Page 43 of Her Tiger of a Duke
They all loved it, of course. They congratulated the couple several times, both on their home and their match. Even Cecilia, who had doubted it from the start, seemed pleased for her. The gentlemen left for a drink, and the ladies played a game of Whist in the parlor room, the children joining them intermittently before going to play again.
“He seems very different to the wedding,” Dorothy said. “More at ease.”
“That is because he has realized that he has not married some wild lady,” Cecilia joked. “He must have thought he was tying himself to a madwoman, and instead he has soft and sweet Beatrice.”
“I am not entirely soft and sweet!” she protested, but her friends only laughed affectionately at her.
“It is a compliment,” Cecilia pressed. “He is a very lucky man, and I hope he knows that.”
“He does, or at least I believe he does. That reminds me, I have something for you.”
“I have been most looking forward to this!” Emma clapped. “I have so missed your treats.”
She placed Owen’s biscuits in front of them, and they ate them happily, only to look at her cautiously. She knew that they could tell a difference and wondered if they would say as much.
“They are good,” Dorothy said as she finished one, “but they are different to yours. You never used rosewater in yours. Is it something you wanted to try?”
Unable to keep a secret, she came clean, and her friends sighed wistfully at the confession.
“I have never known a man look like him and yet make something so delicate,” Emma chuckled, taking another. “Have you been teaching him?”
“Not exactly. We baked together once, and he asked to try alone. He will be as good as me one day, I think, and I do not know whether to be pleased about that or not.”
“You most certainly should be,” Cecilia nodded. “It means that you will be the one to receive cakes and biscuits, rather than making them. Not only that, but you have something to do together. What luck that you found someone willing to try things.”
“Indeed, I am very fortunate in that respect. He has been a very good husband so far, although…”
“Although?” Emma echoed.
“I cannot help but feel as though he is keeping something from me. I do not know what it is, but he has moments where he keeps entirely to himself, and when that happens there is no reasoning with him.”
“Men are like that,” Emma soothed. “He will open to you in time. You must remember that you have not known one another for long, and it will change before you know it. That is how it was for all three of us.”
Beatrice remembered how it had been for them, but she had always told herself that she would not go through it herself. She did not want to admit such thoughts to them, but it was what had happened, and now she was in that very position.
It was easy to ignore, however, when the good in him was as good as it was.
“Now,” Cecilia said brightly, sensing her discomfort, “you simply must tell us what you have planned for this week!”
Beatrice did not know where to start.
CHAPTER 18
Owen quickly realized that the three dukes who were visiting had known one another for a long time.
He thought it might make him feel like an outsider, but instead he was able to listen to them in conversation at their club without feeling that he had to carry the discussion for them.
Unfortunately, they were discussing their wives and children, which Owen could not do in the way they did. He liked his wife, and was at risk of falling in love with her, but he did not have the extensive marriages that they did, nor the children. The thought had crossed his mind that he would need an heir, but they were not at that point yet, and he was in no rush to make it so.
“We ought to stop this,” Leonard chuckled. “Our new friend seems pale.”
“My word,” Morgan replied. “We may require a physician!”
“I am perfectly content to listen,” Owen explained. “The thing is, my match is very different to yours, and–”
“It is precisely the same,” Levi said firmly. “Do you truly believe that all three of us were madly in love with our wives after knowing them as long as the two of you have?”
“Well, I had assumed so. You speak of them as though you were.”
