Milton continued to stroke Mutton. “Elizabeth, I thought we went over your position during our courtship. Surely you recall the rules I taught you.”
Her disbelief only grew.
“Recite them for me,” he stated calmly.
Elizabeth frantically reviewed all she’d learned over the past tumultuous week. “Do not cross you.”
“That was the first rule, yes. Number them for me, Lizzie, there should be six.”
She inhaled a breath. “Do not insult by being late. Two.”
“Continue…”
She fired off the rest. “Three, do not goad. Four, do not touch your person without permission. Five, do not try your patienceby kneeing you in the bollocks.” She bit her lip at this. “And six, do not disobey.”
“Excellent. I will point out rule number six is the same vow of obedience you swore to uphold before God and our wedding guests. Therefore, there can be no question, on your part, as to how our marriage will work.”
Nowhere in his list was there a rule explicit to social calendars or manner of dress, however.
“Husband.” She chose honey to catch this fly. “I do recall, in detail, your rule concerning obedience, and as I have obeyed your every wish both during and since our wedding, I believe I am now entitled, as befits a baroness, to see to my own dress and possessions, as well as my own calendar, these being nowhere expressly stipulated in your six rules.”
“Hmm.” He scratched Mutton’s chops.
“You must grant me certain freedoms, husband, if you wish our union to be an amicable one.”
“Hmm.”
“Respect is earned, sir.” She spoke carefully. “Granting a wife some allowance would go a long way toward?—”
“Earning her respect?” he finished, Milton’s handsome lips twitching.
“Yes.”
“Hmm,” his chest rumbled.
“Milton…” she began.
“Yes, darling?”
“Do you think I jest?” Elizabeth grew anxious.
“Oh no,” he told her, lips now smirking. “I think you are entirely in earnest, Lizzie, which is why I am earnestly contemplating your request.”
“Contemplating?”
“Hmm.”
“Jasper…”
“Elizabeth, I did not give you permission to use my first name.”
“But we are married, and married couples may address one another by their?—”
“You see, this is where we seem to differ in our interpretation of my rules,” he stated coolly, all mirth vanishing. “You are under the impression rules are negotiable, and I am under the impression that as my wife, you are now my property, along with any other property you bring to our marriage, such as personal possessions, which include, of course, the body you possess. And as such, I am legally entitled to do with my property what I will. Is that not what British law states here in England, when a woman marries?”
She glowered at him, for she knew this legal truth, a truth which burned as hot as coals here and now, beneath her husband’s thumb, as it had under her father’s.
“Therefore, wife, I am respectfully contemplating your request, while knowing it is completely within my rights to deny it. In fact, it is within my power to demand you address me as ‘Master’ rather than by my first or last name even. Would you like that, Lizzie, to call me ‘Master,’ as reminder, perhaps, that Iam?”
