Page 24 of Wedded to the Cruel Duke
She saw Huxley smile widely and knew that she said the right thing.
Over the table, she waited for her husband to start eating, but he did not touch his cutlery. Instead, he motioned for O’Malley to step forward.
Phoebe watched as the footman gleefully piled a plate full of each kind of meat. Her eyes widened as he proceeded to get one of each kind of bread and vegetable as well.
Was he… Is he going to eat all of that?
Her questions were answered as she watched him cheerfully plow into the food, eating with gusto. In less than a quarter of an hour, she watched in amazement as he polished off a plateful of food and even wiped the sauce off his plate with a bit of bread.
Only then did she see Charles help himself to some bread and meat.
“You may now eat,” he told her, gesturing towards the food before her.
“What? Oh…”
As she gingerly helped herself to some roast beef, she could not help but wonder if this was one of his weird habits. She recalled a few days ago that he did not touch his tea until he had seen her drink from her cup. If she did not know any better, she could swear that he was letting O’Malleytestthe food before partaking in it!
“I would recommend the lamb, milady,” O’Malley winked at her. “The kitchens outdid themselves with that one.”
“Oh. Thank you. I suppose.” Phoebe smiled at him and helped herself to a small portion of the said lamb chops, but then she caught her husband looking at her intensely from over the table. His eyes appeared to be scrutinizing her, although he did not seem to disapprove of anything.
“Is something amiss, my Lord?” she asked him, eyebrows raised.
He shook his head. “It is nothing.”
“You might like to try the lamb,” she told him. “O’Malley was right—it is delicious.”
He said nothing, but then she saw him partake of the lamb and she smiled a little to herself. Her husband did not seem like someone who would take the advice of just about anyone and for him to take hers… well, that certainly had to bode well for the rest of their union, she supposed.
In all honesty, she found the countless rules and regulations that governed Wentworth Park to be quite stifling. Her existence in Townsend House had been one of relative freedom, with her and her sisters being allowed to do pretty much anything they wanted to do and pursue whatever hobbies they set their hearts on.
They ate as they pleased, and they most certainly did not have servants to test the food for them before they ate.
The pair of them ate in relative silence, although for Phoebe, her mind was already churning. If she was to make a life for herself at Wentworth Park, then some thingshadto change.
After all, one cannot continue to live in the darkness. She had to convince her husband to step into the light sometimes. She just wondered if he would take kindly to such a suggestion…
When Charles decided to take Miss Phoebe Townsend as his wife, he had to admit it had been a most impulsive decision.
He certainly had not taken into account the many differences between them—like how she had enjoyed a greater degree of freedom and, for all intents and purposes, gambled with her life.
She basically jumped over the wall in pursuit of her cat without a second thought, he thought to himself wryly.Thinking of all the possible dangerous consequences of her actions does not seem to be one of her character traits.
Later that night, he saw her peer out of the window after dinner as she was heading back into her rooms. She had not heard him walking from behind her and Charles himself had learned to silence his footfalls earlier on in his life.
“My Lord!” she had squeaked, dropping the curtain back when she saw him looking at her in disapproval. “I was just wondering what my family was doing.”
“And you thought you could see them from the windows?” he asked her flatly.
She pursed her lips. “Well, my rooms face this side of Wentworth Park and so does my sister, Daphne’s.”
“You meant to spy on your sister?”
“Well, not exactly—”
“Well then, what exactly were you doing?”
He watched as her expression crumpled just the slightest bit, before she straightened her back and regarded him in an almost defiant manner. No one had everdefiedhim before, least of all a woman who had just arrived in his household.