Married to the Marquess

by Rebecca Connolly

  “Well, have you ladies talked about me enough?” Derek asked as he came into the room and took a seat in between the two on the sofa.

  Diana gave him a look. “What makes you think we were talking about you?”

  “Well, it is the only thing you two have in common, and as Kate has already said that she cannot talk to me about me, the logical deduction is…”

  “Shut up, Derek,” Diana said with a roll of her eyes. “The words ‘logical’ and ‘deduction’ do not belong in your mouth together. Edward, couldn’t you reason with him?”

  Edward smiled an easy smile and shrugged his shoulders as he took the open chair. “I tried, my dear, but you know how Whitlock gets.”

  “Yes, I do,” she scowled.

  Edward grinned and nodded at Katherine. “Hello, Lady Whitlock. How are you?”

  “I am well, thank you, Lord Beckham,” she said with a returning nod.

  He waved a hand dismissively. “Please, we are family. Edward will do just fine.”

  “Edward it is, then,” she agreed with a smile. “I am sorry we have never been so informal before.”

  Again he shrugged. “It is a pity, but the past is the past.”

  “So help me, Edward, if you start going off about new beginnings again, I am going to throw myself out of the window,” Derek warned. It was Edward’s favorite topic, and Derek had heard quite enough about it.

  “Promise?” Diana asked, perking up with interest. She looked to her husband. “Oh, do go on about them, darling. I’ve been trying to send him out of a window for years.”

  Edward and Katherine laughed and Derek only glowered. “I think it is time to leave, Kate, don’t you?” he asked in an imperious tone.

  She offered him a cheeky grin. “If you would like to leave, then by all means we can, Derek, but just so you know, Diana and I are great friends now, so you had better get used to it.”

  “God save me,” he muttered as he hauled himself to his feet.

  “Oh, are you really going?” Diana asked in disappointment, her humor gone. “I never see you anymore.”

  He smiled down at her and helped her up. “Sorry, Di. Why don’t you and Edward come over for dinner soon? We’re getting a new chef.”

  “Yes, and he is very excited about it,” Katherine said with a laugh as Edward stood and offered her a hand up.

  Diana’s eyes widened. “Oh, didn’t I warn you?” She leaned closer and whispered loudly, “The only proper way to control a Chambers man is through food.”

  “Duly noted,” Katherine replied.

  “True enough,” Derek sighed, stretching his arms widely. “Give me a fine meal and I will bow to any bidding.”

  “Any?” Katherine asked with a skeptical quirk of her brow that sent Edward and Diana snickering.

  “Well, within reason,” Derek amended, shooting her a dark glance.

  She shook her head, smiling, and moved to embrace Diana. “Thank you for humoring me,” she said softly. “I hope it was not too much of an imposition.”

  “Not at all,” Diana returned with a tight squeeze. “You are welcome any time, with or without invitation.”

  “You as well,” Katherine insisted as she released her. “Any time.”

  “Within reason,” Derek said again, glaring at both of them.

  The girls rolled their eyes and scoffed at the same time, which made them laugh again. “Do you know, I think we are in trouble, old boy,” Derek murmured to Edward as he watched his wife and sister laugh in an eerily similar fashion.

  “I have been in trouble for a couple of years now,” Edward sighed in resignation. “It only gets worse.”

  Derek shuddered, clapped his brother-in-law on the back, then gestured for Kate to lead the way out.

  “Just a moment, Derek, if I may,” Diana said suddenly.

  Surprised, he turned to her. “Yes?”

  She smiled at Kate, and said, “It will be brief, if you don’t mind.”

  “No, not at all,” she replied, looking curious, but accepting as she left the room.

  Once she was gone, Derek turned back to his sister. “Yes, sister dearest?”

  She punched him in the arm. “Derek, why have you been so mean about her?” she hissed rather malevolently. “She’s wonderful!”

  “Give it time,” he ground out as he rubbed the arm. His sister had always had a rather powerful punch. “She may just be hiding her true self.”

  “You don’t sound very convinced.”

  “I’m not.”

  “Derek,” Diana said slowly, looking up at him. “Do you like her?”

  “Kate? Sure I do. When she is in a mood for it.” He shrugged. “I have yet to determine if she is going to attack me in my sleep or not.”

  Edward looked like he would laugh, but one glare from his wife and the ceiling suddenly became very intriguing to him. Diana looked back at her brother and her eyes were stern. “Derek, I think you know what I mean.”

  “Leave it alone, Diana,” he warned, losing humor. “You cannot meddle in this one. I don’t even know if this friendship between my wife and I will work, let alone if it will ever go anywhere further. She may be lying in wait for me to grow comfortable and careless, and then she will strike with a vengeance and all you will find of me will be my coattails and front teeth.”

  “Derek,” she tried again, looking earnest.

  “No,” he said firmly, kissing her forehead briefly. “No, Diana. Leave it alone. Good bye.”

  “What if you are wrong?” she persisted as he turned to go.

  He growled and whirled to face her. “You know that Shakespeare play, Diana? ‘Taming of the Shrew’?”

  Her brow furrowed in confusion. “Yes, of course, who doesn’t?”

