Page 228 of Ashen Torment
“It was not so terrible, was it?” Nathaniel scrutinizes me with his usual attentiveness.
I nod. Agnes approaches, her hands clasped in front of her cloak. “Shall we take a walk, Viscount?”
“Weren’t you cold?”
Dorian crosses his arms.
Her lips tighten, a veil of annoyance passes through her light eyes.
“Movement preserves the body from the cold, Lord Dorian,” Isobel interjects, extending her gloved hand. “Let us take a walk as well.”
He looks at her, the vein in his forehead pulsing slightly, his eyes following the movement of her outstretched hand.
“I do not believe—”
Agnes interrupts, turning her gaze toward me. “We also have a pond here, you know.”
“A pond?”
“Yes,” she replies. “There are ducks. Would you like to see them?”
My gaze slides to Dorian.
It would be suspicious to decline.
“Have you ever seen a duck, Lord Vasiliev Ashford?” I ask, taking Agnes by the arm.
He sighs, extending his arm toward Isobel, who clings to it immediately.
Just as we begin to move, Richard appears from among the shrubs. “There you are.”
Nathaniel raises an eyebrow at his brother.
“Hello, everyone,” Richard says.
Isobel squeezes Dorian’s arm.
“Brother, if you had arrived a moment sooner, you would have taken the photograph with us.”
“A pity.”
Then his gaze settles on Nathaniel. “You could have waited for me.”
“You could have not vanished.”
Richard laughs lightly, running his fingers through his hair in a quick, distracted gesture. Then his eyes drift toward Dorian with Isobel, and me with Agnes.
“Where are you going?”
Dorian inclines his chin, his lips pulled into a grimace.
“To see the ducks, apparently.”
“I see. That will be fun. Are you coming too, brother?”
The latter hesitates for an instant, his gaze shifting before fixing straight ahead; he approaches slowly, with reluctant steps.
We begin to move through the low hedges and green arches of the garden, heading toward the hidden pond. Agnes and I are in front, Dorian and Isobel behind us, and further back, Richard and Nathaniel, advancing in silence.
