Page 14 of The Duke’s Caught Bride

Kenneth closed his eyes. “Frederick. Chew. Swallow. Then speak. In that order.”

“It’s all right, Your Grace. He’s curious,” Alice defended the boy naturally. Her fork hovered above her plate, a carrot speared but unconsumed. “It’s natural. When I was his age, I asked far more impertinent questions.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Kenneth said.

Her eyes caught his across the table, heavy with an unreadable warmth that made his chest tighten.

There was a quiet power behind her gaze, and Kenneth knew that if he stopped fighting, if he leaned into the pull, it would completely undo him.

He found himself staring at the delicate curve of her mouth, wondering what it would take to break that perfect composure.

What he wouldn’t give to strip away her restraint, to trace the quiet heat beneath her skin until that guarded look surrendered to pure, breathless desire⁠—

Stop it. You’re at dinner now.

“Did you have suitors?” Freddie had apparently taken his father’s directive as a suggestion rather than a command, because he spoke again without pausing to swallow. “Before Papa, I mean. Lots of them? Charlie says ladies have suitors who bring flowers and write poems, which sounds tedious. If I were a suitor, I’d bring maps. Or a compass. Something useful for exploring.”

Kenneth watched Alice’s face when his son asked the question. Her smile faltered for just a second, before she settled it back into place.

“I did not have many suitors, no.” Her voice remained steady. “I was not exactly considered eligible.”

“Why not?” Freddie pressed.

“Frederick.” Kenneth’s voice cut through the dining room.

The single word carried enough edge that both boys went still. Freddie’s fork froze halfway to his mouth. Charlie set his fork down carefully, his eyes fixed on his plate.

Alice laid a hand on the table, her palm flat against the linen. “It’s all right. He’s only asking what any child would wonder.”

“It is not all right.” Kenneth did not look at her. He kept his gaze on Freddie, who had the decency to look marginally chastened. “You will not interrogate the Duchess about her history. You will finish your meal, and you will do so with the basic courtesy I have spent seven years attempting to instill in you.”

“Perhaps,” Alice interjected, her voice gentle but firm, “the boys might benefit from understanding who I am, since I am to be part of their lives. Since we are all sitting at this table together, which is, I believe, the point of having dinner together.”

The rebuke was so softly delivered that it took Kenneth a moment to recognize it as one. He turned to her, wine glass in hand, and found her watching him with determination in her eyes.

“Very well.” He set down his glass. “Ask your questions, Frederick. The Duchess has granted you leave.”

Freddie chewed thoroughly and swallowed.

“I also wondered about the other lady,” he said. “The one Papa was going to marry first. Your sister. Did she not want to be a duchess? Because that seems peculiar. Charlie says that being a duchess is the highest rank a lady can have, except for queen, and there’s only one of those at a time, so the odds are slim.”

The temperature in the room dropped several degrees. Kenneth felt it in the stiffness of his spine.

“Well, we will ask her once we find her,” Alice said. Her voice had thinned, though she kept it level. “But if she did leave… she must have had her reasons.”

“Whatever reasons she comes up with will not suffice. She behaved irresponsibly and abandoned her obligations, and that’s what matters,” Kenneth declared.

Alice’s head turned toward him. He watched the color rise in her cheeks, a flush that started at her collarbones and climbed up to her jaw with the swift, unmistakable heat of genuine anger.

“My sister,” she said, each word precise, “would not have abandoned her obligations without cause. Whatever her reasons, they were not trivial. They were not the product of mere caprice.”

“And she told you this when, precisely?”

“She did not⁠—”

“Then perhaps you do not know your sister as well as you claim you do, Duchess.”

Alice stood up suddenly, the chair scraping across the floor behind her. Her hands gripped the edge of the table, her knuckles pale against the dark wood.