Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
“… a
nd as I have told you for the tenth time, I am feeling perfectly well.” Rose laughed as she said it, because she was not annoyed. If anything, she was more than a little pleased by how worried her husband was.
“I’ll remind you that you told me the exact same thing last evening, seconds before you collapsed into my arms.”
“I did not collapse into your arms.”
“That is what you are taking umbrage with?” he said dryly. “You know what I meant.”
“I merely… stumbled,” Rose said with a dismissive flick of her wrist. “And you over-reacted.”
“I did not!”
She laughed. “That does not mean I am not grateful. Even stumbling, one can still hurt oneself. So, even though I have said it a dozen times, thank you.”
“And it feels better to hear each time,” the Duke said, letting his smile show. “Which means that…” He raised an eyebrow at her. “You are feeling better now? You’re not going to stumble again anytime soon?”
“Yes!” she cried and threw her hands in the air.
“I feel perfectly well.” She looked pointedly at him, he kept that eyebrow raised, and she sighed.
“I have eaten twice today. I slept well last evening. And I have made sure not to exert myself all day. As I said,” She widened both eyes at him. “I am fine.”
“Good.” He nodded once as if he was serious, only for the smile to return to his lips; it was gleeful and mocking. “Can’t be too careful, you know. If you were to hurt yourself…”
“I am sure you would not even care.”
“Careful,” he warned her. “Next time, I might not catch you.”
To that, Rose rolled her eyes, all the while trying her best to smother the smile that wreaked havoc with her lips. She was enjoying herself, the Duke was enjoying himself, and Rose wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about it.
It felt strange, which was why. There was an awkward tension sitting between husband and wife, one that was slowly melting, but not so slowly that it wasn’t noticeable.
This was, after all, the first time that they had spoken to one another in a manner that could be deemed as friendly, and both seemed aware of how important it was that nothing be said that might ruin the moment.
Stranger still, that Rose did not want the moment to be ruined. What has become of me?
A better question might have been, what had become of her husband?
The changes she noticed began yesterday evening. At first, Rose had assumed he was angry with her, as that seemed the safe bet. And when he had shown worry, she assumed he was doing it to placate his own guilt, because there was no way that he actually cared about her well-being.
Apparently, her well-being was exactly what he cared about.
The first thing that the Duke did this morning was check on her. And as it neared noon, he again checked on her to see that she was feeling better.
Still, Rose could not escape the notion that he was doing it for his own reasons, possibly keeping an eye on her so that she would not go off on her own and change things that he did not want changed.
But when he invited her to sup with him, insisting that she say yes, she was forced to concede that maybe, however unlikely, he had changed.
At the very least, he was trying to change.
“I thought I might ask a favor of you.” As the Duke spoke, he shifted his knife and fork so that they sat evenly beside his plate.
“Is that right?” Rose braced herself, figuring that this was the reason he wanted to sup with her. Of course, there was a reason. What else could I have expected?
“I mentioned already that I took a look at the changes you made to my taxation ledgers.” He took a sip of water and then set the cup down, carefully moving it to the exact center of the plate. “And I was impressed at how thorough they were.”
“Yes, well.” Rose licked her lips, studying the Duke as she tried to see ahead to where this was going. “My father is the reason.”
“Oh?”
“I have been helping him with his businesses since I was a little girl.” She laughed to herself. “He never was much for numbers, or business for that matter.”
“He seemed rather adept from my point of view,” the Duke said with a sourness.
“The marriage contract between you and him was as much of a surprise to me as it was to anyone else. And he still won’t tell me how it occurred…” She trailed off, hoping he would elaborate.
Indeed, she saw him scowl, his expression darken, and his posture turn rigid. She had noticed several weeks ago how upset the contract had made the Duke, and how gleeful her father had been about the fact.
How did my father arrange such a thing? And how did a man like my husband allow himself to be baited into such a trap?
“What I was going to say was, how would you feel about taking a look at some further contracts I am working on?” The Duke shifted his cutlery again, relaxing a little, and clearly eager to move the conversation away from the contract.
Rose blinked. “I do not understand.”
“You clearly have a mind for such things,” he said simply. “And I would be a fool not to take advantage. I did marry you for that reason, after all.”
Rose found herself staring at the Duke.
He was so different from what she had first thought. Not as mean. Not as cold. Certainly not disinterested and cruel. Rather, it looked to her eyes as if he was trying his best to appease her. That his words were an olive branch, of sorts, the need felt to bridge the gap between them.
