The reaction began before the field had fully settled.
It did not announce itself through noise or obvious movement. It came through smaller things first. The pauses lasted longer. The conversations that had carried a certain careless ease earlier now turned measured. People were no longer watching with indulgent curiosity. They were recalculating.
That was better.
I dismounted without hurry and handed the reins over only after my horse had fully stilled. The grooms moved in at once, quick and practiced, but I paid them little attention. My focus stayed on the people gathered beyond the edge of the field, on the way they had arranged themselves while pretending not to do exactly that.
Lord Harrington accepted his own reins with less grace than before. Nothing in his face suggested irritation, but something in the set of his shoulders had tightened. He had expected control to come more easily than it had.
Adrian, watching from the side, did not bother hiding his amusement.
