Page 14 of An Accidental Bride for the Duke
“To find my husband,” she called over her shoulder. “Whether he likes it or not.”
Chapter Five
“We need to talk!” Iris did not waste time with knocking. She threw the door to Philip’s office open and stormed inside.
Philip was sitting behind his desk. The room, darkly lit, seemed to grow darker around his hulking frame, this was despite the lamp sitting on the edge of his desk. It was a large room too, but it was made to appear smaller with him taking up so much space.
Despite Iris’ temper, she came to a sudden stop when she stepped inside the room. All that anger inside of her wilted in the face of the duke’s coldness, the way he looked up and narrowed his eyes on her with warning and displeasure.
“For future reference, I would appreciate it if you knocked before you came barging into my office,” he said simply. “This might be your home too, but certain courtesies are still expected.”
“I…” She stammered and found herself double-guessing this most brazen action. It was all well and good tothinkthat she could be brave when Philip wasn’t right in front of her. But to see him in the flesh and she was reminded of just how intimidating her husband was. “I thought I would see you at supper,” she managed.
He frowned. “And why would you think that?”
“Because…” She swallowed. “Because you need to eat, and… and we… I just assumed…” She was stuttering, unable to come up with an explanation that didn’t sound like begging.
“This is why you barge in here? Because you thought I might be hungry?”
“No.”
“What then?”
There was a part of Iris that thought to apologize, turn, and then run. She could sense the anger bubbling away beneath the surface. The sense that her husband was containing it because he did not want to snap at her for no good reason. But should she push him…
Would that be such a bad thing? At least that way he will speak to me.
Iris thought back to today. The carriage ride yesterday. How boring it was. How lonely. How obvious it was that if something did not change then this life of hers would be a most depressing thing. She did not want to fight her husband, but if that was what it took, so be it.
She forced herself to straighten and looked right at him. “We need to talk.”
“I am confused; is that not what we are doing?”
“No,” she said. “Not like this. I mean… I have been here for a full day now, my home as you have said it, and not once have you done me the courtesy of checking on me. Not once have you sought me out to see how I am adjusting and if I need anything.”
“As I said it, Mr. Tibbitt –”
“I do not care about Mr. Tibbitt,” she snapped. “Nor do I care to trouble him with things that my husband should be eager to see to himself.”
That did it. Her snapping and Philip’s jaw clenched, the edges of his lips twitching. “Such as?”
She took a breath to calm her anger. “You have been avoiding me. All day, I have wandered these halls alone, nothing to do, no one to speak with. I understand that you are not eager to spend time with me, or to even pretend that you wish to. But the leastyou could do, as is right, is check on me. To treat me not as a stranger but as your wife.”
“Avoiding you? Is that what you think I have been doing?”
“Have you not been? This house is not so big that my not seeing you is an unlucky coincidence.”
“Did it occur to you that I was busy?”
“Did it occur to you that I don’t care.” Her tone was sharper than she meant it to be. But by this point, she was through with caring.
Her husband’s body turned rigid and again the side of his mouth twitched with vexation. “You disappoint me, Iris.”
“I don’t care?—”
“I thought we had an agreement,” he spoke over her, a growl to his voice now. “Was it not just last night that I came to you and specifically told you what I expect? Rules that I wished to be followed so that we might avoid unpleasantness. And now, one day in and you have already broken one of them.”
She frowned, not sure what he meant. “What… what do you mean?”
