Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
It was not unusual to stay on the dancefloor waiting for the next piece of music, but Alexandra knew that they were just drawing more attention to the fact that they were husband and wife dancing together, and all the associated scandals that were linked to her and Hector would just make it all the juicier.
You should take him back to the punch, find someone that you both can speak to, mingle, look respectable and proper, she thought to herself. You should do the next thing you need to do to make sure that you don't cause him any more scandal. Don't be a fool, Lexi.
Maybe she was a little bit more of a fool than she had ever expected.
She could tell that Hector was letting her take the lead.
It was another strange thing that he did sometimes.
He was perfectly capable of commanding her, controlling her or the situation, being a firm hand to his household, but he didn't seem to feel the need to prove it the way so many men seemed to.
She knew a few ladies who had married men they had thought were kind and thoughtful, only to find that when those ladies tried to do their duties around the house, their husbands were forever picking at them, scolding them, and making sure that they knew who was in charge.
Hector was not that insecure. He gave her the space to choose, he let her control her own surroundings, and it meant so much more to know that he could stop her if he tried, but he simply did not care to.
"Are we going another round?" he said softly at last as the fiddles started again.
Alexandra just nodded, not quite trusting herself to explain why. She didn't understand why, in fact. She just knew that it was safe in his arms, and they were speaking more fully than they had in some time, about more important things than she had yet been able to glean about him.
She didn't want to stop just yet.
Even if he did tread on her poor toes, almost immediately.
"Follow my steps," she murmured, telegraphing her movements as subtly as she could.
She was rather impressed in fact that he was managing an approximation of the correct movements, his eyes darting from her fact swiftly to what the other dancers were doing in order to ensure he did not move too differently.
However, it was clear how out of place he felt and the relief on his face as he picked up what she was doing immediately and started to follow her was palpable.
"Thank ye, me dear," he said, smiling down at her.
As always, his bright smile quite changed the harsh planes of his face from something intimidating to a merry picture that she likened in her mind to an engraving in one of Theodore's books.
It was a picture of the Greek god Pan, a wild and carefree creature with a broad, merry smile on his face.
Perhaps there was a little of that wildness to Hector, too. The way he always looked as though he would be better suited to a strange moor, laughing over the antics of a dog and facing the wildness of nature without fear.
"Of course," she said. "I did rather force you to dance."
"You did nay such thing," he protested. "I am happy indeed to be dancing with me dear wife. Ye look lovely, me dear."
Alexandra flushed a little and looked away from the sincerity in his face. No one had ever said that to her before, especially not when she had always been around Margaret's loveliness or Evelina's refined grace or Louisa's soft, pretty face. "You look very fine yourself."
"Ach, thank ye," he grinned immediately. "Laroux took special pains to make sure. I think ye may know a little about how interested he is in me dress and ensurin' that I look the part."
She looked at him quickly, thinking back to when he had found her and Laroux talking in the garden.
All the things that she had discovered about him from the butler rushed through her head, and she felt herself flushing in embarrassment.
How much had he heard? Did he know how she had been prying into his family and past?
Did he know how she had been questioning the servants about him?
"Now, I did hear Laroux pretending like he doesnae have a thought in his mind about me stepmaither," Hector said, twinkling at her as he managed to turn her around the floor with very little awkwardness, his big frame moving with surprising grace amongst the other dancers.
"So I shall enlighten ye on that matter meself.
Perhaps ye can understand that the Dowager has nay kind feelin's towards me.
After all, she did think that the former Marquess was heir apparent to the Dukedom with nay competition and here I am, son of a woman she never knew or met who turns out to have even been married to her husband before she was.
It's nae exactly a matter that breeds good feelings. "
"But it is not your fault, Your Grace," Alexandra said, forcing down the urge to call him Hector instead and soothe him. "She cannot blame you for your father's choices, surely."
"Have ye never heard of visiting a faither's sins upon his sons?
" Hector asked drolly. "Very devout of her, I am sure.
She would like my position to be full of scandal and trouble so that she can destabilize Murray and try to lobby to get her son in my place.
It is nae gonna work, but she isnae going to give up without trying. "
Alexandra frowned, imagining how hard that must be to deal with all the time, the endless pressure from people who were the last of his family, trying to undermine him further than he already was just by the circumstances of his birth and upbringing.
She missed a step and Hector adroitly carried her in a little swoop so they were back on the beat, a move that certainly wasn't part of the usual dance but made her heart skip a beat. "And your - your brother?"
She didn't like to think about the Marquess.
The very short interaction she had been forced into with him had been enough for a lifetime.
Sometimes at night, she could still feel the way he had grabbed her, see the intensity of his gaze, the way that he had leered at her, and the meaning his look had carried.
"I daenae have any polite words for Benedict," Hector said, his own expression souring.
"A lad with too much freedom and nae enough control is what I thought about him, but he's nae getting better, just getting worse as time goes on.
I have been trying to find him since the wedding but he's hidden himself well wherever he is. "
"Oh!" Alexandra couldn't help the little exclamation, and flushed as she felt the movement of silks and satins around her as the other dancers glanced in her direction. She lowered her voice. "I did not realise that you were still looking for him."
