Page 90 of A Mother for the Blind Duke’s Orphans

Poppy laughed, but the laughter quickly faded. “There is too much to tell.”

“Begin with whether you are well?” Julia held her hand gently and looked into her eyes.

It was such a simple question, and precisely the one Poppy did not know how to answer simply. She smoothed her skirt, glanced toward the door where Hector had just exited and took a deep breath in.

“I am better than I expected to be,” she said at last with a smile.

Julia looked relieved. “When His Grace sent word, I felt troubled. I thought that perhaps you needed help to adapt or wanted to leave.”

“No,” Poppy shook her head and folded her hands. “That is not the case at all.”

They smiled at each other.

“When you left, you looked like someone preparing to walk into a storm with no cloak. How are you feeling now?”

Poppy thought about the breakfasts and dinners they had been sharing together and how Hector allowed the song and dance for Princess’s sake. She almost laughed at the memory of him scowling and fighting the smile that threatened to appear.

“At first, I thought I had made a sacrifice when I married Hector⁠—”

“Hector?” Julia’s head snapped toward her, wide-eyed.

Poppy blushed. “Yes, Hector.”

“Oh, my.” Julia gave her a look that made her want to run away and hide. “Do continue?”

“The girls needed care. And I thought, if I could be useful here, if I could protect the children in some way, then perhaps the… rest did not matter.”

“You mean, perhaps, the marriage would not matter?” Julia corrected her, and Poppy nodded.

“Yes, and…” Poppy pressed her fingers together and lowered her voice. “…Hector is not what I thought.”

Julia’s gaze flicked toward her sharply. “Has he done something?”

“No. He was merely severe when I first arrived and so cold. Everything had rules, and the rules had rules, but that is expected of a duke. The girls found it harder to settle in than I did.”

“And yet you are smiling now.” Poppy heard the confusion in her sister’s voice.

“He is changing.”

“Really? How has he changed?” That piqued her interest.

It should have been easy to answer. Hector’s actions were plain enough. He had allowed alterations in his own home and had invited Julia for a week because Poppy missed her, though Poppy had never directly asked.

“He began noticing,” she said.

Julia waited.

“He notices more than he admits. And he does things without making them grand, which somehow affects me so deeply that I think about it all the time. Especially when he is away.”

Julia’s smile became private and knowing.

Poppy frowned at her. “Do not look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“With mischief in your eyes.”

“I would never think mischievously about you and your husband!” She feigned surprise.