“Yes,” Talbot raised his chin. “It is most inappropriate for a married woman, a duchess at that, to be using a former suitor’s gift for her needlework. I would appreciate it if you disposed of the offending item posthaste.”
“Theoffendingitem,” Elizabeth echoed, her features betraying the laughter that wanted out.
“Yes,” Talbot said in a tone he hoped conveyed that he wasn’t jesting.
“What do you propose I do with it?” His wife asked as she opened the pouch.
“Throwing it in the fire would be most expedient.”
“It is very intricate,” Elizabeth murmured as she observed her new thimble by candlelight. Embossed in the gold were two letters,EandC. “Are these our initials?” she asked, astonished.
“I felt it was wise to mark this gift with a reminder of our covenant.”
“I am aware of our covenant, even without the reminder,” Lizzie smiled, “but I will not be throwing my old thimble in the fire. I shall give it to Mary instead.”
“I have never been wasteful nor will I ever be,” she added sternly when she saw Talbot was about to object.
“Very well, we shall call her in here right now,” he approached the bell ropes and rang for her maid.
Elizabeth shook her head at her husband,affectionately, he imagined.
“Are you jealous, husband?”
“Never. It is simply improper to carry on like this.”
“Colin,” she said gently, and the use of his given name outside of their lovemaking shook him to his core.
He walked to where she was sitting on the sofa and sat down next to her.
“I hope you believe me when I tell you this is a matter of not wanting to be wasteful, and nothing else,” she said.
Colin nodded, incapable of speech.
“Do you -,” he started, but then cleared his throat, “did you love him?”
“The Corporal? No!” Lizzie looked aghast at the idea. “I simply considered him a good match and thought that we would be well-suited in temperament. That was all.”
He nodded and looked away. There was a knock on the door.
“You called for me, Your Grace,” Mary curtsied to Lizzie in what was obviously exaggerated and insincere subservience that was being performed for his benefit alone.
He saw his wife pressing her lips together, like she was trying not to laugh at the play she was putting on with her friend in order to appease her husband. Colin was suddenly tempted to join them in the game, to trick them somehow, to be like all the other children, but alas, he was a duke.
“Mary, Her Grace has expressed a desire to bestow her old thimble on you, now that she has been gifted a new one. I would like to instruct you not to use that thimble in my wife’s presence or when altering her clothes and other items belonging to her.”
Mary’s confusion was clear on her face, but she nodded.
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“Very well. Thank you, Mary, you may leave now.”
“I’ll go up with you so you can help me get ready for bed,” his wife said, no doubt eager to discuss her husband’s irrational demands with her friend.
You just earned yourself some revenge for that attitude later, wife,he thought smugly as he watched her retreating back.
*
When Talbot entered the morning room the next day, his wife quickly set down the newspaper she’d been reading. He noted how strained and pale her face was.
