Still early at dawn, Anthony returned to Ravensport House with considerably less patience than he had possessed when he left it.
The front doors scarcely closed behind him before he reached for the knot of his cravat and loosened it. His gloves followed, discarded upon the console table as he crossed the entrance hall, and when a servant hurried forward to take his coat, Anthony shrugged it off without breaking stride.
"Leave it."
"Yes, my lord."
He barely acknowledged the response.
He continued down the corridor, undoing the buttons at his cuffs as he went. His expression remained composed to anyone who happened to glance his way, but the set of his jaw betrayed what his servants would have been wise enough not to mention.
Honestly, he had expected the morning to go differently. He had everything planned, and from the supposed result, he had been 98% certain it would work.