  “It just so happens I may find myself in the middle of the sequel, ‘Revenge of the Shrew’.”

  A sudden smile appeared on Diana’s face. “Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much.”

  The glare she earned was so full of warning and irritation, Derek was rather proud of himself. “Methinks my sister is both interfering and insane. Good day.” Without a further word to anyone, he turned on his heel and left the room.

  Diana turned to her husband with a grin as her now riled brother was leaving.

  “What?” Edward asked as he took his wife into his arms. “What are you thinking in that conniving head of yours?”

  “Derek just may be falling in love with his wife,” she confessed with a light kiss to her husband’s mouth.

  “He what?” Edward cried, rearing back a bit in shock.

  She nodded fervently.

  “He didn’t look like a man in love to me,” Edward said skeptically, looking back to the door.

  “No, but he does look like a man in denial,” Diana allowed with a smirk. “And that is always a good way to begin.”

  Chapter Ten

  “Tell me more about the duchess rules.”

  Katherine jerked out of her thoughts and looked up at her husband. “What?”

  He took her arm and pulled her back from the street where a coach had nearly run her over. “Shocked, are you?” he quipped with a grin. “I was listening most intently, and I want to know. Tell me.”

  She scowled up at him and started towards the street again. “You want me to tell you about the duchess rules my mother forced on me as a child?”

  “Yes,” he replied with a nod.

  “No.”

  “Why not?” he asked as he followed her towards their house. “I married a future duchess, I think I am entitled to know what I’m getting into.”

  “Did you not tell me only a few hours ago that a duchess can do whatever she wants, be whoever she wants, wherever she wants, and that was all that mattered?” she returned with a raised brow.

  “I did, indeed. But the fact remains that there are more rules than just that one in your head, and I want to know what they are.”

  Katherine frowned just a bit. After the whirl of the day, she really could use
some time to herself to think, but talking with Derek could help as well. Diana had said he was a good listener, so perhaps he could genuinely be of some assistance. But what if he mocked her? What if this was to be the turning point that ruined their budding friendship?

  “Kate?”

  She looked up at him again, and found that they were stopped in front of their home, and Derek was looking at her with a touch of concern, and a good deal of curiosity.

  “What will I receive in return?” she asked, swallowing to moisten her dry throat.

  “For what?”

  “For telling you the duchess rules, of course.”

  His furrowed brow relaxed. “Oh, that.” He thought for a moment, and then shrugged. “I will tell you the rules for being a Chambers.”

  She had not expected that. She had hoped he would ask what she wanted to know, and then she could approach whatever subject she wanted clarification on. But for him to offer to share something so similar to hers was too intriguing a prospect to pass up.

  “Very well,” she agreed, turning to enter the house. “But you cannot mock me.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said in a not very convincing voice.

  She almost snorted at that. Of course he would dream of it. And she had no doubt he would actually do so when he heard the rules.

  They seated themselves in their drawing room, Derek in his chair, his feet propped up on a nearby ottoman, and Katherine on the sofa near it, wanting to pull her feet up under her. But that would be against the very rules she was about to inform him of, and she couldn’t do it.

  “I like your sister very much, Derek,” Katherine said with a smile as they situated themselves into their respective seats.

  He returned her smile with a thin one of his own. “Yes, I thought you might.”

  “She seems to have a great deal of insight and wisdom.”

  Derek leaned forward a little and gave her a hard look. “Don’t bypass the subject, Kate. I will not be swayed.”

  “I had no intention of bypassing it,” she retorted, folding her arms, her pride a little tweaked.

  “Oh, yes you did,” he said with a knowing shake of his head. “I saw it in your eyes, you don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Well, can you blame me?” she cried. “These rules were the whole course of my childhood. I heard nothing else. Everything I said or did or learned was turned into a rule. The way I sat, the way I ate, the clothes I wore, the way I chose to amuse myself, everything was controlled and critiqued. There was not a thought in my head that my mother did not put there, and I cannot go a single day without hearing at least one of them repeated in my mind.”

  Derek’s eyes had gone wide and his amusement vanished completely in the face of her outburst. “Are you serious?” he asked softly.

  “Entirely.” She closed her eyes and tried to still her breathing into something more refined. She had agreed to tell him about the rules, not about her whole childhood. And yet, with one accusation, she had unleashed the full force of it upon him in one great wave. A duchess maintains control in spite of her emotions. She took in a slow, even breath and released it just as calmly. Sanity and clarity must be her companions, not madness and incoherency.

  “You just heard one, didn’t you?”

  Her heart stopped in her chest. She opened her eyes and looked at him in surprise, only to find that his feet were no longer propped up on the ottoman, but flat on the floor. He was leaning towards her with interest and concern, his elbows on his knees, hands folded together before him.

  “How did you…?”

  “Your face,” he told her gently, mercifully sparing her from having to continue. “You went from trying to calm yourself to looking as if you were listening very hard. As if you were being instructed.”

  “I was,” she whispered, feeling another surge of emotion swell in her that was sure to end in more tears.

  “What was it this time?”

  “I…” She shook her head, knowing she could not get it out. Something held her back, besides her emotions. Something impossible to define. What would he say? What would he think?

