Chapter 7
By the end of the day, Prudence was as exhausted as she had ever been in her life.
She sat on the edge of the bed in the chamber to which she had been directed, trying to convince her mind that this was home now.
It didn’t feel like it. She had taken several of her things out of her trunk, positioned them around the room, and then experimented with moving them to new places, but that hadn’t been effective.
Even though she was staring at familiar items that had been a part of her life for years, she felt as if she was in a foreign land looking at things she had never seen before.
About the room itself she had no complaints.
At least, none that she would have felt justified in making aloud.
The room was larger by half than the one she had inhabited at home, but she was sure that had been meant kindly.
The window gave her a beautiful, clear view of the grounds which was objectively lovely—but all Prudence could think about was the fact that she was stuck up here on the second floor with no tree to climb down. No way to escape.
At least she still had her secret men’s garments.
She had carefully wrapped them up back at her parents’ house and concealed them in the bottom of her trunk, knowing all too well what would happen if she depended on someone else to pack them for her.
But without a tree, she couldn’t escape out the window.
It would be difficult, if not impossible, for her to get out and do anything, even though she did have her disguise to help her.
Not to mention the fact that I have no idea what the Duke would do if he were to catch me doing such a thing of course.
A man as concerned about image as he was would probably be even worse than her parents if he found out how she liked to spend her time under cover of darkness.
He would have no patience for it at all, and the first time she was caught, she would likely find herself locked up in the house for the foreseeable future.
Prudence sighed heavily. At least the staff had been welcoming and kind.
Mrs. Mills was not an anomaly in this household.
Most of them had been just like her. And Prudence had discovered a great fondness, in particular, for Emily, the girl the Duke had apparently hired to serve as her lady’s maid.
She had never had her own lady’s maid before.
It was an expense her parents had not been able to afford.
Emily seemed like someone Prudence might be able to count on as a confidante—at least, she hoped so.
She rather wished she had not dismissed Emily tonight. It would have been easier to have someone sitting here with her, waiting for what might or might not happen next.
After all, this was Prudence’s wedding night, and she knew enough to know what that might mean.
Her husband had said he didn’t intend to ask anything of her, but had he meant this?
She couldn’t be sure. There was every possibility he would come to her room tonight and try to make their marriage official.
Better him than Lord Hall, she reminded herself and meant it. But she didn’t want to share that sort of thing with any man at all, and certainly not one she hardly knew.
Still, he had ignored her since they had arrived back at Desford.
He hadn’t even come to dinner tonight. She hadn’t seen him since he had left her at the front door, and there had been no hint that he was even in the house.
That made her feel as though perhaps she had nothing to worry about on this front.
Surely, he wouldn’t arrive in her bedroom suddenly, after a full day’s absence, making demands of her. He couldn’t do that.
No, there was nothing to fear. She might as well simply go to bed. There would be plenty of things to concern herself with in the morning. She didn’t need to stay up all night worrying over problems that had yet to present themselves.
She moved to extinguish her lantern so that she could go to bed, but she was disrupted by a knock at the door.
Emily.
It was Emily. It had to be. She’d come back to tell Prudence something, or perhaps to see if she needed anything. Prudence went to the door and opened it.
It wasn’t Emily.
The Duke stood in the hall, leaning against the door frame and looking down at her.
Once again, Prudence was struck by his height, by how massive he was.
He towered over her. She had to crane her neck back to look up at him.
Her heart pounded. So, he had come after all.
Why? What was he expecting? What did he want?
“I see you’re ready for bed,” he said.
Her heart missed a beat. She’d completely forgotten the fact that she was standing here in her nightgown, whereas he was still fully dressed. Instinctively, she made to close the door, to shield herself from his eyes, but he put a hand on it and kept it open.
“Don’t get shy now,” he told her. “It’s so unlike you, Lady Prudence.”
If he didn’t want her to be shy, she wouldn’t.
“Just Prudence,” she said firmly. “You can call me by the correct title, the one you’ve given me, or you may call me by my name.
You may not call me by the form of address I left behind at my father’s house when I married you, for it no longer applies. ”
He raised his eyebrows. “Very well… Prudence. If that is your wish.”
