A Marriage Most Inconvenient (Inconvenient Matches Book #1)

Chapter 8: Vera

She nodded in reluctant understanding.

'Why can't you return to Silverton?'

I was humiliated by my lover and have no wish to meet anyone, preferably for as long as I live.

'I have very important work to do here with the orphanage, and I intend on inviting some of the other benefactors to see the new orphanage building.' She said instead. It was not a lie, per se, but it was not the whole truth either. She had invented the idea of inviting some members of the Ladies Syndicate right there and then, just to appear busier than she actually was.

'It appears we have no choice but to bear each other's company for the foreseeable future. Though, it will be easy enough to avoid each other, given the sheer size of Hartley. We can dine separately, I am confined to my room for the time being in any case.'

This was an unmitigated disaster. She was supposed to spend the next several weeks in the company of the most arrogant, selfish, loathsome man in all of England. He was invading her spaces already. His clothes were hung in their shared dressing room, his spicy musk filled the hallways. His correspondence was being kept in her study. Astley was basically ready to worship the ground he walked on. His arrival on the heels of her embarrassment at Richard's hand? Untenable.

'But must you stay in the Master Bedroom? The bedroom that is adjoined to mine?' She made no attempt at hiding the mocking tone in her voice. 'My, my. It will be hard to pretend you don't have a wife that way, Your Grace.'

'I will not stay in the guest wing in my own home.' His dark eyes bored into hers, daring her to disagree. That, of course, made her want to disagree all the more.

'This isn't your home.'

'I think the law might disagree.' There was a glimpse of petty triumph glittered in his eyes. Her lips pinched with irritation.

'You may own this manor in the eyes of the law, but it isn't your home. However, I shouldn't have expected you to know that there is a difference between a place of residence and an actual home.'

'Ah, some more sentimental drivel from you, darling wife? How original.'

'And some more cynicism from you, dearest husband? How shocking. I know already that you are not in possession of a human heart, why bore me with the same conversation we had after our wedding?'

He didn't reply, opening and closing his mouth, seemingly at a loss for words. Surely he had expected to meet the hesitant and shy woman he had spent a week with six years ago. No such luck, this cat had discovered her claws and teeth long ago.

So, she thought with a small measure of her own triumph, she had won the first battle in what was likely going to be a long war of wills with this infuriating man. She gave him a little smile she knew would annoy him and rejoiced when his eyes sparked with unconcealed irritation. He raked a hand through his hair, mussing it. He closed his eyes and let a long-suffering breath loose. Oh how delightful, he was holding on to his temper by a thread!

Oh, she shouldn't enjoy annoying him so much, but God help her, she did. She offered him an exaggerated curtsy and turned to return to her chambers. She wished she could see him hobble to the bathing room, but she did not trust herself not to laugh, and given the week he'd had she could spare him that particular embarrassment. He had taken her to the physician after all and made sure she was safe. She had just reached the door that connected the dressing room to her chambers when he called out.

'Duchess. Wait.' Uttered like a command, she was more than half tempted to ignore him. Deciding she had been petty enough for today, she turned and offered him an exhausted sigh of her own. God had better appreciate the amount of Christian goodwill she was showing here.