Why did he want such a thing? She could not say just as she could not say how she felt about it… or rather, if I want the same.
“You want my help?” she asked finally.
“If you will give it.”
Her frown deepened, and she fixed it on him. He raised an eyebrow innocently, not backing down or giving anything away.
“Why?” she asked.
“Excuse me?”
“Why?” she said again. “And not the ledgers. I mean, why now? Why are you suddenly— why the change? I thought we had agreed that this marriage would be one of circumstance and yet…”
“It still is, Rose. But I am not perfect, despite the rumors I propagate about myself.” He laughed at his own joke. “And it was just a few days ago that I came to realize something.” A beat as he looked at her.
“What did you realize?”
“That I have been entirely too focused on myself. As hard as all of this has been for me, I have not once considered how hard it must be for you. I am not trying to change the arrangement we had. I am not trying to trick you or whatever you think it is that I am doing. All this is,” He sighed, and his body slumped.
“It is an effort to ensure that this marriage isn’t going to kill us both.
We have the rest of our lives to get through, so why waste them hating one another as if we are enemies? ”
“I never hated you,” She shied away.
“You did,” he said. “And I can’t help but feel slightly responsible for it.”
“Only slightly?” she snorted.
He laughed. “And maybe a little more than that.”
The fact that he was laughing was something that Rose could not get her head around. That he was showing emotions, while not trying to hide them, was so unlike him she had half a mind to ask who he was and what he had done to her husband.
As she watched him, she noticed again that he aligned his cutlery beside the plate so that it sat evenly on both sides.
“Why do you keep doing that?” she asked.
“What?” His eyes widened, and he dropped his hands.
“The cutlery. And the glass,” She laughed gently. “The staff said that you liked things a certain way, but I had no idea how much.”
He grimaced. “As I said, this has been hard for you, as well as me.”
Guilt struck Rose suddenly. She did not mean for it to happen, she did not expect it, but for the first time, she saw her husband as more than the duke who had tried to force her sister into a marriage that she did not want.
He was a victim in this, too. His world had changed as much as her own.
And here he was, trying to accept these changes, to make them work, and the least that she could do.
“You are right.” She straightened up. “About everything.”
“I am?”
She laughed. “This past week has been tragic, and I will not deny it. But that does not mean next week has to be the same. Or the one after, for that matter.”
“Truly?”
“Truly.”
The Duke allowed his smile to show, and then to reach his eyes. Rose felt a squirming in her stomach to see it, and she felt her heart race just a little to feel the changes happening between them both.
Finally, she was starting to see the Duke as a real person, a man, her husband.
“With that in mind, there is something else we must discuss,” he said and cleared his throat. “I was not sure if we were quite ready.”
“Oh?”
He scoffed. “It is nothing to worry about, but there is a Ball I was planning on attending in three days. I was not certain if I should invite you, or if you would even want to go.” He clicked his tongue and looked away.
“I would love to go,” she said, realizing it was the truth.
“You would?” he asked with great skepticism.
“Of course,” she said, again finding that she meant it.
“Wonderful.” A quick smile. “It will be good for us to be seen together. And now that we can stand to be in the same room.” He laughed, and it sounded real. Better than that, it sounded right. “Speaking of which, what are you plans for tomorrow?”
She frowned. “Ah, none so far.”
“Good.” He nodded firmly. “We will go shopping. If we are to attend this Ball, it will do for you to have some new gowns.”
“I have plenty of gowns of my own.”
He looked at her and cocked an eyebrow as a smirk worked over his lips.
“The gowns you have are those of the daughter of a viscount. You are a duchess now, Rose, my wife, and when you appear in society, people should know it. More than that, they should fall on their knees with gratitude that they were lucky enough to bear witness to such a thing as your beauty.”
Rose’s cheeks flushed bright pink. “Oh, please.”
“I am being serious,” he said, sounding like he meant it. “Tomorrow, we will go shopping, and I will show you what it means to be the wife of a duke.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
“As am I.”
It was just a single evening. A singular instance of Rose and her husband enjoying one another’s company. But it felt like more than that. It felt to Rose like something was changing between them; changes that were much needed.
What would happen next? Where would they go from here? She had no idea, but she was excited to find out. In the grand scheme of this marriage and all it had been so far, that was huge.