fully well knew, she might not get to wear them.

And then he recalled what she had said to the nursemaid about wishing she had stayed and they had developed some sort of relationship. Suddenly it wasn’t hard to imagine them going to balls together, with her on his arm for entire evenings as the ton looked on enviously.

Anna was already beautiful. He had acknowledged as much the day they had gotten married, and had been unable to ignore it every day since he had returned to the estate.

But following her with his gaze as she descended the stairs to meet him, clad in a lovely dark green dress that made her eyes shine, her lovely dark hair pinned upward in an elaborate updo, with small curls framing her face, and a sparkling tiara to crown it all of… Julian suddenly felt unwell.

Perhaps he should have stayed. Perhaps he should have given himself a fair chance to have this beauty.

There was still time. Surely it was not too late – it was not as though he wanted to go to that silly ball anyway.

They could just head back upstairs to his room and he would get down on his knees and worship her –

“Your Grace? Are you all right?” Anna asked in concern, reaching out for his arm.

Although her hands were covered in silk gloves, all the way up to her elbows, her touch still sent a chill down his spine and it somehow reinforce the heat spreading through him.

“Yes. Yes, I am. And… no, you are not late. You are… exquisite.”

Good God, the things that blush of hers always did to him.

Anna lowered her gaze, shyly looking up at him through her lashes and Julian thought it was ridiculous, how someone would look at her and believe that she was a demure creature, when she possessed the stubbornness of a bull.

“Well, you look quite sharp yourself. And handsome.”

“Thank you.” Julian swallowed, unable to take his eyes of her.

She was literally sparkling, like a star in the sky and it only made him want to covert her even more.

“Are you ready?” he asked as he put on his coat.

“Just a minute,” she told him, turning around as the new nursemaid wandered into the foyer with Nicholas in his arms. “Are you sure you will be fine?”

Eloise nodded confidently. “I am absolutely certain. Please do not worry about us and enjoy your evening, Your Grace.”

Anna seemed as though someone had asked her to sever off her right arm and live as a productive member of society while depending on her left henceforth.

“I’ll try,” she sighed, leaning in to press a small kiss to Nicholas’ cheek, chuckling when she pulled away and noticed the rouge on her lips had stained his face.

After wiping it away gently with her napkin, she whispered to him softly,

“Behave for Miss Eloise. We will be back before you even notice we’re gone.”

Then she turned back to Julian, shoulders squared as she announced,

“I am ready. We may leave.”

It wasn’t until they had entered the carriage that Julian realized that his plan to ignore her feelings about his departure was going to be difficult because there was a reminder of his cold abandonment everywhere.

Riding in the carriage to the dwelling of their host was a strangely tense affair that reminded him of their wedding day, how he had kept his eyes trained out of the window in an effort to ignore the beautiful woman he had to marry to keep both their lives from being ruined.

Tonight though, it seemed both of them were preoccupied with other thoughts and Julian was willing to let her sort hers out for a chance to understand the depths of his.

When they arrived at the Earl of Langston’s manor, Julian disembarked quickly and held a hand out to help her do the same, needing to feel the warmth of her hand in his.

After she had found stable footing on the ground next to him, he draped her hand over his arm and them into the venue, mumbling softly

“Stay close.”

Anna nodded, her eyes subtly darting around her to take in the sights of the manor and the ball.

As far as balls go, it was not the most extravagant Julian had ever attended, but it was still impressive, with a plethora of guests that almost all turned their attention to the duke and duchess of Morland the moment their entrance was announced by the master of ceremonies.

They were bombarded almost immediately, curious onlookers and those whose curiosities had control over their tongues, and Julian fought the urge to wrap his arms around Anna and shield her from their gossip fueled questions.

“Your Grace! What a delight it is to see you! We feared you had fallen ill!”

“Or worse! It is truly wonderful to witness you hale and hearty – and with your wife, no less!”

“Your marriage was so sudden; it led us to suspect – but no matter. You are here now. Both of you! Tell us, how has marital bliss been? That must be why you have shunned society, was it not? Because you were so focused on each other?”

