Page 69 of The Duke's Cursed Bride
“If you ever want to talk about them, you can,” he said gently. “I’m happy to listen. I’d like to know about your family.”
“I’m not sure if I can,” she said. “I never talk about them. Not to anyone.”
He nodded. “That’s all right,” he said. “Whatever makes you happy, Madeleine.”
She laughed.
“Is that funny?”
“I don’t know. I suppose it isn’t. It’s just odd to think that anything in this marriage might be about making either one of us happy.”
“Don’t you think it could be?”
She turned away from him. “I hardly know what to think anymore,” she admitted.
He fell silent. They had gotten off to such a rocky start, and he felt as if everything he said to her made matters worse. He had only meant to tell her he was willing to listen to her stories if she cared to share them, but it seemed he had made her sad again. Everything he said to her seemed to have the opposite effect of what he intended.
He watched as she poured milk into the saucepan and lit the fire underneath it. “Can I help you?” he asked. “I hate sitting here while you do all the work.”
“It really isn’t any work at all,” she said. “I don’t mind.”
“But I want to be helpful. Please.”
She smiled. “All right,” she said. “Why don’t you get the cups ready? This won’t take very long to heat up.” She hesitated. “You do know where the cups are, right?”
There was hesitation in the question as if she thought he might be offended by it, but he couldn’t be—she was right to wonder. He had no idea where the cups were.
Still, he thought he was up to the task of finding them. “I’m sure they’re around here somewhere,” he said, moving to one of the cupboards with a confidence he didn’t feel. He opened it up to find that it was full of serving dishes.
Madeleine laughed. “All right,” she said. “You work on that while I heat up the milk, and by the time it’s ready, perhaps you’ll have the cups ready for us as well.”
“One can hope.” Thomas continued searching but to no avail. “You would think I’d know my way around my own kitchen by now, wouldn’t you?”
“You’ve never had occasion to learn these things,” Madeleine pointed out. “Why would a duke need to know where things are in the kitchen?”
“In case he wants to make something for his wife in the middle of the night, perhaps.”
“I suppose you didn’t anticipate this particular need.”
“No, well, there are many things I never anticipated,” he said. “Things that maybe I should have.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know why I thought a marriage would be easy.”
She glanced at him. “I really haven’t meant to make it difficult,” she said. “I know that I don’t really know what I’m doing. And I know I’ve been…resistant to following your mother’s training.”
“No, it’s nothing to do with that,” he said. “You see, here I go again, saying all the wrong things.”
“You? You’re not saying the wrong things.”
“Yes, I am,” he said. “I’m not blind to it, Madeleine. I see how my words have hurt you since you’ve gotten here. Everything I do seems to have this effect on you. Even when I try to do something kind, like allowing you to miss breakfast on your first day, it hurts you.”
She shook her head. “I’ve been too quick to let you see my thoughts.”
“No, you haven’t. That’s not what I’m saying. I don’t want you to keep your thoughts hidden from me, Madeleine. I want to know what you’re thinking. I want to knowyou.”
“You said this wasn’t going to be a marriage of love,” she said. “I thought that was your way of telling me to keep my distance.”
