Alison jumps up from her seat when Arabella and I enter the mansion, her gaze lingering on me far longer than is appropriate. If Arabella notices, she certainly doesn’t let on.I glance at my wife, surprised at the mild annoyance I feel at her indifference. As my wife, it should be indignation she feels, not indifference. I managed to force her to give our marriage a chance, but I can’t enforce feelings. Chances that this is how we break the curse are slim to none, but I could never live with myself if I didn’t truly give it my all.I’m uncertain what I’d prefer… the cooperative Arabella beside me, or the version of her that’d happily slit my throat in my sleep. Her behavior is everything I could have wished for, yet I find myself tempted to provoke her so she’ll give me an excuse to punish her.“You must be cold,” Alison says, approaching me with a blanket in her arms. “I already sent my parents to bed. I hope you don’t mind.”Arabella takes a step away, her expression unreadable.“I’ll retire early tonight, too. The stable isn’t done yet, and there’s still a lot to do tomorrow. I’ll speak to your father in the morning—I suspect the repairs will take longer than anticipated. I’ll need to make use of his office to handle some matters this delay causes.”Alison nods, her gaze lingering on me in a way that would have aroused me a mere few months ago. Now it repulses me. I reach for Arabella’s hand and entwine our fingers, startling her.“Let’s go to bed.”When Arabella looks up at me, it isn’t indifference I see. It’s anger. Strangely enough, the fire in her eyes has the edges of my lips tipping up into a reluctant smile. Perhaps she’s not quite as unaffected as I thought she was.Her fingers are stiff in mine, her touch reluctant as I lead her up the stairs. She hesitates in the doorway of the room I usually use, her eyes pausing on the bed.I watch as she grits her teeth and can’t help but wonder what it is that’s making her frown so. She walks toward the window and leans against the wall, a quiet storm brewing within her as she looks out the window, even though there isn’t much to see.I close the door behind me, strangely on edge. No one has ever made me feel this way before. I can’t even quite name the emotion I’m experiencing. It’s entirely novel.“You took me to your mistress’s house?” she asks, her voice so deceptively soft that she nearly manages to hide the anger laced in it.“She isn’t my mistress, Arabella.”She turns to face me and crosses her arms over her chest. Standing there in the moonlight, with her long dark hair flowing down her body, she’s never looked more beautiful.“Have you slept with her?”My heart rate accelerates, another new experience. My heart rarely races outside of battle, yet that’s all it does around her. I swallow hard and nod as I face my wife.“You told me that every part of me belongs to you. You ordered me not to even think of the man I thought I’d marry. Are you telling me that those terms aren’t mutual?”I lean back against the closed door, reveling in this experience. “I have lived a long life before you, Arabella.”She falls quiet, her eyes filled with the same venom she used to direct my way before we came to an agreement.“You’re jealous,” I murmur.She lifts her head and clenches her jaw for a moment before speaking. “I’m not jealous, Felix. I feel disrespected. You’re asking me to sleep in a bed you’ve bedded another woman in, in the house a former mistress lives in. I don’t expect much from you, but I expected basic courtesy. My expectations were clearly misplaced.”I glance at the bed and shake my head. “It’s been years since I actually took a woman to bed, Arabella. I hate that kind of intimacy. I’ve not slept with anyone in this bed, though I won’t deny that something happened between Alison and me about a year prior to our marriage. I agree that her behavior is inappropriate, and I should not have allowed that. I am, however, not guilty of your other accusations.”The frost in her eyes melts just slightly, and I sigh in relief. It’s strange to have someone defy or question me the way Arabella does. I’m so used to being feared, to people obeying my every whim, that I hardly know how to handle Arabella.“If that is true, then why do you insist on me sleeping in your bed?”“You are my wife,” I say simply. “Besides, my responsibilities are numerous, and throughout the years, yours will increase too. Sharing a bed is the best way for us to maximize our time together.”She looks away, her jaw clenched. “I won’t be here for years.”I have no doubt that she’s once again thinking of that boy. If I could force every thought of him out of her, I would.“Perhaps so, but you’re here now.”I raise my hand and lift her into the air, moving her toward me until she’s standing in front of me, her eyes blazing. She gasps and swings her legs in the air for a moment, as though she’s trying to regain her balance, before crossing her arms and staring at me through narrowed eyes.“Arabella, I appreciate that you’re at last treating me like your husband. I do, but love, I’m tired, and I’m cold.”I’m surprised I have as much patience as I do. Had she been anyone else, I’d have done some extensive damage in an effort to silence her complaints. Yet with Arabella, I strangely don’t feel that desire.Her expression softens, and she nods. “I apologize,” she says. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”I lift my hand to her face and cup her cheek, my hand ice-cold compared with her skin, but she doesn’t push me away. “Don’t apologize for doing what any wife would. This is exactly what I asked of you. I don’t know if we’ll break the curse this way, Arabella, though I’m certainly intent on trying. This is a step forward from the veiled hatred I worried I’d have to get used to. Small steps are all we need, until eventually, we find ourselves doing the impossible.”noveldramaShe nods and takes a step away. “You should take a warm bath,” she murmurs. “You truly are freezing.”I nod and turn to walk away, for once filled with hope. I still remember the way she looked when I first saw her in the Mirror of Pythia. Her eyes were filled with hope. I wondered then if she’d infect me with it, too.She did.