Page 82 of Married to a Frozen Duke
"How romantic. Pretending to tolerate each other for the sake of appearances."
"Would you prefer I be openly hostile to them?"
"I'd prefer you didn't think of them as the enemy."
"They are Coleridges."
"So am I."
"Yes," he said quietly. "So are you."
They looked at each other across her sitting room, two people trapped in a marriage neither wanted, about to face a visit both dreaded.
"We could have tea," she suggested suddenly. "Together. Now. Practise having a normal conversation."
"About what?"
"I don't know. Books? The weather? Anything except my inappropriate friendliness with servants or your frozen demeanour?"
"My demeanour is not frozen."
"You're right. Frozen suggests the possibility of thawing. Yours is more... permanently refrigerated."
Despite himself, his mouth twitched. "Permanently refrigerated?"
"It's a scientific marvel, really. You should donate yourself to the Royal Society."
"For the advancement of knowledge?"
"For the preservation of foods. Think how much longer things would keep in your presence."
This time he actually smiled, just slightly. "You're speaking ironically at me."
"Only a little. You make it rather easy."
"Do I?"
"Alexander, you're standing in my sitting room like you're afraid the furniture might attack. You can sit down, you know. It's quite safe."
He looked at the delicate chair nearest him with deep suspicion. "It doesn't look like it would support weight."
"It's supported me perfectly well."
"You weigh approximately as much as a bird."
But he did sit down, carefully, in the chair that looked least likely to collapse under him. She rang for tea, and when James brought it, she was politely distant, exactly as Alexander had instructed. She saw James's confusion, the slight hurt in his eyes, but maintained her duchess facade.
When they were alone again, Alexander said, "This is what you wanted me to see, isn't it? How cold it feels."
"I wanted you to see that there's a moderate path between inappropriate familiarity and arctic distance."
"Where is this path?"
"I don't know. I'm still looking for it." She poured the tea, pleased that her hands were steady. "How do you take your tea?"
"You don't know?"
"We've been married two weeks and I have no idea how you take your tea. That seems... wrong."
