Page 20 of A Virgin for the Duke of Scars
“I thought I told you to wait for me to open the door for you.” He frowned.
She looked at him with a cheeky smile that only made him want to drag her inside, pin her to a wall, and have his wicked way with her.
“And I thought I told you that if you wanted an obedient wife, then I would have made a poor match,” she replied with a slight shrug.
He snorted. “You’ve made that abundantly clear.”
“Well then, there should not be any confusion right now.”
“Aaron, I thought I raised you with better manners than to bicker with your wife before the servants!” A laughing voice admonished.
He turned around to find his grandmother walking toward them, a regal smile on her weathered face. She breezed right past him, beaming at Theresa as if she were the light of her world.
“Welcome to Blackwell Manor, my dear,” she greeted warmly, taking her hands in her own. “You must forgive my grandson’s atrocious manners. If he is being an ornery beast, do not be afraid to tell me, and I shall set him straight.”
Aaron rolled his eyes and turned to Theresa. “This is my grandmother. Elizabeth Lennox, the Dowager Duchess of Blackwell.”
“If Blackwell is being a beast, then that is only right,” another voice chimed in. “After all, my new sister-in-law is a beauty. They make quite a lovely pair, don’t you think, Grandmama?”
Fortunately, introducing his family meant that he only had to roll his eyes twice.
“And this is my sister, Juliette,” he added. “She believes that life is a fairytale. If you have the time, do try to dissuade her fromher romantic fantasies so that she may join the rest of us in the real world.”
Juliette laughed and grabbed Theresa’s hands excitedly, casually brushing past him in her enthusiasm. “You must forgive us for not attending the wedding—everything happened so fast, and my brother”—she glared at him, and he glared right back—“is not exactly very forthcoming about his affairs. Besides, there was still a lot to be done to prepare the house for its new Duchess, so Grandmama and I had to stay here and man the fort.” She sighed dramatically.
So, maybe introducing his sister required a minimum oftwoeye rolls.
But Theresa just laughed. “Well, to be fair, I almost did not make it to the wedding myself, so I shall forgive you on that account!”
Aaron blithely pretended he did not see the sharp look his grandmother shot him. He would explain it to her later. Preferablynever.
“All right, then! Now that you have sufficiently gawked at my bride, can we please go inside?” He interjected loudly. “Besides, the Duchess has had a rather eventful morning, and a hot bath and refreshments should be in order.”
He glanced at the maids who had gathered at the door, and they scurried away to do his bidding.
Juliette gave Theresa’s hand an excited squeeze and whispered, “I think we are going to get along just splendidly, Your Grace.”
“Oh no, please! Just call me Theresa.”
His sister’s smile was like the sun breaking over the mountains. “Theresa,” she said, before disappearing back into the manor with their grandmother.
As soon as the last of them disappeared into the manor, Theresa turned to him with a winsome smile that made his heart flutter.
Funny, it had never done that before. Not even during the war, when he was getting shot at left, right, and center.
Perhaps it only meant that a wife was a more fearsome adversary than a troop of murderous Frenchmen.
“How do you do that?” She asked.
“Do what?”
She nodded toward the door. “You just nod, say a few words, and they all scatter to do your bidding.” She tilted her head like a curious sparrow. “Do they always react that way to you?”
“Can you blame them?” He bit out.
She regarded him with that same curious gaze. “Well, I do not really understand why they do that,” she told him with a jaunty smile.
Just because you are impervious to my ugliness does not mean the rest of the world is.