  “Kate,” he murmured quietly, reaching out to put his hand over hers. “Look at me.”

  She did so, knowing that her fear and unease would be rampant in her eyes.

  “Trust me. What was it?”

  Swallowing back tears, and her fear, she opened her mouth and eventually, the words came. “A duchess maintains control in spite of her emotions.”

  He nodded in approval and smiled. “Yes, I thought it would be something like that.” He sat back in his chair again, his hand sliding from hers, still watching her carefully.

  Should she have said more? Did he want a list? She was quite certain she could compile a decent catalog of at least thirty of the rules, but as there were more rules than that, she doubted it would give him the proper scope. She looked down at her hands, which were currently in the process of mangling each other in her lap. She only waited for his further response, wondering when her cheeks would begin to flame, and tried to imagine the best way to leave the room with dignity and speed.

  “Mine was ‘Never display any overt emotion in public’,” Derek said suddenly with a sigh. “Rule Twenty. That can be difficult, as I’m not exactly reserved.”

  Katherine brought her head up slowly to meet his eyes again, and she saw that, though he was smiling, he was not amused. “Rule Twenty?” she managed to force out.

  He nodded. “Preceded by the slightly less specific Rule Nineteen, ‘Always exhibit patience’. You see, the rules for a proper member of the Chambers family span a great many things, and are not listed in any particular order. For example, Rule Fourteen is ‘Always respect your heritage’, which I do, but Rule Fifteen is ‘Always carry a handkerchief’, which I am always forgetting. I am convinced that my father created the rules as he thought they were needed.”

  A small smile flickered across her face, and she was more than touched by his attempt to move the topic away from her and onto himself. “Do you pick and choose the rules you obey?”

  “Not if I can help it,” he said with a shrug. “Ridiculous as they are, some of the rules are quite good. Growing up, we obeyed them all. We had no choice. I spent far too many hours in a school room being drilled on the importance of family and heritage and decorum, and if proper behavior was not exhibited, more rules were passed.”

  “That sounds familiar,” she murmured as she watched him.

  His eyes met hers and for a moment, they said nothing. It seemed they had passed similar childhoods, and the idea that neither of them had known it was both shocking and regrettable. Could they have confided in each other at a much younger age and spared themselves the years of hatred?

  “How did you handle it?” she asked in a small voice, knowing that he would understand.

  “I obeyed, same as you,” he replied softly, his eyes growing distant as he remembered. “It was not as though there was a better option. David could always manage to get out of it, and Diana never had the same rules as we did. I didn’t have their luxury. I am a firstborn son. I am to be a duke. How else was I supposed to behave? There is a heritage to uphold, a legacy to honor, and a dignity to maintain. Obedience and respect were required.”

  She sat up a little taller and tilted her head at him. “It means a great deal to you, doesn’t it? The family name and the title.”

  “It’s who I am,” he said with a fervent nod. “We are the product of those who came before, and our duty is to pass down an even greater legacy to those that will come.” He laughed a bit at his own passion, and shook his head. “I’m sorry. No doubt my sister told you that I have an affinity for this sort of thing.”

  Katherine shrugged just a bit, but made no reply.

  He sighed, and looked around. “I take a great deal of pride in what my family has done, what we have become. This house, for example, has been in the family for generations. It’s been the home of the Marquess of Whitlock ever si
nce the title was created. My father, grandfather, and great grandfather all inhabited it, and there is a great deal of history in its walls.”

  “That would be a lot of pressure, I would think.”

  He seemed to shake himself from his thoughts and looked at her. “It can be. But David and Diana have always been rather quick to lighten the mood for me, and keep me sane. And human. I would be in danger of turning fairly cold without them.”

  “I wish I could be of more help,” Katherine said, almost to herself. “I become so focused on what needs to be done, on what is expected of me, on my duty that I forget about everything else.”

  “Kate,” he murmured gently, sitting up once more, “don’t. We’re changing, aren’t we? I’m not the image of my father, and you are hardly your mother, thank the Lord.”

  She managed to smile. “But did you ever feel that you were being controlled, Derek? Have you always wanted to be what you are?”

  He frowned, thinking hard. “In some ways, yes, I did feel controlled. My father always expected much of me, and broken rules were met with severe punishment, up until the point where I was no longer breaking them. My duty has always been very clear to me. But have I always wanted to be what I am? I don’t know. Who else would I be?”

  “Exactly,” she murmured, folding her hands together in her lap and looking at them. “I don’t even know who I am without the endless rules in my head. How else should I comport myself? I had a duty to fulfill, and this was the only way I knew to fulfill it.”

  “Do you always hear her?”

  “Every day. There is always something. A duchess is the epitome of refinement. A duchess does not give in to idle gossip. A duchess never takes large bites.” She sighed, and looked over at him. “There is always something,” she repeated.

  “And you always listen?” he asked quietly, his brow creasing again.

  “I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know how else to behave.”

  “Judge for yourself.” He leaned forward again and pressed his hands together. “I take the rules my father forced upon me and mold them to my own view and sentiments. Are they the same? No, but some of them are similar. You can do the same.”