Page 46 of Taken By the Beastly Duke

She must admit that she woke up a little later, because after the encounter with her new husband the night before, she had tossed and turned for several hours after his departure.

She had later been overcome by exhaustion in the early hours of the morning and have fallen in a deep sleep.

That was the primary reason why she was only appearing for breakfast when it was nearly noon.

She had felt mortified with shame at her perceived laziness, believing it would send a wrong impression of her, as the new duchess to her household staff.

She had consoled herself that the person who would have the authority to comment on that impression was her mother in law, who was conveniently absent at the moment.

But the presence of the said lady sitting primly at the dining table, proved all her assumptions wrong.

It seemed that the meeting she had dreaded was already here, she could only brave it and make the best of the circumstances

"Your grace." she said curtsying with what she hoped was a cheerful smile pasted on her face.

"Nonsense. I hardly think all that is needed." Her mother in law said waving her hand to encompass her figure

"We are family after all." she said dismissively not bothering to look up from the embroidery she was working on.

It was obvious that her mother in law didn't approve of her.

She guessed she should be thankful that the lady was civil at least. Victoria didn't blame her, because she guessed she would react in a similar way, if her only beloved son decided to marry a lady that was rumored to have trapped him in marriage using nefarious means.

No matter how good she was, she knew it would take quite some time to thaw her mother in law's heart towards her.

She walked slowly towards her.

"We missed you yesterday at the wedding." she said with a smile.

"I travelled to Bath to see an ailing friend of mine. I had high hopes that I would be able to make it back to London in time for my son's wedding. That didn't work according to my plan." she said with an exasperated shrug of her shoulders.

"My carriage threw an axle on the way back. I should have known that would happen going by the muddy roads we had to transverse. Well, unfortunately my footman couldn't replace it and there was no hope in sight as it was really late at night. I had to spend the night at some bed bug infested inn." she shuddered slightly in disgust as if remembering the inn again.

"We continued our journey at late noon yesterday after managing to procure someone to repair the axle. I only just arrived yesterday night."

"I am sorry for your ordeal your grace. I truly hope you have been able to rest to regain your strength." Victoria said sympathetically.

"I have rested enough. I cannot stay in my bedchamber any longer, so I came down for breakfast. I was surprised you and Anthony had not come down for breakfast but I guess that is expected of newlyweds." she commented drily, her hands still moving bringing a beautiful scene to life on the handkerchief she was embroidering.

"His grace left early to attend to an engagement." she replied. At least that was what the note she found on her bed side table said.

He must have come in while she was fast asleep. The thought of having him standing over her, watching her sleep, filled her with a warm feeling that was slowly spreading to her whole body.

To distract herself, she shook her head to clear her head, then cleared her throat.

"You do very beautiful embroidery, your grace"

"Just something I do to pass the time" she replied dismissively without bothering to look up at her.

Looking over her shoulder, Victoria could see that on the edge of the handkerchief, the duchess had embroidered her husband's initials "A. W".

"It seems this is for the duke. This really looks beautiful.".

Her voice startled the duchess and she looked behind her.

"Do sit down, it is not prudent to hover around me. It is distracting."

Victoria hurried over to pull out one of the dining chairs to sit down. When the duchess continued to ignore her.

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