Page 25 of A Virgin for the Duke of Scars
He stiffened visibly, his eyes flashing at her words.
Tread carefully now, Theresa.
Talking to him like this was like reasoning with a feral beast—she did not know for certain how he was going to react to her demands, only that she wished to have a discussion between two level-headed adults.
With a deep breath, she straightened her back and looked him in the eye just as resolutely. She was not going to back down on this.
“Regardless of our duties, we must be able to spend time together each day,” she said, the words coming out in a rush before her nervousness took over.
He looked at her as if she had just gone mad and told him to run around Hyde Park naked.
“Whatever for?” His voice was cold. Glacial.
“Why, so we get to know each other, of course.” Now,shewas beginning to feel frustrated with him. “And you must not touch me on days when we are fasting. Or at all, really, unless I explicitly ask it of you—which I cannot do so unless I get to know you better.”
She knew very little about marital relations. Such talk was considered taboo in the nunnery, and her mother had not eventhought to inform her that she was getting married until she was being marched down the aisle, much less educate her about intimacy between man and wife.
All she knew about the production of offspring was limited to that one time she walked in on a scene in the chicken coop. She had watched with horror and morbid fascination as the rooster had its way with one of the hens. With all that loud squawking, flapping, and feathers flying all around, the poor hen did not look like she had an easy time of it.
If she were to be brutalized in such a manner in the marriage bed, she would rather it happen at the hands of a man who was not so much a stranger to her.
“Is that so?” His silky drawl pierced through that cacophonous memory of the chicken coop.
Somehow, he had drawn ever nearer until he was only a few steps away from her. Her breath hitched, and she inadvertently took a step back.
“There is no need for all that frivolity,” he continued, stalking toward her. “I have my ways of making you beg for my touch, wife.”
A searing heat shot through her, her mouth opening in a slight gasp even as she took another step back.
She shook her head. “I will not back down on this,” she told him firmly.
His answer was a smug smile, steeped in male arrogance. “That remains to be seen.”
“Will the people in this manor keep me company at least?” She demanded, frustration and that strange heat swirling within her. “I am not used to being so alone.”
That was the truth. Even in the nunnery, privacy was a luxury that was only granted to Mother Superior. The rest of the nuns had to share their living space with everyone else.
Theresa had spent but one night in her room at Wyndham Park, and the silence had left her feeling hollow the entire night. The Duchess’s Suite she was to occupy in Blackwell Manor was at least three times as large. If she spent the rest of her days by herself, she feared she would go mad before the month ended.
But her husband simply waved her protests away. “You met my sister. She is thrilled to have you here, as you can very well see.”
“Unlike some people I know,” Theresa muttered under her breath. She looked at him in exasperation. “Have you any other siblings, then? I have a sister—not that I know her.”
“An older brother. Dead,” was his flat response.
If he ever noted the bitterness in her tone when she mentioned her sister, he showed no sign of it. In fact, the only indication he gave was that he wished to end this conversation. Immediately.
Very well, then.
Theresa sighed. “Now, about the rules I mentioned earlier… As you very well know, I have no idea how a marriage is supposed to work, much less how marriages in the…” She frowned.
What is that word they used to refer to their community?
“Theton?” he supplied.
“Yes, theton. I do not know how marriages in thetonwork,” she continued. “However, I do know that it is impossible to make a baby without kissing.”
“And how would a little nun know about making babies?” He drawled.
