When the Duke Returns(92)
He nodded. “What else?”
“I can’t really think of anything,” Isidore said. The most delicious languor was stealing over her.
“I haven’t told you my wishes for marriage yet.”
Sleep was like a gorgeous warm blanket, hovering at the edge of her vision. “Um…” she said. “Whatever you want.”
“That’s it,” he said.
“What?”
“You said what I want.”
“I did?” Isidore struggled to wake up enough to remember what she just said.
“You said, whatever you want.”
“Umph.”
Simeon pulled himself to a seated position. “I had a great deal of time over the past years to analyze marriage. That’s really why I thought we should probably annul our marriage, Isidore: we don’t suit the pattern of successful spouses.”
“We don’t? Didn’t you tell me this before?” she said sleepily.
“Would you describe yourself as docile and meek in every way?”
She snorted.
“Biddable and likely to listen calmly to good advice?”
“Yes to the second part, no to the first.” But he was obviously going down the mental list he had been cherishing for years.
“Willing to allow your husband to command you on occasion?”
“Sometimes…” she said.
He eyed her.
“In bed?” she offered hopefully.
“What about if you’re in danger?”
“Ah.”
“I’m worried that unless we have a system of command set up, such as I had with my men, this marriage will founder or, worse, in a moment of crisis, I won’t be able to save us.”
“But Simeon, there aren’t moments of crisis in England,” she said painstakingly. “The things you likely envision—attacks by lions, sandstorms, marauding tribes—they simply do not happen here in England.”
“The Dead Watch had a remarkable resemblance to a mangy pack of starving lions.”
Isidore nodded. “If I encounter the Dead Watch again, or if there is an attack by a marauding lion, I promise that I will accept your commands.”
He smiled. “We have to know where the ultimate authority lies.”
Isidore didn’t like the sound of that. “If it’s not a moment of immediate physical danger, I would most biddably listen to the reasons behind the advice you’re offering.”
It was his turn to scowl. “I have to know that you’re mine, Isidore.”
“I am. According to English law, I am one of your possessions, just like a cow or a privy house.”
“You see? You don’t really accept it.”
“Well, I can hardly change the entire system of government in England. I’ve always known that once you came home I would have a husband.”
“It’s important,” he said earnestly. “I have to know you respect my opinions, that you’ll obey me without a moment’s thought. Otherwise our marriage will never work.”
She shook her head. “What if you said, pour that cup of coffee over my hand—and it was burning hot?”
“Why would I want coffee poured over my hand?” He had a typically male, confused look on his face.
“It’s just an illustration.”
“Pour it,” he said decisively. “If I say such a thing, it means I’ve lost my mind and returned to my second infancy. You’ll have to teach me the way we teach children, by example.”
She sighed. “What if you command me to do something that I consider truly foolish? What if there is an obviously better way to handle the given situation?”
“Why would I do that?’”
She resisted the temptation to say, Because you’re not God Almighty! And said, “Let’s just pretend that the situation arose.”
“Sometimes I make mistakes,” he said, surprising her. “There was a time when I bought a vast number of red and green flowered beads to trade. I thought they were far more beautiful than the small sky-blue ones that the merchant in Jidda told me to buy. I thought he was trying to trick me. Once we had hauled those beads far into the deserts of Abyssinia, they were rejected by everyone.”
“Why on earth did you bring beads with you?”
“They were much easier than carrying food or water,” he explained. “I always carried a quantity of beads.”
“Why not money?”
“Money is local to a given district. But the female desire for beautiful things…universal.” He grinned at her.
“So where are my sky-blue beads?” she said, giggling.
He rolled over on top of her. “So will you listen to me if there’s a dangerous situation?”