Page 26 of The Beast’s Unwanted Duchess (Icy Dukes #1)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A lice's parents arrived, and she was entirely nervous as she waited at the door to receive them. She worried her lip between her teeth, her hands twining and untwining as she hoped she could impress them with how she handled her husband's home.

When she finally spotted them, her heart beat an unsteady rhythm as she watched her father take in the lavender gardens lining the path to the foyer leading into the house.

"Father. Mother." She curtsied.

"I must say, Alice, the Duke's home is quite a sight," Timothy noted.

She already knew he would show no regard for her, but his nonchalance still stung.

"You look well, my dear." Her mother smiled. "Marriage becomes you."

She smiled politely and nodded.

"You look well too," she praised. "I hope the journey wasn't eventful."

"Not at all," her mother answered. "The roads are so much better this way. Don't you think so Timothy?"

He grunted his reply.

"Where is your husband?" he asked pointedly. "I should think he would have been here to greet us or have you done something to anger him?"

"No, Father. He was attending to a guest but I am sure he has been informed of your arrival and would no doubt be joining us soon."

He sniffed, and she withered, knowing he saw the duke’s absence as a slight to him. He was easily offended, her father, and now she would bear the brunt.

"Did you fail to inform him we would be arriving today? If you had, he surely would have…"

"I did inform him, Father," she replied quickly. "The guest had been unexpected but a dear friend of his."

"I see you haven’t outgrown the habit of interrupting me."

Her eyes moved downward as anger simmered in her blood.

She was beginning to regret allowing him to visit, especially since this had become her abode.

If he was never going to be happy with anything she did and nitpick about everything she did, he didn’t need to come.

She had been perfectly content not seeing them for the past two years, and she would have continued to do so if he hadn’t written, nearly demanding it.

"Let’s not start the day on a sour note, darling," Patience said, trying to calm the tension. "We haven’t seen our daughter in two years."

"I was only…" He withered under her glare and cleared his throat. "All right."

Her mother turned to her with a bright smile.

"Why don’t you tell us what you have planned for today, dear?"

Alice nodded, hiding her now shaking hands behind her back. If her father saw it now, he wouldn’t hesitate to harp on it, as was his custom, and she didn’t know if her temper would survive the assault.

"I have already told the staff to take your things up to your chambers and had a tea service set up in the orangery. It is such a beautiful day and it would be a shame to waste it inside."

"We shan’t stay long as we are both weary from our journey and we will need time to change out of our travelling clothes," her mother said with a tone that was almost condescending.

She nodded and led them along to the orangery, secretly hoping Victor would join them soon, if only to spare her parents’ attention.

As much as she dreaded seeing him after their last encounter, she couldn’t help but admit that he had a calming effect on her when her anxieties sought to overwhelm her.

Oh, Victor. Where are you?

"I will show you to the new baths we had constructed." Victor heard Alice’s voice say from outside.

She was leading her parents to the orangery from the direction they were taking, and from the sound of her voice, things must have been proceeding quite nicely.

"The Finch homestead has mentioned that there will be a need to expand the barn as the pigs have…"

The words trailed off as he stopped listening to the report Roberts was regaling him with and tried to listen for Alice and her parents. He wondered if perhaps now her parents would treat her better than how she had fulfilled their wishes by marrying.

"Your Grace?" he heard Roberts call.

"Yes?" he asked.

"You do not seem satisfied with my reports," the man commented.

"Why do you presume so, Roberts?" he asked.

"Because you have barely listened in the past hour."

Victor raised a brow at the man's boldness and knew he could only be speaking so simply to show his disapproval.

"I have been listening," he answered.

"Very well," the man answered. "May I continue?"

He nodded and picked up his quill, noting things when he needed to and crossing off numbers he had already written until they finally reached the end of the report.

"In the absence of any activities relating to the running of the duchy, Your Grace, might I suggest you join the duchess?"

Victor could barely hide his surprise that it had taken Roberts longer than usual to voice his thoughts in the snide manner he usually did.

"Do you presume to tell me what to do, Roberts?" he asked, frowning at him.

