Page 78 of The Duke and the Accidental Bride

“Someone is in a good mood today,” Isabella giggled.

“You have no idea,” Duncan said.

As to where they went from here, that was still a question without an answer.A little too soon to tell, Duncan told himself as he watched the carriage pull out.Perhaps in a week or two, if things keep going this well.

For now, it was enough that they were able to enjoy each other’s company and the animosity that used to exist between them in droves was a thing of the past.

A smile worked its way up the side of Duncan’s face as he turned and walked back inside his manor. It came with thought of Isabella, Duncan already picturing seeing her tonight and what they were sure to do together.

But he also pictured afterwards, lying in bed as they spoke and laughed and joked as they now so often did. Her soft, naked skin nuzzled into his body for warmth. The smell of her hair. The way she played with his fingers as she spoke.

The fact that such thoughts could bring a smile to Duncan’s face was more telling than anything else. How far he had come.

The idea came to Duncan shortly before midday.

He was thinking about Isabella and this evening and what they were most likely going to do – nothing good. But he was also just thinking aboutherand seeing her and spending time with her. Dammit, he missed his wife.

What was more, he wanted to show her how much he did. To give her a gift, one that meant something for a change, and see that smile of hers as her eyes lit up.

Look at me, taking pleasure at the notion of making my wife happy. Who have I become?

He spent the day thinking about what to get her. More hours than he would have thought needed, or cared for, but he wanted to get her the perfect gift.

And then it came to him. He was pacing the library, deep in thought, and it appeared to him as if a candle was being lit in his mind.

Isabella had lamented how, as a woman, she was not allowed to study as a man might be. No university would accept her, and no tutor would take her. Most men did not see the point in their wife or partner wasting time with higher learning. Most men were not Duncan.

Excitement took him as he rushed to his study where he fully intended to spend the rest of the day calling in favors so that he might be able to surprise Isabella as soon as was possible. He smiled to picture the elation on her face when he told her.She is going to be thrilled!

Duncan hurried into his study and sat down, was about to reach for a piece of parchment and a quill but paused when he saw a folded letter sitting at the center of his table.

Frowning, he looked about as if expecting one of his butlers to pop up and explain where it had come from. There were no-one, so Duncan scooped up the letter himself, saw who it was from, and groaned deeply because he had wondered what might come along to ruin this blissful state of ease he had found himself in and here it was.

The letter was from Juliet, and if he knew the woman half as well as he thought he did, its contents were sure to be ruinous.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"Are you certain that you have been taken ill?” Isabella asked her sister.

“Of course I am!” Louisa snapped. “What? Do you think that I am lying?”

“No, I did not say that,” Isabella assured her. “It is just that...” She clicked her tongue, careful not to speak too out of turn. “You do not look particularly ill, is all. Certainly not on death’s door, as you claim.”

“Well, I feel horrendous! And you should know better than to be this close to me – I do not want you to risk catching it.”

“I am sure I will be fine.”

Louisa pushed her lips together into a pout. “Oh yes, do not listen to me. Or anyone, for that matter. Do as you pleasebecause in the world of Isabella, things just tend to work out for the best, don’t they.”

“I...” Isabella frowned, a little taken by her sister’s snappy attitude. “I would not go so far as that.”

“Be sure to let me know if you have fallen sick in the next day or two – when you do,” Louisa said rightly, even a little viciously. “Maybe then you’ll learn to listen for a change.”

Isabella furrowed her brow at her sister but did not push the issue. She knew Louisa as well as she knew herself, because the two were twins, and she could sense that for reasons unknown to her, Louisa was trying to start a fight.

Typical. To escape the constant shouting and arguing of my new home only to find it in my old one. Can’t my life just be peaceful for once?

She had found her twin sister in bed this morning. So taken with illness that she had refused to see Isabella at all. But Isabella, forever the stubborn sister and wanting to make sure that Louisa was not as sick as she claimed, forced the issue and went and saw her anyway.

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