Page 91 of A Mother for the Blind Duke’s Orphans

Poppy laughed, and Julia joined in.

“Very well. What else has changed with the icy-eyed duke?” Julia prompted.

Poppy hesitated slightly just before answering. “He is gentler with the girls than he believes himself to be. He thinks restraint hides everything, but it does not. Aurora knows how to draw him into conversation. Even Princess quiets when he speaks, and all he has to say is her name. He pretends that they do not need him, but he is always near enough if they do.”

“And how is he with you?”

Poppy’s answer caught, and Julia’s brows lifted.

“It took him a while, but he eventually listened to me. Often after pretending not to. And he has begun to trust me and the way I handle the girls.”

“You seem fond of him, Poppy.”

Poppy stared at her and felt the heat rise to her cheeks again. “I am just admiring all that he has done thus far.”

“You are married. You are allowed to feel this way about him.”

Her sister’s words settled heavily between them.

“I thought we were too different,” she eventually said. “I thought that would be the central truth of us.”

“Sometimes the differences are what make it work even better. Have you found no common ground in the past month?”

Poppy opened her mouth, prepared to answer at once, and discovered she could not. She had spent so much energy worrying about the differences between herself and Hector that she had not processed the times they were similar.

“We both love the children, but…” she drifted in thought, and realization began to dawn on her.

“Yes?” her sister encouraged her.

“I enjoy order, and so does he. Hector needs predictability. He has made this house into a place where nothing unexpected can reach him unless it has an appointment. I thought that was tyranny. Perhaps some of it is. But I understand the need more than I wanted to.”

“Because you have it too.” Julia pointed out.

“I prefer to call it prudence.”

“You may call it whatever allows you to sleep.”

Poppy smiled faintly. “I spent years learning how to be useful enough not to be inconvenient. That requires attention and anticipation. Over time, I learned to manage what I could.”

Julia’s expression dimmed. “Poppy⁠—”

“I am not asking for pity.”

“I know.”

The children’s laughter rose from somewhere in the house, bright and brief, warming both sisters’ hearts simultaneously.

“Hector and I both want to protect what we have been given. We both want the same things and like the same things too. It is…troubling.”

Julia laughed softly. “That is one way to put it.”

“We are both stubborn as well,” she muttered under her breath.

“Ah, that requires no deep reflection.” Julia rolled her eyes, and Poppy lightly slapped her leg.

“And we both hide what we feel,” Poppy spoke more slowly now, surprised by the recognition as it formed. “He hides behind severity while I hide behind my cheerfulness, perhaps. I am not sure how to describe myself.”

“You explained yourself perfectly.” Julia squeezed her hand, smiling through tenderness.