Page 65 of The Duke's Indecent Match
How very, very strange.
24
Nathanial
Supper passed without incident.
What Julianna revealed to Emma, Nathanial did not know.Both of them were cautiously curious about his wife, but neither relaxed during the conversation.His wife was rather guarded as well, compared to how she had been at Blackstone Manor.
Normally, Fiona would inject a much-needed bit of levity to any occasion, but today she was pouting because she had been forbidden from bringing her recent acquisition to the table—a baby fox she’d found crying of hunger whose mother had never returned to it.Both Emma and Julianna had given him guilty expressions when he’d been introduced to Telemachus, but he had only sighed.Attempting to keep Fiona from rescuing animals did nothing to stop her; she just attempted to hide the creatures about the house.
With as many unused rooms as there were, it was better to know what she was up to.
Though Miss Milford and Daniel often ate with the family, they’d insisted on a more formal dining situation now that he was married.He suspected they also wanted to interrogate his wife’s lady’s maid about the new mistress of the house.Still, as staff was going to be added to the household very quickly, he supposed it was best to start getting used to it now.Besides, after all they had done for him and his sisters, Nathanial was not inclined to deny them whatever they asked for.
His wife kept the conversation going by asking about his sisters’ interests, the house, and the surrounding areas.Only Julianna was able to answer much about that last.Nathanial could have as well if he’d been able to bring himself to do more than grunt.
At one point, Julianna shot him a look of pure exasperation at his unusual reticence, but Nathanial could not bring himself to be engaging.His brain was too busy thinking of all he needed to do on the morrow to start setting the estate to rights, while his emotions were torn between gratitude and resentment.None of which was conducive to conversation.
He was also very aware of the rapid approach of night.
His wedding night.
He was going to need to consummate the marriage.
The need for a rich wife had come from his father’s ill-handling of the estate and the family finances.The need for a wife, however…
When his father had first died, along with all the other dukes in the hunting lodge fire, Nathanial had been shocked.Then he’d been relieved.His grief had been more for Fiona’s loss than his own.He’d been very aware of how his father was draining the family and what he would eventually inherit.Getting it sooner actually meant they were in better shape than they could have been.
His father had sold off everything that was not entailed, and he’d emptied the house as well.Julianna had managed to save some of their mother’s jewelry from him, only to be forced to sell it after their father’s death to pay off the worst of the debts and keep them all from starving.Nathanial’s meager savings he’d been able to keep from the allowance his father had given him had barely made a dent.
Nathanial was determined that his sisters would never have to endure such a thing again.He did not trust anyone else to take care of them the way he did.His current heir was a distant cousin who lived in America and had never visited the estate, nor did he have any real connection to Nathanial or his sisters.
If something were to happen to Nathanial…
The hunting lodge accident had been the first tragedy; what followed had been even worse.
They’d barely left mourning for their fathers when Sinclair, Duke of Northumberland, had followed his father to the grave.His cousin had inherited.Granted, despite Nathanial’s personal dislike of the fellow, William Seymour was at least the kind of gentleman who would take care of the dukedom’s people.He had installed Sinclair’s mother in the Dowager House along with his own mother, and from all appearances was doing the best he could under the circumstances.
Whether that would hold true for Nathanial’s heir, he did not know.
He would not risk it.
Therefore, he needed to beget his own heir as quickly as possible, but the idea of engaging in intimacies with a woman who had tricked him in the most foul manner…
The worst part was that, physically at least, he did want her.He could not stop watching her out of the corner of his eye.The way her lips parted when she lifted her spoon to take a bite.The way her breasts moved against the low decolletage of her gown—which was not even truly that low,andit was modestly covered with afichu, appropriately for a family dinner.Part of him itched to touch her silken skin and hair.
Another part of him wanted to turn her over his knee and spank her until he’d vented his anger about her treachery.
“Perhaps tomorrow we could visit the local shops?”His wife suggested, turning her head to look at him with her big dark eyes.They were full of uncertainty, which was at least something.She did not seem to know quite how to behave toward him.She should have thought of that before she trapped him into marriage.
Still, she was offering to take his sisters shopping, which they desperately needed, but he did not have the time to do.
“Yes, that should be fine.”He would have a word with Daniel before he went to bed this evening.Their neighbor, the Earl of Harrington, always let them borrow a carriage when they needed it.Nathanial suspected he’d also been giving Daniel money on the sly to keep the family afloat, but he did not ask because he already felt he owed the earl and his wife for the generous offerings of their resources and the fact that they’d never gossiped about the Percys’ dire straits.
“Yay!”Fiona sat up straight, throwing her hands up in the air.“A new dress!”Something she had never had before.Though Julianna and Emma’s reactions were not quite as exuberant, they both sat up straighter, bright-eyed with eagerness.It had been a long time since any of them had worn anything but hand-me-downs—and Fiona had never had a dress of her own.
Seeing their happiness, watching his wife’s smile spread wider as she took in his sisters’ reactions as well, he could almost feel contentment.
