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“Nothing, Millie doesn’t like the taste, that is all.”

Millie grumbled and sat back down, her face still a grimace of disgust.

Lady Isabel closed her eyes in defeat. “Nobody told me.”

“That’s not an issue.” Rhys turned to the footmen lining the wall. “Second course, please.”

“I should have asked,” Lady Isabel said.

“Yes, you should have,” Rhys agreed.

“No.” She finally looked at him, fire behind her eyes. “No, you should have told me. I couldn’t have known. You should have told me, or the chef… But the servants do not seem to respect me, and neither do tenants.”

Rhys stilled. “You went to the village?”

“I did.” She looked away.

“When I explicitly forbade you from doing so!”

“I don’t see how you can forbid me from doing my duty!” She poked her fork at the duck, avoiding his gaze.

“And I assume it didn’t go so well?”

“Of course not! Because you withheld things from me. The villagers were waiting for the items you promised to bring them from London, and naturally, they were upset. But none of it would have happened if you’ve been upfront with me,” Lady Isabel argued.

She wasn’t wrong, but Rhys felt like she went behind his back, betraying his trust, just like his late wife used to do, and it made him stubborn. “I am your husband, and you should obey my every word.”

“Papa.” Millie’s voice sounded on the periphery of his mind.

“You should trust me enough to do my duty! What were you afraid of? Did you think I’d manage to ruin your relationship with the tenants?”

“Papa!” Millie’s voice sounded again.

“Wait a moment, moppet,” Rhys said in an offhand manner and turned back to Lady Isabel. “Of course, I think so. Do I have any reason to believe otherwise?”

“And instead, you decided to ruin mine,” Lady Isabel countered. “Now they look at me as though I am incompetent and not only that but—”

“Papa, look!”

“What?”

“What?”

Lady Isabel and Rhys turned to Millie in unison. Button—who was apparently eating off Millie’s plate—slunk his head back under the table. Millie looked from Rhys to Lady Isabel with wide eyes and then burst into tears.

Rhys winced. He had argued in front of his babe, ignored her, and raised his voice to her all in the span of two minutes. Perfect!

Rhys quickly scooped Millie up in his arms, trying to calm his crying babe.

“Thank you for the lovely supper,” he clipped toward his wife as he left the room.

Chapter 10

Isabel watched her husband disappear with Millie in his arms, and her heart sank. Was she to blame for the child’s crying?

She swallowed, tears prickling at the back of her eyes. She stood slowly, her appetite forgotten, wiped her mouth with the dinner cloth, and slowly exited the room. The footmen lining the backroom wall stared ahead, pretending to see neither the argument nor their mistress’s silent defection.

All the servants were mistrustful of her as it was, and now she’d frightened their favorite little mistress, although it wasn’t her intention.