Page 25 of Her Duke By Accident
“Don’t you prefer them?”
“Well, I?—”
“We have far too many tulips this season, and as we previously established, they are just too simple,” he teased.
Alicia grinned. “That is very kind, Your Grace.”
Something about having an idea on where they might go from there brought an ease to the dining room. It seemed as though a barrier might always remain between them, which was something Matthew expected. The marriage was not even born out of friendship.
They continued on in a more comfortable silence.
“Your Grace?”
Matthew lifted his head, lost in his own mind, almost surprised to have heard another person at the dining table. “Yes, my lady?” he asked.
Alicia placed her silver down and fidgeted nervously in her seat. “I did want to ask, Your Grace, if my room was once someone else’s.”
“Yes,” Matthew said, unable to stop the frown, “it was once my mother’s.”
“It overlooks a large garden.”
He nodded, lips pressed together in thought.
“Was she fond of gardens?”
“Yes,” he said, forcing his voice to be stern in order to keep the emotion from rising in front of the duchess. “She spent much of her spare time tending to the flowers.”
Alicia crossed her hands in her lap, a smile pulling across her lips. She urged him to continue talking with only a look in her eyes.
Matthew felt the urge to excuse himself. The duchess wanted to connect to him in some way, to form a sort of familiarity between the two on their wedding night. “My father hired a groundskeeper,” he forced out, unable to avoid her penetrating stare, “but she wanted to handle most of it herself. Her family had a passion for botany.”
“Botany?”
“I never had the pleasure of visiting her family home,” he explained, “but from what I was told, they spent much of the day tending to plants. My mother had an impressive knowledge of the native botany.”
“Did she get to continue her work here?”
Matthew frowned. “It was a quiet house,” he said, quickly, not even making sense to himself. She pried where he drew the line. “There were always flowers to water,” he added curtly, louder this time.
“And your sister?”
Matthew struggled not to go stiff under her gaze. “What of her?”
“What is she fond of, Your Grace?”
He let out a surprised laugh. “Why would you like to know?"
“I haven’t had the honor of meeting her yet,” she explained. “I’d like to know a bit about her if I’m to make a good first impression.”
“You don’t have to worry about that, my lady.”
“Why not?” Alicia crossed her arms over her chest. “Does she not still reside here? Under your care?”
“Underyourcare now as well.”
She seemed to go still at that. “Right,” she said. “Under the duchess’s care.”
“Lucy is fond of everything,” Matthew said.
