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Michael lurked behind her, dressed in a regal black suit. He held his arms behind his back, one brow raised as he looked it over. The corner of his lip twitched.

Cordelia watched him helplessly. Somehow she never realized how badly she wanted him to take pride in her work. “It will be fully functioning if you were worried about productivity,” Cordelia said.

He faced her. “Productivity?”

“Throughout winter, the summer harvest will stay strong. The plants will be protected from frost,” she explained with an embarrassed smile.

“I do not recall ever knowing a woman to be so adamant about building an orangery,” he said.

Cordelia breathed a sigh. “All my life, I wished to have an orangery.”

“Whatever for?”

“For exactly this,” she raised a hand towards the greenery. “Why do you think I restored your family gardens last summer? I have always enjoyed gardening and the peace that came with it.”

Michael watched her. “Did you never garden as a young girl?”

“Not as often as I would have wished,” she replied, hiding her surprise at his interest in it. “Irene very much preferred to take on the garden. And as a girl who accomplished mastering singing, reading, embroidery and needlepoint, my father was in no hurry to deny Irene of any of her wants.”

Michael smirked. “Is she your eldest sibling?”

“Yes,” Cordelia replied, walking through the orangery aimlessly. She froze suddenly, a thought coming back to her. “I completely forgot. I received a letter from my Aunt, who plans on hosting a dinner party a few days from now. She invited the both of us.”

“You look nervous.”

“Well,” she muttered, “Sheismy father’s sister.”

Michael raised a quizzical brow.

“Nevertheless,” Cordelia continued, pushing past the embarrassment, “My siblings will both be there. It might be something to attend.” She faced him. “If you wished it to be.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Are you asking for permission?”

“I suppose I am.”

Michael held his arms behind his back, an odd look on his face. “I won’t say I’m not surprised. Why would you ask for us to attend?”

She bit back her tongue for a moment, feeling rather like a fool in front of her calm and collected husband. Cordelia drew in a deep breath. There was no time left for sidestepping true thoughts or ignoring hidden feelings. The time spent alongside Michael made her feel more at home at Solshire than ever before. And she had no intentions of going back to how it was before.

“I have to admit,” Cordelia said in a small voice, “That I preferred our truce. I would like for us to keep it, if it pleases you all the same.”

Michael’s lips parted to speak, but she stepped closer, blurting out more before he ever could.

“While you might have enjoyed your years of solitude, Michael,” she began, his name sounding foreign on her lips, “I must admit that it was never as pleasurable for me. Even if I made it seem like something else before. I am a proud person, you see.”

Michael’s lip turned up in a smile. “I am well aware, Cordelia.”

A shiver rolled down her spine.Calm and collected.

“I’m sure you could assume that I was never the child my family expected to have,” she whispered. “Perhaps it has left me to feel smaller than I am, useless when I am not. Irene married the man put in front of her, never once dared to mutter a complaint to any one of us. My father, who I always believed to be quite an overbearing man, expected me to do the same.”

“But,” Michael said, taking small steps to get closer to her, “You had the Earl, didn’t you?”

Cordelia sighed. “No,” she muttered, “I do not believe I ever did.”

He frowned.

“Yes, he was my betrothed and we met on multiple occasions. I thought he was a proper gentleman, but that wasn’t nearly enough. The moment he left, the moment those scandal papers arrived at our door,” Cordelia paused, drawing in a deep breath, “The first thing my father said was ‘What didyou doto drive him away?’”