The Duke's Masked Wife

Ready to twist the story to his liking Edgar decided to start off, "Tobias ordered me to attend a party being thrown by the Baron to get information. There were too many people watching me so I politely asked to be given a private space while he got what I needed-"

Alessandra stared up at Edgar in disbelief at how he had changed the story already. As she recalled, he had lifted her father in the air in front of all the guests. What about that was polite?

"-When I went outside to enjoy the fresh air, a woman appeared before me. Little miss Alessandra Barrett, who was supposed to be shy. Intrigued, I conversed with her and found that she liked me," Edgar forced a smile when he felt Alessandra's nails dig into his skin. He placed a hand behind his back to hold her hand. "I was taken aback. Never had I met her but she already had feelings for your wonderful grandson."

'This little,' Alessandra thought.

She tried to pinch him to stop the ridiculous story which ended with the two of them having a tug of war behind his back while acting like everything was fine in front of Rose.

"That's not exactly true," Alessandra decided to join in since Edgar was trying to paint her as some fool in love. "I was actually on my way to do something but Edgar stopped me. He could not just let the mysterious woman pass by. I was not even paying attention to see that he was there. He would not have stopped me if he had not taken a liking to me."

"Right," Rose's eyes lit up. She loved a good falling-in-love story especially when it concerned Edgar.

"When I turned around and saw him there smoking I should add," Alessandra said and enjoyed every second of Rose glaring at Edgar for smoking. It was nice to see that someone else also shared the same sentiments about smoking. "I told him to stop or it will kill him and he said hopefully. I've gotten him to stop since then."

"Thank you," Rose smiled at Alessandra after glaring at Edgar one last time. "Carry on."

Alessandra nodded and continued, "I was in a hurry to be somewhere else so he told me he wished to see me soon-"

Edgar cut her off to put the story back in his favor and said, "I told her I would arrange a day for us to meet but then the next day she ended up on my doorstep. Quite the impatient little one she is."

"Not as impatient as him showing up the next day with a family ring. I was taken aback by it and thought marriage was too soon. We had only just met. I needed to know more about him. He had even expressed his views against marriage. Why so suddenly was he proposing?" Alessandra feigned a worried look.

Edgar squeezed her arm and through gritted teeth, he said, "I just had to make her mine. You should know that she wanted to come to live with me right away because she did not want us to be apart. I advised her to stay with her family a little bit more. Seeing me leave was hard enough."

"He couldn't force himself to leave until after he had breakfast with my family. Though he disliked my father, he put up with him to be on my good side. Isn't he wonderful?" Alessandra roughly patted his chest with her right hand she had managed to free.

"Little did I know she was having some problems with her family and I had to free her from being sent off somewhere bad," Edgar said.

Rose touched her chest, saddened by this. She had been wanting to know more about Alessandra's family.

"My father wasn't a good person so because of his love for me, Edgar killed him. Right after he took me from my home to my surprise we ended up at a church and got married. He did not even have a ring but he told me the ring does not matter, it is the people that matter."

Edgar looked off to the side to hold back his laughter as he would never say something as foolish as that. To get back at Alessandra he said, "Let's go past the wedding night. Grandmother will not want to hear how you clung to me that night."

Alessandra gasped, caught off guard by his words. She stepped on his shoes as a warning to stop before this conversation could go left. She quickly removed her foot when Rose started to look down. "I truly wish you could have been present the night we got married but Edgar was in a rush. The next day, I was awoken to rooms filled with gifts for the new Duchess. I'm surprised he quickly noticed my love for painting and bought me many canvases and paint."

"That doesn't compare to how excited she was to start painting a portrait of her husband," said Edgar.

"Only because he begged and had Alfred take down all the paintings in his home. When the servants did not accept me as the Duchess, he gathered all of them and gave them a warning-"

"Because she cried to me about it," Edgar jumped in.

"Right after, he called for the best dressmaker in town to make clothes for me. Then he was jealous to see me spending time with someone else. Oh, I forgot. Before I had married him, a kitten I was taking care of was killed so he had the servants look for one and brought me two to cheer me up. He has even named them. Blessing and nightmare," Alessandra muttered the two names she disliked but she couldn't come up with better ones on the spot.

"Children," Rose held up her right hand to stop them before she had to listen to any more of their lies. "You two are feeding me a whole lot of bullshit, aren't you?"

Rose knew they were from the moment Alessandra started mentioning the things Edgar did and said. She knew the grandson like the back of her hand and knew when he was lying or someone was lying about him. "If the two of you did not want to tell me the truth, you merely had to say you wish to keep it private," she shook her head.

Rose walked away from the two of them to find something else to clear her head from the nonsense she just heard.

"Technically, it is all true," Alessandra muttered.