"Och, of course I am," Hector said firmly.
"Did ye think I would let him insult ye so without doin' somethin' about it?
I have a lot of people looking for him throughout England and Scotland, even some in Wales and Ireland as well.
I am writin' to me people in the Continent in case he decided a little European holiday would do him any good. "
Alexandra's eyes widened a little. She had always known that Hector was intimidating, even dangerously powerful, but she had never guessed how far his reach really stretched. "Can you do that?"
"Of course, I can," he said with warm firmness.
"Some people might think that all the power is in the powerful members of the ton that ye might know.
I started small, and until recently I was just a tradesman and businessman in Scotland, but I have money and I have power that reaches farther than some nobles.
There's many businesses and people that would do a great deal to keep me tradin' with them. "
He didn't mean to boast; it was no more than stating a fact.
Hector had always found the way that gentlemen and minor lords looked down on him before he had ascended to his own title rather amusing.
Their incomes of several thousand a year and aunt who was a Countess hardly compared to being able to stop or send a fleet of trading ships at a word, or reach out to the government in Sweden to negotiate a deal over a supply of iron and wood, and collaboration over new plans for a factory.
They might think that they had all the power, but they frequently underestimated the people who kept their world running.
It was why Notley, Thornton, St. Vincent, and Gordon had been a breath of fresh air.
They had at least liked him for a sharp business mind and a good friend, not for what prestige he could bring them, and they had never made him feel as though they saw him as lesser than them.
"You have done a great deal for me," Alexandra said slowly, squeezing his arm to stop him from protesting and interrupting her.
"I owe you at least one favor if not quite a few more.
I know that you have enough power and money to do most things for yourself but I think that I can give you something that you are unable to get for yourself. "
"And what is that?" Hector asked, honestly curious. He could not imagine what his proper wife was about to propose, only that it must be serious and important based on her expression. He hoped one day to make her laugh more than she frowned; she had spent too much of her life frowning as it was.
"Propriety," Alexandra said, her little face solemn but her eyes sparkling just a little.
Hector laughed softly. "Och, and how are ye goin' to tame me beastly image, me wife? I think it might be well out of yer ability to manage."
"Not so, Your Grace," she said quickly. "You have plenty of knowledge about a great many clever and important things but you do not know a great deal about the rules of the ton.
I can teach you that. All the ways that you might trip up and increase the rumors being spread about you, for instance.
Like in what order people must go into dinner, how quickly to return a visit, even the reason why it is considered impolite to dance with your own wife. "
"This one was your idea," he said with a smile.
"I am quite aware," she said, her cheeks pinkening.
She was quite easy to fluster, and she wore her thoughts so clearly on her face that it was a true joy to tease her.
"However, I can help you navigate such situations in the future without fear of offending or causing gossip.
I can also help to keep your image clean from the kind of salacious nonsense that we heard today.
I am a very proper lady, and it is hard indeed for people to imply things about your reputation if I am on your arm. "
It was a generous offer, and one that appealed to him.
As adverse as he was to bowing to public scrutiny, he was enough of a businessman to know that alienating his target market would not work for him in the long run.
He might not like to be held to their strange standard, but he could at least learn it so he would know what and how he was breaking the rules before he did so.
"I like the idea, me dear," he said softly. "Ye know that ye daenae owe me this, however, daenae ye?"
"I do, though," she said, the rosiness on her cheeks deepening. "I do not know what I would have done without your aid and this is the very least that I can do to repay you."
"Och, now, let's nae talk of repayment between husband and wife," Hector said, leaning close so that he could whisper in her ear, soft and low and sweet.
"And let me tell ye, me darlin' lass, ye should stop blushin' so prettily in front of me.
It's a dangerous thing to show so delicate a face in front of a brute. "
"Oh," she squeaked softly, drawing back with her face flaming and her eyes large and fixed on his face. He was quite pleased to see her take several large breaths before she could fully compose herself. "My first advice to you, Your Grace, is not to come so close to me when we are in public."
"And how am I supposed to keep distant from me lovely wife?" he retorted.
"I am sure a smart gentleman such as yourself can figure it out," she said pertly. The music had come to an end, and she stepped back from his arms, smoothing her skirt with small, prim movements. "Now, I am quite thirsty after our dancing. Would you escort me to the punch and help me to a cup?"
Hector grinned, enjoying the way she was glancing at him from the corner of her eye.
She was a smart one, was his wife. Quick and sassy and full of enough wit to battle the whole of the ton if she had to.
Yet she was still flushed by his words. It made him feel like he could take on the whole world.
"Of course, me dear," he said with a little gentlemanly bow, offering his arm. "It will be me pleasure to escort ye to yon tower of tiny glasses with pink lemonade in them."
She covered her mouth with her fan, and he thought she might be laughing at him. "Thank you, Your Grace," she said in such a sweet and polite voice that he almost laughed as well. "That would be most appreciated."
As they moved across the ballroom, he lowered his voice. "Why d'ye think we have to spend so much time talkin' about things in a circle to be polite?"
She swatted him on the arm with her fan and he laughed in delight. This was easily the best event he had ever attended.