Once And Always

Chapter 31

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Tee was seated in the lounge late that afternoon, waiting for Tae to return from an errand, when the elderly butler who presided over the Bangkok house appeared in the doorway. "Her grace, Mom Luang Warattaya Nilkuha wishes to see you, Khun Luang Tee. I told—"

"He told me you were not in for visitors," her grace said gruffly, marching into the room to the horror of the butler. "The silly fool doesn't seem to understand that I am 'family,' not 'visitors.' "

"Grandmae!" Tee burst out, leaping to his feet in nervous surprise at the unexpected appearance of the gruff old lady.

The mom luang's turbaned head swiveled to the shocked servant. "There!" she snapped, waving her cane at the butler. "Did you hear that? Grandmae!" she emphasized with satisfaction. Mumbling abject apologies, the butler bowed himself out of the room, leaving Tee apprehensively confronting his relative, who sat down upon a chair and folded her blue-veined hands upon the jeweled head of her cane, scrutinizing Tee's features minutely. "You look happy enough," she concluded, as if surprised.

"Is that why you came here from the countryside?" Tee asked, sitting down across from his grandmother. "To see if I am happy?"

"I came to see that Darvid," her grace said ominously.

"He isn't here," Tee said, taken aback by the old lady's sudden scowl.

His great-grandmother's scowl darkened. "So I understand. All Bangkok understands he isn't here with you! I mean to run him to ground and admonish him if I have to chase him clear across Thailand!"

"I find it amazing," Tae drawled in amusement as he walked into the lounge, "that nearly everyone who knows me is half-afraid of me—except my dear husband, my young brother-in-law, and you, madam, who are three times my age and one-third my weight. I can only surmise that courage—or recklessness—is passed through the bloodline, along with physical traits. However," he finished, grinning, "go ahead. I give you permission to reprimand me right here in my own lounge."

The mom luang came to her feet and glowered at him. "So! You have finally remembered where you live and that you have a husband!" she snapped imperiously. "I told you I would hold you responsible for Tee's happiness, and you are not making him happy. Not happy at all!"

Tae's speculative gaze shot to Tee, but Tee shook his head in helpless bewilderment and shrugged. Satisfied that Tee was not responsible for the mom luang's opinion, he put his arm around Tee's shoulders and said mildly, "In what way am I failing in my duties as a husband?"

The duchess's mouth fell open. "In what way?!" she repeated in disbelief. "There you stand, with your arm around him, but I have it on the best authority that you have been to his bed only six times at Khon Kaen!"

"Grandmae!" Tee burst out in horror.

"Hush, Tee," she said, directing her dagger gaze at Tae as she continued. "Two of your servants are related to two of mine, and they tell me the whole mansion was in an uproar when you refused to bed your husband for a week after the ceremony."

Tee let out a mortified moan and Tae's arm tightened supportively around his shoulders.

"Well," she snapped, "what have you to say to that, young man?"

Tae quirked a thoughtful eyebrow at her. "I would say, I apparently need to have a word with my servants."

"Don't you dare make light of this! You, of all men, ought to know how to keep a husband in your bed and at your side. God knows half the married females and males in Bangkok have been panting after you these four years past. If you were some mincing fop with his shirt points holding up his chin, then I could understand why you don't seem to know how to go about getting me an heir—"