Page 24 of The Icy Duke Claims a Bride

Hugh had run away from her again, Catherine realized with a frown. He had kissed and caressed her in a way that seemed to finally make his intentions clear after almost a week of avoiding her. She had been quite prepared to grit her teeth and be deflowered on the music room floor a few moments ago.

No, that wasn’t entirely true. She hadwantedHugh to do it, and that feeling still terrified and appalled her in equal measure.

Why didn’t he just get it over with? As his wife, Catherine knew that she could not refuse him his conjugal rights. She was prepared to do her duty and would not have even injured her dignity with token protest.

A young maid carrying a pail of cleaning materials and a mop walked down the corridor. She bobbed a curtsey to her new mistress, her long brown plaits swaying slightly.

“Do you know where His Grace has gone?” Catherine asked her.

“I don’t, Your Grace,” the maid replied rather nervously, struggling to meet Catherine’s eyes.

“Where would he normally be at this hour?”

“Mr. Perkins might know, or Mrs. Kaye,” the maid suggested. “Should I call them for you?”

“No, please don’t let me disturb your work or theirs.” Catherine shook her head. “It isn’t important.”

It would not do to add to the already circulating gossip about the unusual marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Redbridge. Everyone in the house would know that they had not so far shared a bed, nor even a dining table. The thought of this knowledge potentially spreading beyond Redbridge Hall triggered a sense of embarrassment and unease in Catherine.

What kind of woman was still a virgin a week into her marriage? She could even imagine that very question being asked in Lady Castleton’s elegant but sneering voice.

“Yes, almost six-and-twenty and still an old maid at heart—and in other places, too, I hear… If it takes her as long to get under her husband as to catch him, she’ll be almost beyond bearing children…”

Yes, if this reached the ton, the ladies at least would no doubt lay all the blame for Catherine’s continued condition at her own door.

But what could she do? Was it any less humiliating to have to demand that her husband bed her than to remain a virgin and have that fact spread abroad? Either way, the present situation was untenable.

Surely, it should be possible for a husband and wife to come to some civilized arrangement about intimate relations, and where and when it should take place. From what she learned of her parents’ marriage, Catherine guessed it should be often enough to keep the husband from straying to other women’s beds, but not so often as to be unduly onerous for the wife.

Onerous?! Conscious that she was, on some level, lying to herself, Catherine closed her eyes and wished her unruly instincts and desires away. They told her that there would be nothing even slightly onerous in lying with Hugh and that all she really needed to do to make it happen was to tell him that she wanted him…

No, she told herself firmly. Closing the music room door behind her, as decidedly as she closed her mind to her innermost feelings, she made for the library, where Hugh seemed to spend most of his time.

She would wait for him to return and then would raise this most intimate subject with him coolly and objectively, no matter how uncomfortable it might be.

“Oh! I… Good afternoon, Sir,” Catherine said, surprised to find that the library was already occupied by a middle-aged gentleman with graying chestnut hair and mustache.

He seemed as startled by her presence as she was by his, standing up quickly from where he had been bent over the contents of a tray on a table beside one of the large green leather armchairs.

“Forgive me, Your Grace,” the man said quickly. “You must be Catherine, the new Duchess of Redbridge. I am Edwin Vaughan, your husband’s uncle. Didn’t Perkins tell you that I was here?”

Catherine shook her head, realizing that she was now the lady of this grand house and that this was her first guest. “No, I’m afraid not. I imagine Perkins has gone to fetch my husband. Please, do forgive my abrupt entrance, Lord Edwin. I hope you have not been waiting long?”

Edwin hesitated before he answered, the look in his pale blue eyes inscrutable. “Not very long. Although my wife, Lady Georgina, has already gone out for a stroll in the gardens until Hugh comes back. I had hoped that my nephew might introduce us to you today. My wife was unwell last week, and we could not make it to the wedding, unfortunately.”

“Well, I am very glad to meet you today, My Lord, and look forward to making your wife’s acquaintance. It was only a small wedding, so you did not miss a great social event.”

“Do call me Uncle Edwin, please, Your Grace.” Edwin smiled. “We are only a small family, after all. Such formalities would be out of place at home.”

“Then you must call me Catherine.” Catherine smiled back cautiously, conscious that she might need allies in her new home. “I’ve just arrived at Redbridge Hall, and I am not yet familiar with all its ways. Perhaps you and Lady Georgina might give me some advice on life here. Shall I ring the bell for tea? Or is that all you require?” She indicated the tray—it contained only a single glass of some milky drink and a rather plain-looking biscuit—that Edwin had been examining when she entered the room. .

Edwin chortled. “You certainly are new to Redbridge Hall if you don’t know that my nephew takes a hot rum toddy and a single digestive at eleven o’clock most mornings after eating an early breakfast before seven o’clock.”

Catherine laughed, too. “No, I did not know that. I’d only figured out that he likes to ride or walk for hours in the mornings. I’ll ring for tea for four. Please, do have a seat and tell me what else I should know about regular Redbridge Hall happenings…”

Catherine enjoyed her short chat with Edwin before anyone else arrived and managed to extract several useful nuggets of information about Hugh and his habits.

She also gathered that his uncle had been heavily involved in running the estate until recently, and he seemed to have some concerns about how Hugh was coping without his assistance.

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