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“It has been my pleasure. I shall share even more when we meet again.” He bowed. “Have a good evening.”

William watched his friend leave after giving him a pointed look.

Now that he was alone with Eveline, he suddenly felt very vulnerable. He had promised to spend time with her, but she would want to have a conversation, and he couldn’t imagine what they could speak about. He could hardly tell stories as well as Theo did, and he had not traveled enough to have tales from other lands as Magnus did.

What could he discuss with her?

“Shall we go to the dining room, Your Grace?” she asked softly.

CHAPTER 10

“Shall we go to the dining room, Your Grace?”

Eveline watched a barrage of emotions cross the Duke’s face before he nodded reluctantly. She did not take his arm as was customary, but walked ahead, giving him the distance she sensed he needed.

He had been unusually quiet while she and his friend had conversed, and she hoped he had not taken offense to her interruption.

It had been odd to see him with such a jovial friend, but she guessed he needed distraction sometimes from his otherwise serious world, and she had been grateful for the stories his friend had told her about him. It worried her how she craved these little bits of insight about him, but he seemed content with the state of their relationship.

She had gone to his study after waiting almost half an hour in the dining room for him to arrive. She had taken extra care with her ensemble that evening, as she wanted to make a good impression, and had even delayed her descent to the dining room. But not seeing him there had her worried that he would not honor their arrangement and then annoyed her.

She had risen, despite the protests of that voice in her head, to go and give him a piece of her mind, but she softened upon seeing his face as well as that of a stranger.

His silence carried on even into dinner, and by dessert, she had run out of things to talk about as well as the patience to do so. His responses to her questions had been nothing more than hums or murmurs, and he had such an angry frown on his face that she worried she was the cause.

“Have I offended you, husband?” she asked.

His eyes finally met hers, and the blank look in them shattered her resolve.

“No,” he answered.

“Then why do you ignore me so?” she asked, lowering her eyes.

She had hoped that spending time with him would bring them closer, even as cordial friends if not lovers, but he seemed hell-bent on not letting her plans progress. Perhaps he had sensedher reasoning behind her request and hoped to thwart her attempts to build any sort of relationship between them.

“I am not ignoring you,” he answered tonelessly, resuming his meal.

“I cannot possibly believe that when you have barely said a word to me this evening.” She kept her voice low, so the staff would not overhear their conversation.

Thankfully, she had changed the seating arrangement so she could sit to his immediate left.

“The purpose of this agreement was to ease my loneliness. I do not feel it abated in any form. If you feel bothered by this arrangement, then you do not have to fulfill it. I can always try to adjust to my new life.”

He slowly lowered his cutlery to his plate, before taking his napkin off his lap and placing it on the table.

“Leave us,” he ordered.

His command had been clear, and soon the room was empty save for the two of them. It had her wondering if perhaps her inquiry had crossed into nagging.

“Men do not like a nagging wife,”she remembered Ava saying once during one of their lessons on proper behavior.

She wasn’t one to complain or lose her temper so easily, but recently, she had found herself moved to speak her mind more often than not. Silence would never achieve anything.

“I was not quiet because you angered me,” her husband stated in a calm voice. “I was simply pondering the fact that I have never seen you laugh as you did today with my friend.”

Eveline frowned, puzzled. Had it upset him to see her laugh with another man?

“And it upset you?” she asked. “There was nothing to it. I was just?—”