Page 41 of A Bride for the Icy Duke
“Lydia,” he started, low and rasping.
“Did you think I wouldn’t find you here?” She came to perch on the edge of the armchair, peering over at his newspaper. “I always find the news rather dull, although I suppose it has its uses.”
He inhaled, and she tried not to ignore the idea that he was enjoying her scent. “Was there something in particular you wanted?”
“Just you.” She glanced down at him, enjoying his shock. After her ministrations the previous night, her body still buzzed.Desire, that was the name for it. “I found I missed you yesterday.”
“You got to know me rather well yesterday,” he said dryly.
“And yet not well enough.”
“Lydia…” he pressed, his voice low and tortured.
Was she pushing too hard? Fine. She slid off the arm and plumped herself into the opposite armchair. Outside, the rain splattered, promising another dull day. Trapped in the manor—except here, it was not trapped.
“Tell me something about you,” she began. “We are husband and wife, if only temporarily. I have sat in your lap and fed you and kissed you. And,” she added, casting a rueful glance at his hand, now unbound, “accidentally hurt you more than once. But I know very little about you.”
“I tell few people about myself.”
“Why?”
He folded the newspaper with precise, deliberate movements. “Because the stories are not very pleasant.”
“And you would rather not discuss unpleasantness?”
“When it comes to myself, yes.”
Abandoning her desire to learn more about the unpleasantness, she lifted a single shoulder in a shrug. “Then tell me something else. There must be good memories. How old are you?”
“You don’t know my age?” He raised a brow. “Guess.”
“I fancy you are several years older than I am,” she frowned. “Seven-and-twenty?”
“Correct.”
“And you inherited the estate when?”
“Six years ago.”
“So you had reached your majority, but only just,” she mused. “A young age to inherit such responsibility. I suppose you felt the weight of it.”
“I know my duty,” he said, which seemed a roundabout way of sayingyes.
“I always knew you were a man of duty,” she replied, chewing her lip. “After all, you married me because of my father’s dying wish, and you didn’t so much as know me at the time.”
Pain flashed across his face, and he bowed his head. “As you say.”
“What did you do during your year in London?”
He paused a long time before answering. “The usual. I went to clubs and met with my men of business and generally managed my estate as well as I could. I have several investments.” He did not expand on that. “What did you do in my absence?”
She grinned. “Drink wine.” Then, when he merely raised a brow, added, “I spent a lot of time in here, actually.”
“Here?” He looked around. “It is one of my favorite rooms in the house.”
“Mine, too. I’ve always loved books. They contain such escape.” She sighed longingly. “And I have often wished for escape.”
Alexander frowned at her, the silence between them broken only by the crackling of the fire. “Why?”
