The door to Lydia’s bedroom was closed, but Edward could see the light of a lantern shining under the crack, and he knew she must be inside.
He paused. He hadn’t been into this room since she had moved in. He had told himself, very firmly, that this would be the one place in the manor that was hers alone. It would be a sanctuary for her, and he wouldn’t violate it.
But he needed to speak to her.
He cleared his throat and knocked on the door three times.
“Come in,” she said, her voice high and clear.
She sounded so different from the way she usually did when they spoke, he thought, and he wondered why that was—and then it occurred to him that the usual tension was gone from her voice. This was what she sounded like when she was at ease.
She must not realize it’s me out here, or she probably wouldn’t be so relaxed.
He opened the door.
She was sitting in the armchair with a book open in her lap, the light hitting her perfectly. For a moment, he forgot he was angry. He was so taken aback by the fact that this beautiful lady was a part of his home and his daily life now that he forgot he had come here to scold her.
Then, he caught sight of the orangery out the window behind her, and he was reminded.
He saw the moment she realized he was the one outside the door. Her whole body tensed up, and her facial expression became guarded.
Strange. He found himself feeling sad about that, wishing that she didn’t feel so tense around him. That wasn’t something he had realized he’d wanted. And who was there to blame but himself? He hadn’t spent any time around her since she’d come to live here. Of course she felt awkward at the sight of him.
“May I come in?” he asked her.
“It’s your house,” she pointed out.
“But this is your room. You say who comes and goes in this room.”
“You can come in,” Lydia said.
He nodded and came inside. “I suppose you know why I’m here.”
“I think I can guess,” she said cautiously. “The orangery?”
“You knew that it was going to upset me, having that built.”
“I didn’t know anything of the sort,” she said evenly.
“If you didn’t know it would bother me, why did you keep it a secret?”
“What on earth makes you say that I kept it a secret?” she asked.
“You didn’t tell me about it. Don’t try to act like you don’t understand what I mean. You and I both know you were being underhanded, keeping things to yourself—you could have told me you were planning this, but you didn’t. You chose to keep it a secret, and you know it.”
“And when do you imagine I would have told you?” she asked. “During one of our many long, heartwarming conversations? When was the last time you and I did more than exchange pleasantries? Do you knowanythingabout me? How can you act as though I’m being secretive when the truth of the matter is that you haven’t taken the time to find out what I’m doing in any way at all? If you wanted to know what plans I had for Westfrey Manor, you had only to ask—but you don’t ask me things. You never ask me anything.”
“Now I have to ask you each day whether you’re planning to commit massive amounts of our finances to the construction of new buildings we don’t need?” he demanded. “I didn’t know that was something you needed to be asked, Lydia. How could I have known? How could I have guessed that you were planning something like this? You should have told me without waiting to be asked.”
But she stood her ground. “I hardlyseeyou,” she said. “I haven’t seen you since I decided to do this. When was I going to have a conversation with you about it? We don’t have our meals together, Edward. You’re always at work, for heaven’s sake. There wasn’t anything I could have done.”
“Then perhaps you shouldn’t have built an orangery at all!” he exclaimed. “Really, I’ve been very tolerant with you, until now. I’ve allowed you the freedom to redecorate the house. I’ve let you buy horses and even hire new members of staff. There are plenty of gentlemen who would have put a stop to all this a long time ago.”
“Well, you told me the night I arrived that I would have all the rights and freedoms of a duchess,” she said. “You made it clear that I was to do whatever I liked. Are you telling me now that you didn’t mean that?”
“I was thinking about things like… like inviting your friends over for tea. Ordering the food you wanted to be served at dinner. Things of that nature.”
“Oh, I see,” Lydia said. “You wanted me to have the role of a duchess as long as it didn’t inconvenience you.”
