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To that, his lip twitched, and she could see him biting back anger. “I appreciate that you are upset with me --”

“Oh, you have no idea how I--”

“But I am still your husband. This is still my home. And I do not know how things were done where you were raised, but in this home, when somebody goes out of their way to apologize for a transgression, it is expected that they are not insulted in return.”

“You did not come here to apologize,” she said.

He frowned. “That is exactly why I came here.”

“No.” She shook her head. “You came here to make yourself feel better. You did the wrong thing. You realize it. And all this is...” She waved him down dismissively. “Is a vain effort to alleviate your guilt. Admit it.”

Again, his lip twitched. “I take it you are not going to accept my apology.”

“Give me one reason why I should.”

She expected him to explode. In a way, she almost wanted it. She braced herself, her mind wandering ahead as she pictured them fighting, and where that would inevitably lead.

“You are right,” he sighed. “I do not deserve your forgiveness.”

“What was that now?” she stammered, sure she had misheard him.

“Since the moment you arrived here – since the moment we married, really, I have treated you poorly. So much so that I shouldn’t expect a single apology to simply fix everything.”

“You... may you please repeat that?” she blinked with confusion.

“Duchess Alb – Diana,” he corrected, smiling in a way that unnerved her, while making her stomach flutter at the same time. “I need to be honest with you, if I may?”

She eyed him curiously, feeling a sudden need to take a step back because surely this was a trick. “You may...”

“When I approached you about this marriage, I was shockingly naive. Embarrassingly so, it seems. Desperate for a mother to raise Josephine and Adeline, I had convinced myself that a marriage was the answer to this – and that whomever it was that I married would be perfectly content to fill this role and this role only.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “I am speaking of course about our marriage of convenience.”

“I am aware of it.”

He chuckled as the cheek. “Since then, I have learned that marriage is nowhere near as simple as I believed or wanted. And you, Diana...” The smile he wore reached his eyes and then pierced her heart. “You are nowhere near as simple as I believed or wanted.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” she asked with a tad more aggression than was necessary. A subconscious reaction, borne from every other time they had interacted.

“That we should start again,” he said. “I understand that I have been unfair to you, perhaps unnecessarily harsh at times. And if you would let me, I would like to prove that I am not the monster you think I am.”

Diana had not expected this.

An apology? An admittance of wrongdoing? Honesty?Who is this man and what has he done with the duke?

“I... I do not think that you are a monster,” she said, looking away, feeling her cheeks flush red with embarrassment because he was trying to be kind, and she had responded with hostility. “I hope you know that.”

“Prove it then,” he responded coolly. “Show me what it is that you hide behind your back.”

Diana’s eyes went wide, for she had completely forgotten about the letter! Written almost with the intent of antagonizing the duke, she now felt foolish for wanting such a thing. As if she was somehow in the wrong.

“It is nothing,” she said nervously. “I... I was not going to send it. I just... I was angry with you, and... and... and I am sorry.”

He frowned. “I am sure that whatever it is, it cannot be that bad. Come now, tell me.”

She still could not look at him. “It is a letter to my mother and cousin, inviting them over for tea at the earliest opportunity. Tomorrow, was my thinking.”

“Huh,” the duke said, and Diana braced herself for his anger. “I shall make sure the staff are well prepared. If you mother is to come here, we must impress her, yes?”

Diana’s head snapped up. “What?”