An hour later, Richard entered the gold drawing room. Marian was seated near the window, turning the pages of a volume of poetry. Several other guests and family members occupied the room, engaged in their own conversations or games of cards. It was a perfectly appropriate setting.
Richard crossed the carpet and took the empty chair beside hers. He did not lean in conspiratorially. He sat with his usual impeccable posture, but when he spoke, the careful, guarded mask was entirely gone.
"The sketch disturbed me," he said quietly, offering no preamble.
Marian looked up from her book, her eyes widening slightly at his directness.
"It disturbed me because it showed a version of myself that I did not have to construct," Richard continued, his gaze locked on hers. "And then I found that I began to desire your observation. I wanted you to see me. But when I realized that others were beginning to notice how much that attention meant to me, I retreated."
Marian remained silent, listening with quiet dignity.
"I told myself it was respect for your reputation," Richard said, his voice dropping a fraction lower. "And part of it was. But part of it was exactly what you accused me of: it was fear. I used my duty to hide my cowardice."
He saw the slight softening of her shoulders, the way her breath caught just barely in her throat.
"I do not wish for an ambiguous friendship, Miss Elwood," Richard said firmly. "I ask your permission to court you formally. Not because you caught me off guard, not because you saw through the title, but because I wish to know you just as thoroughly as you have come to know me."
Marian looked at him for a long, quiet moment. The defensive armor of her polite composure was slipping, revealing the intelligent, vulnerable woman beneath.
"And what happens when being known becomes uncomfortable again?" she asked softly. "Because it will, Your Grace. We are neither of us accustomed to this."
"I cannot promise that I will never feel that fear," Richard answered with absolute honesty. "I am sure it will be uncomfortable. But I swear to you, I will never again use that discomfort as an excuse to walk away from you."