“I can just imagine. And why are you doing such unusual things?”
Catriona lifted one shoulder. “I’m bored.”
Joseph blinked at her. He waited for her to continue, but she said nothing more. “You’re bored? That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
He blinked, eyebrows slowly lowering in confusion and a hint of amusement. She looked back at him with such seriousness that the urge to laugh grew overwhelming. “And… you did not think to read a book? To play the pianoforte or any other instrument you fancy? To paint? To embroider?”
“Yes, I thought of it all and grew bored while doing it all.” Her eyebrows scrunched in obvious consternation. “Nothing seemed to get rid of this lackluster feeling.”
“What of your dog? I’m surprised to see that she isn’t sitting by your feet.”
Catriona glanced to the side. “Nina?”
Nina came bounding out of the bushes, panting, with eyes that seemed far too wise for a dog fixed on Catriona.
“I think she’s bored too,” Catriona said with a sigh.
Joseph couldn’t help himself any longer. He burst out into laughter, and when Catriona’s eyes went wide with surprise, it made him laugh harder. Catriona looked at her dog in alarm, and damn if that didn’t make him double over, tears pricking his eyes. He laughed until his stomach started to cramp, untilhis laughter became a wheeze. It felt as if years and years of somberness had caught up to him and all the laughter he had neglected came upon him at once.
It was a while before he was calm, and even then, he still felt remnants of his humor and found himself on the verge of descending into another fit.
“That was… interesting,” Catriona murmured. “I don’t know if I should feel offended or flattered that I manage to get the stone-cold Duke of Irvin to laugh.”
“I’m surprised by it myself,” he admitted, forcing back his chuckles. “I just did not expect you to be so… so… ”
She raised one brow. “So what, Joseph?”
“So… peculiar.”
“Hm.” She thinned her lips, her chin raising just a fraction. “Offended, then.”
“Don’t be. It was meant in the best way possible, I assure you.”
“I fail to see how it possibly could be,” she murmured, but that wary look in her eyes lifted.
Then, Joseph did something he knew was foolish. His mind and body were at war, the former telling him that he should staywhere he was. Maintain the distance. But his body moved of its own accord, and before he could think twice about it, he was sitting next to her on that little stone bench, so close that their arms nearly touched. Catriona’s eyes widened slightly at the sudden proximity, but he pretended not to see, pretended as if sitting so closely together was normal. Because it was.
At least, it should be.
What wasn’t normal was how at ease he felt, how easily he forgot about his duties which had been his main focus since the day he inherited the dukedom. He forgot the main reason behind this marriage of convenience, forgot that he was meant to maintain a reasonable degree of distance between them so that she never entertained the notion of love or affection. He forgot far too many things at that moment, and the only thing he could focus on was Catriona.
For that moment, he didn’t particularly care.
“You are in quite the dilemma, Catriona,” he said, continuing as if nothing were amiss. As if he did not notice the thrill that went through him when their elbows briefly brushed. “And something must be done about it. Not for a second did I imagine that, of all the things you could be enduring, this was the most pressing.”
“It is because I am unused to being still,” she explained on a sigh. “Usually, moments of peace are rare when one resides under the same roof as my sisters. And my uncle, I quickly learned, was more inclined to join in on their madness rather than stop them. I have always had something to do, something to occupymy time. And only then do I cherish the peaceful moments even more. But now that I know nothing but peace and silence, I feel… restless.”
Catriona nodded as if coming to a sudden realization.
“That’s what it is,” she went on. “I am not bored but restless. I am so accustomed to being busy with something that I don’t know what to do when I am not.”
“Perhaps this is your chance to relax a bit then,” Joseph began to suggest, but she was already shaking her head.
“Of all people, I would think you would understand what I am feeling,” she told him. Catriona shifted to face him, piercing him with those beautiful green eyes that seemed to see right down to his core. “You have been holed up in your office for days now. I would not be surprised to learn that there is where you sleep and eat as well. You seem to crave being busy.”
“I am only busy because I have no choice. My position gives me no choice.”
