Attentions was a kind way to put it, Damen had thought. He frowned, forcing himself to temper the hot words that sprang to mind. Some words he would not be able to undo, once they were put out in the open.

"To my eyes, it seemed more than friendly," he said, with deliberate calmness. "Perhaps it was your coolness towards me this morning that made me judge your actions towards others more warmly than I might have otherwise. Had I thought you were merely making friends..."

Damen was rapidly running out of his hard-fought self control, and made an inarticulate gesture of helplessness, a shake of his head, as if frustrated with both himself and his husband's abstruseness and the entire predicament they'd found themselves in. His horse, ever attuned to his gestures, found itself very confused by this new one. The obedient beast gave a little step and paw of a one front hoof, questioningly.