Page 15 of Her Tiger of a Duke
“Yes, of course. I know that this is your home, now, but as you will expect we have ways of living here that are to be respected. It helps to ensure that the household is run properly.”
“Of course. My mother and father had plenty of rules for me, so I will not find any difficulty with yours.”
“I would rather that we do not refer to them as rules. It makes me sound more like a father than a husband.”
“Very well, then I shall be more than happy to respect your ways of living.”
He chuckled at the way she took things. It was not that she was serious, but she interpreted all his words in the most literal sense, and it was rather endearing.
“For one, whatever Mrs. Forsythe says goes, even if it contradicts me.”
She was shocked at the comment, her hand raising to her lips.
“It is unconventional, I know,” he continued, “but she has been running the household for years and given that I only took this title three years ago, it is for the best that we listen to her first.”
“Very well,” she agreed. “Is that to say that I should ask her if I need anything, rather than you?”
“For the most part. As it pertains to our appearances at events, I will know more, but for anything else she should be your first port of call.”
She nodded, waiting for him to continue.
He realized, then, that the words he had planned would be harder to say in practice when she was sitting across from him. He had expected it to be easy, for he had expected her to assume as much, but she looked at him with innocence in her eyes, and he hoped that he was not about to hurt her feelings.
“I assume you are aware that we shall live separate lives,” he said. “With the circumstances surrounding our match, I thought it might be best that we do as we please in the home and only portray the couple in love when we are out in society.”
He hated the way she looked at him.
She placed her fork on her plate and did not eat another bite. Part of him wanted to ask if she had something else in mind, but he could not change his ways and so he did not want to make her believe that he could. He had chosen the sensible thing, and that could not be changed either. He was a relatively new duke, and he had to be seen as an honorable man, which would be swayed if he was viewed as a man who did whatever his wife wanted.
“That is fine,” she replied quietly. “I understand my place perfectly well, Your Grace.”
She wiped her mouth with her napkin and left without another word. Owen wanted to call after her, to explain himself, but his mouth remained closed. She needed time alone, and he understood that.
Even if he hated that she was upset.
CHAPTER 7
It felt like a betrayal.
Beatrice was not a fool. She knew that she could not expect love from her marriage, not given the circumstances that brought them together, but she at least thought that they would be friends.
She sat in her bedchambers the first night, perched on the edge of her bed and wondering if her lady’s maid would come to dress her for bed or if she should do it herself. With a sigh, she hauled herself over to her dressing table and reached around her back, unlacing her gown and stepping out of it.
She grappled with the laces of her corset, loosening it slowly as she thought about what was to come. It struck her that her husband seemed to care for Helena more than he did her, for he was ensuring that Helena was to live a life where she was cared for and loved, whereas Beatrice herself was to live in a home by herself, even though her husband was mere feet away.
As she pulled the corset from her body, she scolded herself. She had nobody to blame but herself for her predicament. She should have stayed quiet, and then she would have been at home with her family still. Then again, she winced as she pulled her nightgown over her body. It was not as though she was particularly happy there, either.
The knock at her door startled her greatly.
“Come in,” she called, and her lady’s maid Ella entered.
“Oh! You are dressed. Mrs. Forsythe told me this might happen.”
“My apologies. I was uncertain as to when you would come, and I am tired.”
“That is no surprise after what you have done today.”
She was a sweet young lady, her features dark but her demeanor bright. She picked up Beatrice’s things from the floor, folded them, and prepared to take away again without being asked.