“And what brings you here tonight, Your Grace?”
“Now, if we are going to be informal with one another, Prudence, surely that ought to go both ways. You ought to call me Leonard.”
She was surprised in spite of her own identical request. “Do you want me to?”
“I can’t see why there should be any difference between the way I treat you and the way you treat me,” he said. “If we are to be on a first name basis, we should go ahead and do that.”
“Very well,” she said. “Leonard, then. What brings you to my room tonight?” She held her breath, knowing what he might say, knowing that he had the right to insist upon whatever he wanted from her now that they were married.
If a husband’s privilege was what he wanted, she would simply have to give in and hope that he was quick about it and that she would be able to return to sleep soon.
“May I come in?” he asked her.
She hesitated. “What will happen if I say no?”
“I would appreciate it if you didn’t, but I’m not going to break the door down,” he said. “This may be my house, but it is your room, and I will afford you your privacy. If you tell me to go away, I will do it.”
It was enough to assuage her fears, for if he had wanted to come in badly enough to force his way, they both knew he could have done that. “I suppose it’s all right,” she said, stepping back from the door to admit him.
He entered the room and crossed to an armchair that sat in the corner.
He eased himself down into it. Even seated, his height was staggering.
Prudence was not a short person, but he was almost as tall sitting down as she was standing up.
She returned to her bed, but something about sitting down on it felt too intimate, so she remained standing beside it.
“How was your first day?” he asked her.
She shrugged. “I didn’t see much of you.”
“No,” he agreed. “I was busy as I frequently am. But I trust that my staff took care of your needs.”
“The staff was very helpful,” she agreed. “You have good people working for you.”
“Yes, I do. And I’m sure that with their help, you will be very comfortable here in no time at all. But I wanted to take this time to speak with you and see whether there was anything I could do to make you feel more at home here.”
She frowned. “And you’re asking me this now?”
“Is there something about now that doesn’t suit you?”
“It seems the kind of thing you might have asked me when we first arrived, rather than waiting until the middle of the night. That’s all.
I would have thought that you would want to make sure I was happy here at once.
Instead, you disappeared the moment we arrived and left me to my own devices.
That was a very difficult thing to deal with on my very first day in a new place.
So if you’re concerned about what I might need in order to feel comfortable here, a place to start might be simply not leaving me to face it on my own. ”
“I’m here now, aren’t I?” There was no remorse in his tone, no indication that he understood what she was trying to communicate. “Why don’t you just tell me what it is you want from me?”
“I want you to treat me like a person,” she said.
“I want you to behave as if I matter to you in some way, even if that way is very little. You must eat dinner on a normal night—why would you not appear in the dining room, unless your reason was that you were avoiding me? And I do not deserve to be avoided, Leonard. You may not hold me in high esteem, but I am your wife, and you should treat me as such. You should treat me as a part of this household and not just something you can hand off to your servants and forget about.”
“That’s your feeling? You believe I handed you off to my servants and forgot about you?”
“It’s obvious that you did. I have no desire to make undue demands on your time, Leonard.
I know that you are a busy man. But I refuse to feel as if I am not here and not a significant part of your life.
If we are going to live together, you are going to have to treat me better than you have thus far. ”
He smirked at her. “You’re giving ultimatums? What do you imagine you’re going to do about this? What will you do if I say no to what you’re asking?”
“I don’t know yet,” she confessed. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t think of something.
One thing you’ll learn about me is that I’m very clever, and I don’t accept people pushing me around or telling me what to do.
If I’m being treated in a way of which I don’t approve, I will do something about it.
You can count on that. So, whatever you’re thinking as far as our future and the life we are creating together, I advise you to spare yourself some trouble and to go ahead and take my interests into account.
It will be better for both of us if you do. ”
“I wasn’t wrong about you,” he mused. “You really are a fiery one.”
“You weren’t wrong,” she agreed.
He let out a sigh. “I confess I do enjoy sparring with you,” he said. “But it isn’t what I came here to do.”
“What did you come here to do, then?” She folded her arms across her chest.
“I came here to talk to you about what our future holds,” he told her. “And if you’ll hear me out, I suspect you’ll find this conversation very much to your liking.”