“Do all conversations need to have a grand purpose to them?” Harriet contended.
“I have little interest in engaging in idle chatter….”
“Idle chatter?” Harriet narrowed her eyes at him. Here they were speaking about their marriage, and he had the gall to refer to it asidle chatter.Taking a breath to calm herself, she drew herself back in her chair. “Well, then,Your Grace.How very convenient that we are seated at the breakfast table. No better place foridle chatter.”
Simon shot her a look. “Were you like this in your parents’ house as well?”
“I am not sure how that has anything to do with the topic at hand,” Harriet patted the side of her mouth gently with her napkin.
“Casual curiosity,” he shrugged. “Fitting for idle chatter, don’t you think?”
So this is the game that he wants to play?
“In that case, I should tell you that, yes. I was the same way at my parents’ house.”If not worse.“Does that satiate your curiosity?”
He let out a nonchalant ‘humph’. “I am afraid that it only deepens it. How did your parents deal with your particular…” he paused, searching for the right word, “affliction.”
“Poorly,” Harriet replied. “I am afraid that they cannot offer you any tips on the matter, if that is the reason why you are asking.”
Harriet noticed the corners of his mouth turning upwards into a smile, but he quickly replaced it with his usual, stoic expression.
“ I see. That is quite the shame.”
“Yes,” Harriet nodded. “It is no wonder that they were in such a rush to marry me off.”
“Shall I consider myself the lucky bloke that got to be the one to do it?” he challenged.
In a strange sense, the two of them had developed something of a rapport between them. Not comfortable enough yet to be close — but comfortable enough to speak candidly about topics.
She realized that the duke was different in this manner. All the men she had spoken to before her marriage never took well to her sharp tongue, or wit. They always took offense to it.
Simon? He barely budged. In fact, he even humored her attempts, fighting back with a ready answer of his own.
“If I were you, I would consider myself quite lucky, yes,” Harriet leaned forward in her chair. “You get to live life as a single man, without having to live with an actual wife.”
Simon’s expression changed, and it was clear that the banter had come to an end.
“Whatever I did, I did to protect both of us.”
Protect?
“I was not aware that we were under so much threat.”
“Harriet, I know that you consider yourself to be someone who has a lot of knowledge…” he pressed his lips together. “Perhaps that may even be true for certain situations. But you have not seen life the same way as I have. As a duke, dealing with people and gauging them is one of the primary things at which I am adept.”
“That is quite a lot of words to explain that you are swift to judge,” Harriet mumbled under her throat, not intending for the duke to hear.
But he did anyway, and passed her a weary look.
“You have not seen the marriages that I have. You do not know how quickly things can crumble,” he maintained. “The distance that I put between the both of us was a preemptive measure to protect us both.”
Harriet did not quite know how that statement made her feel. Except that it was not anything good.
“I’ve seen what marriage can become, Harriet. I’ve seen how it can destroy people.”
The seriousness in his words made her realize that there was more to Simon’s reluctance than she had understood. But before she could ask him to elaborate, before she could even think of how to respond, Simon abruptly changed the subject.
“The nursemaid your sister recommended will be here this evening, ” he said, rising from his chair as if to signal the end of the conversation. “I’ll see to it that she is settled in. ”