“I did not realize that public, noble events had turned into a common attraction where people milled about aimless, trying to ask the displays questions. We did not leave the comfort of our home to be bombarded by pointless invasive questions that disrespect us and our marriage,” Julian snapped, pulling Anna closer to him.

The people cleared their throats and exchanged uncertain glances before wandering off, although Julian knew that wasn’t the last, he had heard of those animals for the evening.

“Are you all right?” he mumbled, peering down at Anna.

“Y-Yes. Just… flustered. I did not expect them to be so… forward with their interest.” She said quietly.

“They are simply bored. And eager. We have not been seen together since our wedding day. It is likely they wish to investigate if our marriage was real or not, if we’d had an annulment or a child in the time we were yet to make a public appearance.

Expect more of this tomfoolery for the rest of the evening, but do not let it dampen your mood. ”

Anna nodded, looking a little distant for a moment, then she spotted someone across the room and smiled.

“My sister is here. I would like to go and greet her.”

Julian followed the direction of her gaze and gave his assent.

“Very well.”

She started to leave his side, then hesitated, before turning back to ask him.

“Would you like to come along? You’ve met both my parents – though I cannot imagine those count as pleasant meetings. Leah is the only family I have that hasn’t hurt or scorned me greatly. And I would like to properly introduce you both.”

Julian started to nod, but then he spotted Lysander talking with his wife eagerly and he looked down at his own.

“Perhaps later,” he said to her gently. “There is a slight matter that I would like to attend to.”

Anna seemed reluctant to leave his side but she did anyway, casting backward glances at him until she was close enough to hug her sister.

Julian watched them exchange pleasantries for a moment, before he moved to his friend, Lysander’s expression turning mischievous as he spotted Julian.

“As I live and breathe,” Lysander grinned when Julian stood in front of them. “Look who is finally out of his self-imposed exile and back in society’s bosom. Did you miss it?”

“Frankly, no. I simply thought that because I had returned to my house for the time being, there was no harm in making my rounds among social events and taking my wife along.” Julian shrugged, unable to keep his gaze from slipping back to where he knew Anna was.

She looked ethereal, even from afar. It was growing into an unfair challenge, trying not to look at her because his very existence wanted to revolve around her. He wanted to stare, to admire, to worship and it was getting on his last nerve how difficult it was to be discreet about it.

“I do not blame you. But any excuse I’ll get to see my wife dazzle the public and gloat over knowing that out of all these gents, she chose to be with me always provides me with immense joy.” Lysander said, smirking at his wife.

Margaret Millington, duchess of Windermoor rolled her eyes at her husband’s antics, but after taking a glance at Julian, she giggled and clung to her husband’s arm.

“I think he might understand exactly what you mean. He’s been in front of us for less than ten minutes but has already glanced back at his wife seven times,” she pointed out with glee.

Lysander’s grin grew even wider but before he could speak, Julian raised his hand.

“I only wanted to ask you if you had heard anything about Seth.”

Lysander frowned. “You are no fun. He is still looking, from what I’ve heard. There is apparently a lot of likely candidates. Your brother was quite the rake.”

“My God,” Julian sighed, rubbing his face tiredly.

“But he will get down to the bottom of it. I have no faith in him whatsoever, but I believe that a cornered man will do whatever it takes to get back his stability. And you have issued him an ultimatum he cannot ignore or refuse. Just give him some more time.”

Julian was not sure they had any more to give.

He had seen how difficult it had been for Anna to leave Nicholas earlier in the evening, how distracted she had been in the carriage and upon their arrival to the ball.

It was clear to him that she was getting attached to the child and Julian couldn’t have that.

He was not going to allow Seth to get away with shirking his duties onto someone who only needed to fill up the loneliness within her.

“Take my advice, Morland,” Lysander spoke up, placing a hand on Julian’s shoulder.

“Just focus on your wife tonight. Dance with her, compliment her and look at her as though she hung the stars in the sky. Whatever problems you have can wait till tomorrow. Now go away, I still have many compliments I wish to shower my wife with.”

As Julian wandered away with his gaze easily finding Anna among the crowd, he only hoped that he could do what was right by her and save her from a lot of unnecessary pain.