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‘Fine.’ His tone was clipped, and he moved closer.

‘But that isn’t why I wanted to talk to you,’ she said quietly. ‘I want to renegotiate our rules. They aren’t working any more.’

Given his mood, it was a reckless thing to say, but she supposed he was already frustrated. It was better to air all their disagreements at once.

He didn’t look at all pleased by her remark. ‘The rules have worked well enough for the past few months.’

‘For you they have,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to simply manage your gardens any more.’ Although her tone was even, beneath it all, she was afraid of what he would say. Would he refuse and insist that they maintain rules that were keeping them apart?

Charlotte rose from the chair and moved to stand in front of him. ‘I want to be your wife, in truth.’

‘You already are.’ He reached out to touch her cheek.

‘I play the role of a wife. But I am not truly your duchess.’ She caught his hand in hers and took a step closer, even as she continued to hold his hand.

‘What do you want, Charlotte?’

Fear gathered in her stomach, but she forced herself to continue. ‘I don’t want any more rules. I want a life with you where we discuss our problems and work them out together.’

His face remained stoic, emotionless, as those grey eyes stared back at her. Even now, she was struck by how attractive he was, how much she wanted him. And even though she suspected he would refuse, she forced herself to continue. ‘I want what I didn’t have with my own family. I don’t want our marriage to be an arrangement any more. I want to be your friend, and I want to love you. But…’ She paused, trying to control her emotions. ‘I fear you might not want that, after what happened between you and Lenora.’

The moment she spoke the woman’s name, his expression froze. He turned away from her and walked towards the window.

‘Who told you about Lenora?’

There was such frost in his voice, she wished she’d never said the countess’s name. ‘My sister.’

‘And what exactly did she say to you?’

Once again, the sharp edge of his voice was a warning. But she’d already made such a muddle of this, it hardly mattered any more.

‘Evelyn heard from her maid that you asked Lenora to marry you. And she refused.’

Silence filled every space in the room. Charlotte waited for him to say something. Anything.

When he didn’t, she pressed again. ‘We should talk about this, Alaric. I am not Lenora. I chose you.’

‘You chose me for my land and gardens. It had nothing to do with me.’ He turned back to face her.

‘It…might have started that way. But it’s different now.’

‘You’re asking something of me that I cannot give,’ he said quietly. ‘We had an arrangement for a reason.’

The words cut so deeply that for a minute she could hardly breathe. Because she wasn’t the woman he wanted.

Tears flooded her eyes, and Charlotte gripped her hands tightly as if she could hold together the shattered pieces of her heart.

‘It’s getting late,’ he said softly. ‘You should get some sleep before you return to Severn tomorrow.’

Charlotte couldn’t move. She wished she had never mentioned Lenora or asked to end their rules. But why couldn’t he look beyond the past to a different future?

He wanted her, not you, her mind warned. You were convenient. A way to pay off his father’s debts.

And even though the lovemaking between them had been everything she’d dreamed of and more, it still made her feel like an object instead of a person. The convenient wife, available whenever he wanted her and easily put back on the shelf when he didn’t. Or abandoned at Severn.

Anger and hurt balled up deep inside. But at last, she walked away and closed the door behind her.

Chapter Ten