The Duke's Masked Wife

"Good evening, Duchess. Did you have a good time out with your friends?" Alfred greeted Alessandra at the door the moment she returned home. "Good evening, Sally."

"Good evening Alfred. I had a lot of fun. Has Edgar returned already?" Alessandra looked up the stairs expecting to see him come to greet her.

"Yes, he returned not long before you. He went to your bedroom to freshen up. Are you hungry? Should I have something sent to your room?"

"No thank you. All I want to do at this moment is take off my shoes. It has been a pain to walk around with them all day long. I'm going to let Edgar know that I have returned and take a quick nap after freshening up. I will see the two of you at dinner. Goodbye for now," Alessandra stated then proceeded to go upstairs to find Edgar.

"You should take those bags to their bedroom but be quick with it. You shouldn't interrupt their time together. I will prepare something warm for the Duchess to drink," Alfred said as he closed the front door to prevent cold air from creeping into the home.

"Do you want me to take the bags to the Duchess?" Sally asked Caleb.

"They are too heavy for someone as weak as you," Caleb ruffled her hair once again to see her send him a death glare. "I will see you later, Sally. I'll be sure to hook you up with someone."

"As if," Sally scoffed. While Alessandra was with Edgar and Caleb had taken it upon himself to take the bags upstairs, she wanted to use this time to massage her feet after walking around for so long.

Meanwhile, Alessandra entered her bedroom and found Edgar sitting on the bed with his hair dripping wet and wearing only his trousers.

"How was your day of fun? I was expecting I would have to send out a search party to retrieve you," said Edgar.

"It was wonderful though there were some moments I wish never happened. Why are you sitting on the bed with your hair wet? You'll catch a cold. " Without thinking about her actions, Alessandra approached the bed and touched his hair.

"I will be fine. I have done this many times and never once caught a cold but if you wish to, there is a towel for you to dry my hair," Edgar took it up from beside him on the bed and handed it to her.

"You will survive," Alessandra refused to take the towel.

Edgar gave her a disappointed look, one that would make her feel guilty and like the caring soul she was, Alessandra changed her mind and took the piece of cloth to dry his hair.

"Must you always get what you want, Edgar?" Alessandra asked while she dried his hair. "I feel like you would be able to make the king hand over his crown to you. You could make the devil bow his head to you."

"Tobias has offered me his crown many times when he becomes lazy. There is nothing I have to do to convince him to give me it. How could I possibly give up this moment to have my wife dry my hair after she was so concerned?"

"I wasn't that concerned," Alessandra muttered. Still, she found it fun to play around with Edgar's hair. "Many young women would die with jealousy at what I am doing."

Edgar suddenly held both of Alessandra's hands to stop her from drying his hair. "I've forgotten this little obsession you have with my hair and other young women. I have a feeling there will be more strands of hair than needed in that towel. Let's put an end to this before it gets out of hand. What did you wish would never happen today?"

Alessandra gave Edgar back the towel and sat on the bed to take off her shoes. "My uncle found me today. He created a scene because he wanted to talk to me and I had to in the end. If he's smart, he will not come around again after the way our conversation ended. He cursed me and stormed off."

"If he was smart, he wouldn't have taken my threat lightly. The Barrett men will drop like flies."

"You spoke with him? When? Was he just here?" Alessandra was surprised Clark went to both of them. She figured Clark would try using her to get close to Edgar.

"I ran into him. What is wrong with your feet?" Edgar noticed how red and slightly swollen they were. "Did you forget how to sit down? What could be so important that you were on your feet all day?"

"Well-Ah!" Alessandra gasped when Edgar picked up her left foot and placed it on his lap without any warning. She folded down her dress to cover the rest of her foot after the dress riled up.

"I'm not even allowed to see your foot. Do you plan to torture me forever? You have ugly toes," Edgar commented when his eyes met the unfortunate things. "Standing around all day in tight shoes will only make them uglier."

Alessandra frowned. In a moment like this, wasn't he meant to lie and say she had the most beautiful toes he had ever seen? "We cannot all be perfect like you."

"Most definitely not. The word cannot handle so many people blessed with perfection like me. Look at how beautiful my toes are," Edgar held up his foot and wiggled his toes.

"Wonderful. I can see why you're proud of them. Oww," Alessandra hissed when Edgar started to rub her foot. "Perhaps I might have overdid it by not taking a moment to rest."

"Now I am being tortured to touch these things. Stay still," Edgar pulled her foot back on his lap after she removed it. "I am only teasing you about being tortured. It will feel better shortly."

"What have I become?" Edgar questioned after thinking about their position. He never pictured himself rubbing anyone's foot.

A knock was heard at the door followed by Caleb's voice. "Duchess, I have brought your bags."

"Come in."