Page 28 of The Duke and the Unwanted Bride

Chapter Eight

“Tell me, Brother, do you intend to spend the rest of your life ignoring your new bride? Or are you getting it all out of the way today?” Lord William Campbell tittered as he sipped on his glass of brandy.

Frederick looked at his younger brother flatly. “I am not ignoring her.”

“Are we dealing in semantics, now? Because not speaking with her is the same as ignoring her. Or it was the last time I checked.”

“I am not not speaking with her either. I am just…” Frederick looked around the room for an answer, making surenotto look in Hannah’s direction. “Playing host. It would be rude not to.”

“Playing host?” His brother snorted. “This isn’t even your home to play host in.”

“But it is my wedding breakfast.”

“All the more reason you should be spending it with your bride,” William shot back with a very self-satisfied grin.

“There is time for that later,” Frederick said warningly, hoping his tone would be enough to dissuade his brother from continuing this conversation.

“Later?” William sipped his brandy, his body now shaking from withheld laughter. “From what I saw earlier, later might be too far away for you to wait.” A wink next. “Honestly, Brother, I am surprised that the two of you even made it to this breakfast. That you didn’t whisk her way in the carriage and perform your husbandly duties before even the sun had begun to set?—”

“Will you keep it down!” Frederick snapped, his eyes widening as he glanced around the room, making sure nobody heard. “And I have no idea what you are talking about.”

William could not have looked more pleased. “If that is what you need to tell yourself. But between you and me, even God was blushing at your little performance.” He clicked his tongue, grinning from ear to ear. “Shame on you, Brother. I thought you had more self-control than that.”

Frederick scowled warningly at his brother, choosing to ignore the comment because he would not dignify it with an answer. It was the kiss to which his brother referred, and despite the jokes, Frederick didn’t think it wasthatbad.

He and William were standing in the back corner of Lord Ramsbury’s ballroom, the chosen location for the wedding breakfast. It was supposed to be hosted by Frederick, but seeing as the church was so close to Ramsbury Estate, they opted to have it here instead. At the moment, there were a dozen or so people occupying the ballroom, most standing in small groups as they gossiped about the wedding.

Among them was Frederick’s new bride, Hannah. She stood with her sisters on the other side of the room, with her back to him, almost purposefully, as if she wanted to make a point of not looking his way.

Frederick stole a glance at her. Only a glance. It was meant to be a second… but his eyes were captivated by the sight of her bare back, her round hips. The memory their kiss and how utterly entranced he had become by it flashed in his mind. He had lost himself for a moment, his walls shattered in a way he had not expected.

He knew what she was doing, of course. The dress. The performance. She was trying to seduce him, to prove his claims that he would not kiss or touch her were false and foolhardy. But was she doing so because she wanted him? Or simply because she enjoyed making him squirm? Based on the little he knew of her so far… it was impossible to tell.

“So, I suppose that introductions are out of the question?” his brother asked, noting the way he stared at his new wife.

William was his younger brother, the black sheep of the family for the way he had chosen to live his life—with vigor, as he put it. Loudly. Boisterously. Putting fun first above all else. The very opposite of Frederick. But Frederick, being the older brother, having accepted that the burden of the title fell on his own shoulders, had never begrudged him the fact. If anything, he had envied him.

“W-what?” Frederick tore his gaze away from Hannah and turned back around to find his brother still grinning stupidly.

“I was saying, are you going to introduce me to my sister-in-law? Or are you still ignoring her?”

“I am not?—”

“Avoiding her, then. Scared to approach her—and do not say otherwise.” William raised an eyebrow. “I know you, Brother, and I know what this is. But she is your wife now, and you cannot ignore the poor woman forever.”

Frederick grimaced. “I do not intend to.”

“And seeing as I am yet to meet the woman, I would very much like an introduction. It is proper, Brother. For me to go over there alone… well, how would that look?”

“Do not take it personally…” Frederick looked across the room again, certain now that she had turned her back to him on purpose. “Even Amelia has not met her yet.”

“Truly?” William chuckled. “It’s been two weeks, Brother. How have you managed to avoid such a thing?”

Frederick could not help but laugh, but more in mockery of his own actions. “By doing what you have accused me of, is how. Avoiding her.”

And he had been doing that too. For two weeks, Frederick had avoided Hannah the best he could simply because he felt he had no choice. Their near kiss in the garden that day was the reason for it, the fear it struck in him at how close the two had come. For all his talk of not wanting to touch her, having no desire for such a thing, he had come so close to breaking that his only answer was to run and hide and hope that some distance would solve the problem.

If anything, it had only made things worse.

---