Second Son of a Duke (2 page)

Three

Juliette found her husband intriguing.

She’d spent the last two weeks examining him very closely during their waking hours, waiting for some sort of sign as to what she needed to watch for or to manage, what she’d have to do to keep yet another person alive and in relatively good health.

So far, he seemed to be self-sufficient. An anomaly. Which had her looking for the four horsemen of the apocalypse instead.

He hadn’t reached for her since their wedding night, for which she was greatly relieved. And also disappointed. The intercourse had been just as awful as she’d been warned about, of course. But she secretly hoped he found her attractive. She tried to tell herself that she just didn’t want a husband with a mistress or lover on the side—one more person she’d have to account for in some way—but really, she just wanted him to want her.

Another anomaly.

Juliette found that Teddy was an interesting breakfast companion. They were the only two in the house who ate breakfast, unless Derek was still awake from the previous night’s carousing. Each day, Teddy held out her chair and poured her chocolate. He would then round the table to his chair and read aloud from the paper. He went to the gossip first, so they could prepare for repercussions from their brothers’ shenanigans. Then he read the headlines and asked her which she wanted to hear about most, and then, oddly, they would discuss the current affairs. He unfailingly asked her opinion. As if hers actually meant something to him.

He seemed warm, intelligent, and if she wasn’t mistaken, reliable.

They attended one ball together. He left her side only to procure refreshments and dance with her mother. When he danced with her, he was polite, refined, and looked far more elegant in his plain black formal wear than the peers around them in flamboyant colors and schemes. They retired early and he awoke with no aches in his head or disagreeable nature. She’d seen him several times with wine or whiskey, but never did she see him foxed.

He had to be hiding something.

Each day, she visited her brother’s estate and went over Peter’s accounts, conferred with the staff, and made detailed lists for everyone else. She returned exhausted and worried that she’d need to take over the duke’s home as well, as she was the only woman in residence. Try as she might, though, she could find no area of concern. It ran itself it seemed.

She waited on tenterhooks for some kind of calamity to befall her. Surely if getting married were supposed to be this easy, everyone would do it much sooner and without all the silly games. And this marriage had been a scheme concocted in the minds of two inebriated men with no thought past what a lark it would be to accomplish the deed. It certainly hadn’t been carefully planned with regards to settlements or fondness between the bride and groom.

It should have been disastrous.

It…wasn’t.

She returned early from Peter’s to get ready for the dinner party. It still made her nervous that things seemed to happen magically with no direction in this house, so she sought out the cook to make sure all was well—only to find her husband in the kitchen. Tasting soup.

“And how do you find it, Lord Middleton?” she asked from the doorway.

He looked up, surprised. “It’s almost perfect, Lady Middleton. I don’t think I’d change a thing.”

She blushed without knowing why. Perhaps it was his warm smile. Or the fact that he looked like a young boy caught with his hand in the sweets. It might have been that the emphasis on his words made her think maybe he was referring to her.

“Would you care to try it?”

It was a dare, she thought. Peter used the same tone whenever he wanted her to do something outrageous. She crossed the room noticing that everyone seemed busy on a task, but it was an organized chaos. The staff knew what they were about and delicious smells layered the air. She stopped next to Teddy. He brought the spoon to her mouth, the same spoon he’d tasted from, his hand cupped under it to catch any spill. It seemed intimate, to sip from the same spoon that touched his lips—like the kisses he’d offered on their wedding night. The kisses she’d refused.

This time, she met his gaze. His fingertips grazed under her chin gently, and she put her mouth to the spoon, trusting that it wouldn’t burn her, trusting that the flavors would complement and be pleasing. Because, she realized, she trusted that he would not offer it to her if it wouldn’t suit. If it would hurt her.

His eyes never left hers as she sipped the creamed broth. The closeness of their bodies, his fingertips under her chin, and the unbroken eye contact overwhelmed her with a rush of unfamiliar emotions. “It’s delicious,” she whispered in a voice that was not her own.

“Your eyes have specks of brown and gold in them. Did you know that?”

She couldn’t answer. She was afraid to even breathe lest it disrupt the lovely moment. She trembled despite the fact that Juliette Grace Fairchild Middleton was not the trembling sort. It was as if, in an instant, he became her entire world.

“If the soup is to your liking, sir, perhaps you’d be good enough to remove yourself from the stove so as I can finish the rest of the meal.”

He turned slightly to smile at the cook and let her know the soup was divine. It took all Juliette’s inner strength not to pull Teddy’s face back to her.
She
wanted his smiles, she wanted his compliments, and she wanted to trace the lines around his mouth with her finger. The urge to touch him was so powerful she had to fist the material of her dress.

Later that evening, at a very odd dinner part thrown by the duke, they were seated not quite directly across from each other when the sensations overwhelmed her again. He laughed at something someone said. That was all it took, a laugh. Of all the silly things in the world for her to lose her composure over, she never once considered it would be smile lines on a man.

The guests were an eclectic grouping of a few family members, those who well understood the beastly ways of her brother and the duke, and the less bawdy of Peter and Derek’s friends. The conversation was still far too undignified to pass for civilized, and the behavior and volume grew to such an extreme that she thought she might plead a headache long before the men withdrew for cigars.

Then she caught sight of her husband’s calm manner and decided to stay a little while longer. Odd that she never realized how handsome he was before now. She supposed that the few times they’d been in the same room before their marriage, she’d been too busy trying to mitigate whatever damage Peter was about to heap upon all her hard earned order. Mother was never much help, falling into the hole of hysteria at the least provocation. No, it was always Juliette who needed to keep their lives, and their livelihood, running with precision.

