Page 27 of A Scandal for the Beastly Earl

"It's also impossible. We'll need speaking trumpets to communicate."

"Perhaps that's the point."

"Is it? Is the point of our marriage to see how far apart we can sit while still technically dining together?"

He was quiet for a moment, then gestured to the footman. "Reset Lady Blackthorn's place next to mine."

The footman, admirably trained, showed no surprise at this breach of protocol and efficiently moved her setting to Lord Blackthorn's right.

"Better?" he asked as she took her seat.

"Marginally. Though I notice you didn't suggest the middle of the table."

"I'm the Earl. I sit at the head."

"How medieval of you."

"I prefer 'traditional.'"

"Like our marriage?"

"There's nothing traditional about our marriage."

The footmen served the first course; a soup that was probably excellent but might as well have been water for all Arabella tasted it. The silence stretched, broken only by the clink of silver on china.

"This is unbearable," she said finally.

"The soup? I'll speak to Cookie."

"Not the soup. This. Us. Sitting here like strangers."

"We are strangers."

"We're married!"

"The two are not mutually exclusive."

"They should be."

"Should they? How many married couples do you know who are genuinely acquainted with each other? Who speak honestly, without pretence or pretension?"

"My parents did."

"Then they were fortunate. And rare."

"And you think we can't be?"

"Fortunate? That seems unlikely, given our beginning."

"I meant honest. Can't we at least try to be honest with each other?"

He set down his spoon carefully. "You want honesty?"

"Yes."

"Very well. I didn't want to marry. Anyone. Ever. The fire that gave me these," he gestured to his scars," also took someone from me. Someone I thought I loved. I came back to England intending to live quietly, alone, until I died and the title passed to some distant cousin I've never met. Then you fell into that lake, and suddenly my carefully ordered isolation was destroyed. So I did what I had to do. I offered marriage to salvage your reputation, telling myself it was duty, honour and the right thing to do."

"And was it?"