"I would never, Your Grace," the man answered, his voice dripping with sarcasm despite his annoyingly placid expression.

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I barely know them, yet I cannot stomach the thought of being around them," he admitted finally.

"Think of Her Grace who you’ve left alone with them," Roberts replied.

Shite. He hadn’t thought of that.

Alice had told him the kind of man her father was, and considering how many letters he had received from members of the ton inquiring as to her well-being, he hadn’t even received one from either of her parents in the two years she had shunned society.

The look in her eye as she regaled him with her childhood haunted him now as he knew deep down that she would still be a little girl vying for the affections of people hell-bent on misunderstanding her.

He could relate strongly to her situation as he had been in a similar state, and now, not just the physical but mental scars haunted him.

"I had better make myself presentable," he remarked, casting a glance at the creased shirt and breeches he donned.

Unable to contain his satisfaction, Roberts smiled and all but skipped behind him as he went to change into more appropriate attire. He hoped they hadn’t already berated Alice for his lateness, or it would doubtless be added to his already long list of offenses.

He had still yet to come up with a way to broach the topic of the kiss between them, and it worried him endlessly how her disappointment in him had bothered him so.

"When do you think the duke will be joining us?" he heard the viscountess ask as he drew near to the drawing room where they had adjourned their discourse.

"He should be here…" Alice started to answer, but on seeing him, her eyes went wide, gratitude shining in their depths before she buried it under a mask of indifference.

The viscount and viscountess rose when they noticed him, grinning so brightly he was all at once uncomfortable.

"Your Grace," they greeted. "Thank you for having us in your home."

"I can assure you the pleasure is all mine," he said smoothly. "It has been long overdue. I must ask that you forgive my absence in welcoming you earlier. I was caught up in matters of utmost importance. I trust your daughter has been an excellent host?"

"She has done her best," her father answered. "Perhaps later we can discuss some of your challenges. Sometimes you might need the perspective of an older gentleman to give insight."

Victor chuckled politely and held out his arm to Alice.

"Shall we adjourn to the dining room?" he asked.

She took his arm but didn’t look at him even though he could feel the tension in her body as it traversed through her arm. The lavender scent she favored wafted up to him, and he couldn’t resist the urge to breathe in deeply.

The Viscount and Viscountess rose from their seats, and he preceded their entrance into the dining room, seating himself at the head of the table with Alice by his right.

They usually never sat this close, and from the way she stared away from him, he knew she would have much rather preferred their usual seating arrangements.

He nodded, signaling the meal could begin, leaning back as the plates were brought in.

"You have a beautiful home, Your Grace," the viscountess commented, breaking the silence that had settled over them as they ate. "I must commend how you’ve managed to keep your home despite it being one of the oldest castles. That is an impressive feat."

"I cannot take all the credit," he answered, not looking at her as he did. "Alice spent the better part of the last two years restoring the castle."

"That must be why she isn’t yet with child," the viscount quipped, causing Alice to choke on her wine.

His eyes shot to her, his hand momentarily reaching out, but he pulled back before his hands could make contact. She stopped coughing, her cheeks red with embarrassment.

"You should consider relieving her of such stressful tasks if you intend to get an heir, Your Grace," her father continued, briefly eyeing her with disgust. "My daughter is incapable of handling several tasks simultaneously."

Victor said nothing still, truly at a loss for decent words to reply to the man. He couldn’t help but notice that Alice had reddened deeply. Her mortification was almost palpable, and he wondered then how her parents could be too dense not to see it or too hurtful to ignore it.

"I must thank you, Your Grace," the Viscount added after a sip of his wine. "I have never seen my daughter move as gracefully as she does now. She was such a clumsy thing growing up, I feared she would displease you. I’m glad to see that all she needed was a husband to refine her."

Victor said nothing, but anger filled him at her father’s lack of decorum in speaking about his daughter. His irritation had grown with each word that came out of the man’s mouth, and if it hadn’t been his concern for Alice, he would have given into his desire to ask the man to leave his estate.

Apparently taking his silence as a reason to continue, her father continued.