Chapter 29

“-Down!” 

The two dogs stopped dead in the middle of the hallway and looked submissively at their master. 

Toby, the terrier, who took orders as mere suggestions and enjoyed being able to reject them, trotted on and sat down in front of the dining room door, his short tail wagging happily. 

Ian tossed his hat, whip and gloves on a cabinet, then sniffed the fragrant air. Bacon?

“-Henlow?”

“Milord?”

“Why does it smell like Bacon?”

“Well actually, my lord. Yes, it does. Milady the viscountess is in the small dining room.”

There was no question of avoiding Eden, that would have been discourteous. But bacon? 

Certainly not the choice of an omega suffering from morning sickness... Ian pushed open the door and entered the room, the dogs at his heels. 

Eden stood in front of the sideboard, a silver bell in his hand. Mouthwatering slices of golden bread lay on a large platter, next to a pile of scrambled eggs.

“Good morning, Ian.” 

“-Good morning, darling”

A servant appeared and placed a pot of coffee on the table next to a teapot. The dogs, impatient, went between their master's legs to lie down on the carpet, near the fireplace.

“Out, dogs!” Ian told them.

“Do they usually stay with you during breakfast? I don't mind at all…”

Eden smiled, impeccable in a white muslin outfit, her hair tied into a simple bun. 

She snapped her fingers, and the dogs turned their bright eyes to her. 

Ian was stunned: was this the woman he had left, with dried tears on her cheek, in her pink satin sheets this morning? 

She was now smiling and relaxed, her face serene. Ian had to convince himself that he was not dreaming. 

He had expected shyness, a kind of fearful reserve. If there was any reserve, it was well hidden under her broad smile.

“If you say so... Down, dogs!” The two dogs  obeyed immediately, without taking their eyes off Eden. 

"What power bacon has," Ian mused, amused.

“I didn't expect to see you at breakfast…” he began.

“Really?” 

Eden put the bell down and grabbed a plate. 

“Would you like some eggs with bacon? There's sausage, too... And jam, and fruit, and two rows of toast, and a lump of butter.”

“I don't normally eat this much,” Ian explained.

“I don't have time for it.”

It was easy to nibble on toast while examining files. They were well there, moreover, posed not far from his table, beside a small vase filled with flowers. Flowers?

“Won't you join me this time?” Eden offered. 

She was already filling a plate.

“You shouldn't have waited for me,” Ian told her, as she put the plate in front of him.

He sat down. To do otherwise would have been very rude. Just this once, he thought.

“You mustn't waste time. Eat up”

Eden went back to fill her plate, then returned to sit next to him and grabbed the coffee pot.

“Milk? Sugar?”

“Neither, thank you.”

Ian felt a bit like he was being manipulated by Eden’s charm, but the smell of bacon made his mouth water, and even the small dining room seemed more welcoming than usual.

“Oh, oh, another dog,”  Eden said, glancing in the direction of his feet. 

“And he who seems very interested in something…”

“Bacon,” Ian replied. That's Toby. Ignore him.

“I'm happy to interest your dogs, even if it's actually the bacon they're waiting for. No, Toby, your master doesn't want to. Go to bed.” Eden waited a few moments. 

“Of course he doesn't obey me.”

“Nor  I. He adopted me when he was young, but the idea that I could be the master never occurred to him. We can try to reason with him. 

Sometimes it works, as long as you never lose sight of the fact that this is his home, and that you are only tolerated there. Then he is fully happy.”

“Ah…”

Eden smiled, and Ian surprised himself by smiling back.

“That's funny, a dog who thinks he's a cat…”

“Eden…”

Eden sensed his change of tone and put down her cutlery.

“Yes, Ian.”

There was no longer a spark of joy in her eyes. Eden turned a little pink, but her expression remained attentive and pleasant.

“About…”

Ian wanted to tell her about what happened last night, but he suddenly realized that he had no idea what words he wanted to say. 

He had made Eden his omega, had "consummated" their marriage, but that didn't really give him the right to ask her, in the middle of breakfast, why Eden had been so obviously unhappy with the experience.

The candid amber eyes looked at him, as if Eden was waiting for him to speak up, confidently. 

Suddenly, Ian thought that he would have liked to see her a little less docile and submissive to his will.

It would have been almost easy to come to an agreement with someone who could stand up to him. 

He looked at Eden for a moment in silence and saw her blush, and turn pale with apprehension. 

He didn't want to make her sad, so he asked her the first banal thing that came to his mind.

“What are you going to do this morning?”

“I thought I would explore the castle a little. I'll ask Mrs. Kingston to show me around. Then I'll go over the menus for the week with the cook. I also have a letter to write...,” she added in a sluggish voice.

“To your father?”

“Yes, to my father. I can't leave him any longer. I can't leave him in the dark any longer…”

“I have just written to him, too, and I have mentioned in my letter the rent that I am going to pay you. I think that should appease him a little. You can enclose your letter with mine, if you want…”

“You didn't tell him...?”

“That he was going to be a grandfather? No. I was also very vague about how we supposedly met. If he asks around, he'll learn that the Viscount Hadleigh was in the area in February, and he can draw his own conclusions.”

“Thank you, I'll write to him this afternoon,” Eden said, taking another bite.

“Are you able to eat more today?” He asked 

Ian. He had finished his plate and was looking at the other dishes: sausages, fried mushrooms... He took another bite.

“A little... I know I have to eat for two.” 

“-Would you like me to show you the castle?”

This had not been his original intention, but now he was suddenly interested in what Eden would do to turn this brothel into a proper home.

After the rectory of his childhood, she must have been quite disoriented…

“And you? The chef told me that you don't eat much breakfast, because you have so much to do. I have already kept you waiting long enough…”

“You're the most important thing I have to do.”

It was only after he said it that he realized it was true.