When the soup tureen was brought in, she felt the flush heat her cheeks immediately and sought the notice of Teddy. He was, in fact, already looking at her, an inscrutable expression on his face. She smiled to relieve his seriousness and he rewarded her, my how he did reward her. His face opened into a smile so bright she might freckle to look upon it. And then it changed into the most mischievous of grins and he dipped his head, but not his eyes, to eat the creamy soup.

It started as a small flutter in her abdomen. She might have missed it any other time if she had been conversing or immersed in a book. The barely perceptible flutter increased when his lips touched the spoon and she gasped quietly, swallowing hard. With just the tip of his tongue, he swiped the spoon and she thought there might be a flock of sparrows in her middle, flapping their wings and leaving her breathless and out of control. Anticipation filled her. For what she didn’t know.

* * *

Juliette was gorgeous.

The pink skin on her cheeks warmed him from the inside out. He’d made her blush. By his count, at least twice today.

He’d always thought her pretty, of course. Eyes the color of green, green grass with flecks of gold and brown, rosy heart shaped lips, and what looked like yards of golden curls made her, as Derek so eloquently stated, comely. When she blushed, however, his heart fumbled around his chest for a rhythm.

There were worse things in life than being married to a beautiful woman who blushed when you ate soup.

As each course was cleared and another set down, Teddy tried to catch her eye at odd times. It became very important to him that she notice him, that she didn’t forget him. Did he understand his new preoccupation? Of course not.

She was a woman of mystery as far as he was concerned. She revealed herself to him in such tiny expressions, he didn’t dare hope he’d ever really know her. She liked chocolate and more sugar in her tea than anyone he’d ever known. She was an intelligent debater on matters of current events and financial news. And he’d ask Mrs. White to prepare cream soup every evening if Juliette promised to bloom with pink every day for the rest of his life.

And that was all he really knew about her.

The more the wine flowed, the more raucous the clamor the duke’s friends made. Then they began toasting. To nonsense. Ships that were about sail, women they hoped to bed, money they hoped to win at cards, and finally, a toast to the bride and groom from Peter.

May it be a love match.

He met Juliette’s eyes across the table and she offered a watery smile. She was used to her salacious brother, but he didn’t want her to be uncomfortable in her own home. “Gentlemen, shall we adjourn?”

The men filed out to the library, the women to the conservatory, and Teddy to the stairs in the great hall, where he sat and wondered what to do with himself. He didn’t want to go anywhere near the library, of that much he was certain.

Ten minutes later, he was joined by his wife.

She climbed the stairs, and he stood to escort her to their chambers. Perhaps she felt ill. She surprised him by shaking her head and sitting on the step instead. He joined her when she patted the space next to her.

“The boys are in rare form this evening,” she commented.

The obnoxious laughter from the library indicated they were well into their cups. “Yes, I suppose they are,” he added dryly.

“My mother had an agreeable evening.”

“Didn’t your mother faint before dinner?”

“Yes, but just the one time.”

“Capital,” he said. He wasn’t sure what the proper response would be in any case.

“Teddy, do you remember when your brother’s hand had to be stitched two years ago?”

He loosened his cravat a touch. “Yes, of course. He wouldn’t see a damned physician, so I had to remove the sutures myself.”

She turned her knees towards him a fraction, so that they were barely touching his. “I sewed the wound because he wouldn’t see a damned physician the night he cut himself.”

He started at her curse, and then smiled, stealing a sidelong glance. “Your work was exemplary. The stitches were very even.”

“Thank you.” Juliette wrapped her arms under her knees. “I guess I’m telling you this because I see something in you that I hadn’t noticed before.”

“What’s that?”

“Myself.”

“Well then I should have the men lining the block for a crack at a waltz with me.”

She leaned a little, bumping his shoulder playfully. “Not that way, Teddy. I’m talking about family. Our roles. Do you know why I’ve been to my family home every day?”

“I supposed it was to spend time with you mother, or maybe, God forbid, your brother.”

She shook her head. A loosened lock of gold draped over her shoulder. He wanted to touch it so badly he ached. “Yesterday, I was ordering staples and haggling with a man who shears sheep for the best price. Today, I went over the household account books three times because one of Peter’s men is stealing small amounts of money every month, and I finally figured out how he’s been doing it.”

She sounded old and young at the same time.

Juliette continued. “I don’t know how they will manage without me. I’m not saying that out of pride, so I keep going. They really don’t know how to take care of themselves over there. My mother can’t stand to look at anything that might end up on her plate that evening, including raw vegetables. She won’t go near the kitchen staff. She has no idea what rooms need airing and how often the sweep must come to prevent fires. She wouldn’t know a fair price for coal or firewood if I wrote it on the back of her hand. And Peter is no better.”

Very tentatively, Teddy placed an arm around her shoulders. “Peter and Derek are two of a kind.”

She exhaled. “They’ve told everyone we’re a love match because they think it makes for a great story. Our fathers were best friends, they are best friends, and now their siblings have united the families. It’s a children’s story happy ending to them, not a marriage.”

She didn’t flinch from his touch, so he gently eased her towards him until she rested her head on his shoulder.

“They don’t have to deal with the two people who barely know each other trying to make their way. And in sealing our fates together, they stand to lose their gatekeepers.”

He smiled at that. “Gatekeepers is an excellent description.” He wanted her to know he understood. God, did he understand. And that he found her valuable. “I’m impressed by your knowledge of accounts; perhaps you’ll show me how you found the discrepancy sometime, in case I find issue with mine.”